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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

up the education of their young men in gymnas tics. Orme says that in 1670 it was a very fre quented port belonging immediately to the king

of Bijá pur; but this was only shortly before the Konkan fell into Sivāji's hands. And Hamil ton, writing of the same period, says that this district produced the finest battelas and muslins in India. In 1686, after the unsuccessful expedi tion of Sultân Muazzim, son of Aurangzib, in the Konkan, his brother, Sultan Akbar, who had

long been in rebellion against his father, hired a

ship commanded by an Englishman at Râja pur, and embarking there sailed to M us cat, and from thence proceeded to Persia. The creek on which Rajã pur stands was guarded about two miles up by the fort of Jai tà pur. This also was held by the Musalmāns, but I have heard nothing of its history except that in 1676 it was burnt by the Sidi ; but it was then, I think, in the possession of the Ma rāthas. It is a place with nothing to recom mend it, and has the appearance of having been at best a very second-rate fortress. The route from Ja it à pur and Rājāpur to Bijã pur would have been through Baur à (to be mentioned later) and Kolhãpur. The Kājerdå Ghât gives a considerably nearer route to Kolh a pur, but I have never found it mentioned in any history, and there is, I believe, no fort to protect it, as there is above the Prabhānvālī and Baură Ghâts. The creek at the mouth of which Gheria or

Vijyadurg stands, which is the last port I have to mention, is only about five miles south of the Rājā pur creek. Horsburgh speaks of Vijyadurg as “an excellent harbour, the an chorage being land-locked and protected from all winds.

There is no bar at the entrance,

[NoveMBER, 1873.

as the Musalmān name of it, and secondly, be cause some of the older parts of the fort are distinctly Muhammadan, and quite different from what is found in purely Marāthā forts. Thus there are Saracenic doors and windows in

the three-storied towers, which are themselves

uncommon features, and in the inner gateway; and there are also a mosk and the tomb of a pir, the first being in the centre of the fortress, very near the flagstaff mound. The fort also is said

to have been only rebuilt, and not built, by Sivaji. There is no doubt, however, that it is to Sivāji that it owes its finest features,-the triple line of walls, the numerous towers, and the massive

buildings in the interior, all of which, with its situation, make it by far the grandest fortress I have ever seen.

There is a consi

derable Musalmān population outside the fort, and in many of the villages all up this creek, which is still navigable up to Khā rep a tan, although it, like most of the other creeks, has much silted up. The present town of Khāre patan has a small trade, but is quite insigni ficant, and its situation hot and confined.

But

passing through the Musalmān quarter a very rough road leads to a fine open site, lying along the bank of the river and extending a considerable distance, with Musalmān tombs in

every direction. Here was the old Musalmān town, and though there is not a house now standing, nor anything except the tombs and the walls of three or four mosks, it is easy to believe that there was once a large town, for there is a fine level space lying above a long reach of

the river, and the hills behind this slope very gently upwards. It is said that the sites of twelve or thirteen mosks can be shown, and the one which still remains among the Mu

the depths being from five to seven fathoms.” Hamilton speaks of Raja pur as having “the conveniency of one of the best harbours in the

Masjid, and evidently a building of consi derable pretensions. Well outside the present

world;” but he had not himself been there, and must

limits of the town is a very large brick tank,

Salmān houses in the town was the Jammā

evidently refer to Vijyadurg, -since Rājapur can

nearly dry and quite ruinous, an inscription

no more be said to have a harbour than Green

on which states that it was built by a Brahman in 1659. Why a Hindu should have built a

wich or Blackwall, and Jait à pur cannot be meant, as the harbour is both dangerous of access and not well protected. I have been disappointed in not finding any mention of Vijya durg in

tank in the middle of the Musalmān part of

the older Musalmān historians, and am unable to account for it, as there is no doubt that it

country, I certainly cannot explain. Near the Iniddle of the present town is a half-buried

was held by the Musalmāns—firstly, because the older English historians always mention Gheria

stone, which is believed to have been the boun

the town just at the time when the Musalmāns

were losing their hold on this part of the

dary between the Hindu and the Musalmān