S. of Bombay on the N. bank of the river Va

sishthi, just at the point where it opens out into a noble estuary, and about two miles higher up than the Marāthā fort of Anjanvel, which guards the entrance on the southern side. Though exceedingly picturesque, no one would ever have chosen this as a situation for a large town :

for the strip of land intervening between the river and the very high and steep hills is so narrow, that if Dābul was ever as populous as is

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1)ABHOL.

OCTOBER, 1873.]

In 1429, and again in 1436, two considerable expeditions were sent into the Konkan, and the country is said to have been subjugated and well plundered. No mention is made of Dábul in connection with either of these, but of the

second it is recorded that a beautiful daughter of the Rāja of Rairi (Raigadh) was sent to court, where she became the queen of Ahmad Shāh Wali Båhmani, and was long celebrated under the name of Perichehra, or Fairy-face.

stated, the town must have extended three or

The next events recorded of Dābul are of a

four miles up the river. It is now like any other

different sort, but not less calculated to show its

insignificant Konkan town, with no trade to

importance in the 15th century.

speak of, and the houses entirely hidden among cocoanut trees. The only objects worthy of re

Khān Gowan, who afterwards became the cele

brated minister of the Bidar kingdom, came

mark are a fine mosque, with dome and minarets,

from Persia as a merchant and landed at Dā

standing almost at the water's edge close to the present landing-place, a few tombs standing by

bul in 1447. And about 1459 Yusuf Adil Khān,

themselves nearer to the sea, and a conical hill

three or four miles further up the river, crowned by a mosque which from its position has a good

deal the appearance of a Rhine castle. The earliest mention I have found of the place is in Dow's History, which professes to be a translation of Ferishtah, but is said to contain much that is not found in that author.

He mentions Dābul as

one of the countries ravaged by Malik Naib Kaf fur in 1312, along with Mahrāt, Raichor, Mud kal, and others whose names I do not identify: all except the first evidently meaning the districts of which the places named were the chief towns. As it was scarcely twenty years before this that the Musalmāns had made their first great raid into the Dekhan, it may be concluded that this was their first acquaintance with the Southern Kon kan, and there can be no doubt that they enter

ed it by passing down the Ghâts, for it was not till several generations after this that they either took to the sea, or ventured on the very difficult land journey from Gujarāt through the Northern Konkan.

In 1357, the then undivided kingdom of the Dekhan was made into four governments, and

Mahmūd

the founder of the Bijäpur dynasty, also entered India at Dâbul. His romantic story is given in full detail by Ferishtah, but it is sufficient here to mention that he was taken from

Dâbul

to Bidar as a slave by a Georgian merchant. Shortly after this, Dābul is first mentioned by a European traveller, as neither Marco Polo nor Ibn Batuta mention any ports of the Konkan, and Marco Polo gives but a few lines to the whole of the coast of this Presidency, speaking of it under the name of the kingdom of Thanja. But Nikitin, a Russian, who about the year

1470 spent three or four years in the south of India, landed at Chaul, and, from what he

heard there, wrote as follows:—“Dābul is a very extensive seaport where many horses are brought from Mysore, Rabast (Arabia), Khorassan, Tur kestan, &c. It takes a month to walk by land from this place to Beder and Kulburga. It is the last seaport in Hindostan belonging to the

Musalmāns.” Three years later he made Dā bul his port of embarkation, and from here took ship to Hormuz, paying two pieces of gold for his passage, and spending a month at sea. He then wrote: “Dābul, a port of the vast

Dābul is mentioned as the western limit of the

Indian Sea ... it is a very large town, the great meeting-place of all nations living on the coast

first government, which included Gulbargă it

of India.”

self.

About 1482, Bahádur Khān Gilāni attempted to make himself independent of the then declin

Chaul is also mentioned at this time, but

no port south of Dábul. Again, towards the end of the century, both towns are mentioned

by Ferishtah as among the chief ones in the empire, and as having had orphan schools, with

ing kingdom of Bidar, and, among other towns, had for a long time possession of Dābul and

ample foundations for their support, established

Goa, and command of the whole coast. He was at last, however, defeated by Muhammad

by king Muhammad Shāh Bāhmani.

Shāh Bāhmani II. in a battle which took place