Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
NOVEMBER, 1873.
Så ta vali to Visalgadh is well under 30 sanctity and was canonized after death, miracles miles, and, from the comparative levelness of being wrought through invocation of his name the road over the greater part of the distance, at the shrine." The tablet and fetters mentionthere can be no doubt that when ViśAlgadh ed above are therefore probably both connected and Prabhânvali were held by the Mu- with this saint. But there is a difficulty about salmans, så tavalî would have been the most the two inscriptions mentioned by Graham. Not convenient port for their inhabitants. The ghats only is the earliest date fully fifty years earlier of Viśâlgadh, Anuskura, and Baurâ than the first recorded expedition of the Musalare said by Graham to have been constructed mans into the Dekhan, but Ferishtah distinctly by the Musalmans about 1600 A.D., and though states that Visalgadh (then called Khelna) no doubt this date is a mere guess, yet it cor. was first taken by the Musalmans in 1469. Nor responds sufficiently with the floubishing days is it likely that a place in so retired a situation of the Bijapur kingdom.
should have been attacked by them in any of Visalgadh itself, as it was one of the their very early expeditions, while the authority strongest of the ghit fortresses, so it is also one of Ferishtah is particularly reliable as to that of the most celebrated in history, and is said by part of the country, owing to his having resided Graham to have been in the 12th century the for many years at Bijapur. seat of government of the western portion of the The circumstances which preceded this capcountry. From the Konkan it is by no means ture of Visalgadh are interesting. There had & prominent object, as the hill of Michal, been expeditions into the Konkan by the troops connected with it only by a narrow ledge 200 of Gulbarga in 1429 and 1436 under Malik-ulfeet or so below the brow of each hill, pro- Tujár, and various of the Hindu Rajas had been jecta further out into the Konkan. A similar subdued and made to pay tribute. In 1453 the narrow ledge and equally depressed connects same leader commanded another expedition, and Viếalgadh with the main line of the ghats, after reducing several Rajas, one of the Sirké Ho that when fortified the approach was equally family agreed to become a Musalman and a faithdifficult to invaders either from the Konkan or ful servant of the king, on the condition that the the Dekhan. The fort was dismantled about general should first reduce his rival Shankar Râi, thirty years ago by our Government, the inner Raja of Khelni, and he undertook himself to walls and works being entirely demolished, guide the army through the difficult country that and even of the outer walls only a very small lay between his own fort and Khelna. This portion remains. Its present inhabitants are a offer was accepted, and during the first two days few servants of the Pant Pritinidhi, to of the march Rija Sirkê led the troops along a whom it belongs, and one old Musalman broad road. But on the third day they entered who looks after the two mosks. These are a very different sort of country, and the folintact, and there are also two large gateways lowing literal translation, by Briggs, of Ferishof Muhammadan architecture. In one of these tah's description is worth giving :-"The paths mosks is hanging a gigantic pair of iron were so intricate that the male tiger from fetters, the tradition concerning which is that apprehension might change bis sex, and the they would of themselves fall off the arms of passes more tortuous than the curly locks of the an innocent person, so that any one accused of fair, and more difficult to escape from than an offence might claim to be tried by this or the mazes of love. Demons even might start deal. Close to where they hang is a Persian at the precipices and caverns in those wilds, and inscription let into the wall. Graham, in his ghosts might be panio-struck at the awful view Report on the Principality of Kolhapoor, states of the mountains. Here the sun never enthat the earliest Persian inscriptions in the fort livened with its splendour the valleys : nor had are of A.D. 1284 and 1247, the first commem- Providence designed that it should penetrate orating "the captare of the fort by the Mu. their depths. The very grass was tongh and hammadans under Malik Rahim, who, from an- sharp as the tongues of serpents, and the air other inscription dated sixty years later, appears fetid as the breath of dragons. Death dwelt to have enjoyed during life a high odour of' in the waters, and poison impregnated the
• See Briggi'. Translation, vol. II. pp. 487-8, 488-4