3.18

Sāt a vali to Viš a 1 g a dh is miles, and, from the comparative levelness of the road over the greater part of the distance, there can be no doubt that when Višā 1 g a dh and Prabhān v i li were held by the Mu salmāns, Sã t a vali would have been the most

convenient port for their inhabitants. The ghâts

of Višā 1 g a dh, An us kur à, and Baur à are said by Graham to have been constructed by the Musalmāns about 1600 A.D., and though no doubt this date is a mere guess, yet it cor

responds sufficiently with the flourishing days of the Bijapur kingdom. V is alg a dh itself, as it was one of the strongest of the ghāt fortresses, so it is also one of the most celebrated in history, and is said by Graham to have been in the 12th century the seat of government of the western portion of the country. From the Konkan it is by no means a prominent object, as the hill of M a châl, connected with it only by a narrow ledge 200 feet or so below the brow of each hill, pro

jects further out into the Konkan. A similar narrow ledge and equally depressed connects Viśā 1 g a dh with the main line of the ghâts, so that when fortified the approach was equally difficult to invaders either from the Konkan or the Dekhan. The fort was dismantled about

thirty years ago by our Government, the inner walls and works being entirely demolished, and even of the outer walls only a very small portion remains. Its present inhabitants are a few servants of the Pant Pri ti ni dhi, to

whom it belongs, and one old Musalmān who looks after the two mosks.

These are

intact, and there are also two large gateways of Muhammadan architecture.

[November, 1873.

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

In one of these

mosks is hanging a gigantic pair of iron fetters, the tradition concerning which is that they would of themselves fall off the arms of an innocent person, so that any one accused of an offence might claim to be tried by this or. deal. Close to where they hang is a Persian inscription let into the wall. Graham, in his Report on the Principality of Kolhapoor, states that the earliest Persian inscriptions in the fort are of A.D. 1234 and 1247, the first commem

orating “ the capture of the fort by the Mu hammadans under Malik Rahim, who, from an

other inscription dated sixty years later, appears

sanctity and was canonized after death, miracles being wrought through invocation of his name at the shrine.”

The tablet and fetters mention

ed above are therefore probably both connected with this saint. But there is a difficulty about the two inscriptions mentioned by Graham. Not only is the earliest date fully fifty years earlier than the first recorded expedition of the Musal mâns into the Dekhan, but Ferishtah distinctly

states that Višā 1 g a dh (then called Khel na) was first taken by the Musalmāns in 1469.” Nor is it likely that a place in so retired a situation should have been attacked by them in any of their very early expeditions, while the authority of Ferishtah is particularly reliable as to that part of the country, owing to his having resided for many years at Bijá pur. The circumstances which preceded this cap ture of Wiśā 1 g adh are interesting. There had been expeditions into the Konkan by the troops of Gulbargă in 1429 and 1436 under Malik-ul Tujār, and various of the Hindu Rājas had been subdued and made to pay tribute. In 1453 the same leader commanded another expedition, and

after reducing several Rājas, one of the Sirké family agreed to become a Musalmān and a faith ful servant of the king, on the condition that the general should first reduce his rival Shankar Rāi, Rāja of Khel n fi, and he undertook himself to guide the army through the difficult country that lay between his own fort and Kh elná. This

offer was accepted, and during the first two days of the march Rāja Sirké led the troops along a broad road. But on the third day they entered a very different sort of country, and the fol. lowing literal translation, by Briggs, of Ferish tah's description is worth giving : —“The paths were so intricate that the male tiger from apprehension might change his sex, and the passes more tortuous than the curly locks of the fair, and more difficult to escape from than the mazes of love. Demons even might start at the precipices and caverns in those wilds, and ghosts might be panic-struck at the awful view of the mountains.

Here the sun never en

livened with its splendour the valleys: nor had Providence designed that it should penetrate their depths. The very grass was tough and sharp as the tongues of serpents, and the air fetid as the breath of dragons. Death dwelt in the waters, and poison impregnated the

to have enjoyed during life a high odour of

• see Briggs's Translation, vol. II, pp. 437.s, 483-4.