07 Chapter 2.Pdf

HISTORICAL OUTLINE: The region under study, popularly known as the Konkan, is the strip of land on the west coast of India. It is about 560 kilometres in length and 64 kilometres width. Its conquest by the great legendary hero Parasurama from the sea, is one of the famed myths of the acquisition of land which is symbolised as the victory of the Mighty and the Good over the Evil. Amongst the earliest of the references found in the Mahabharata, this region is referred to as Aparanta. The town of Aparanta has been mentioned in Dronaparva (. 40) and in Sabhaparva (47.24). The Aranvakaparva (118.8) talks of the Surparaka (Sopara) as a famous tirtha (a place of pilgrimage) and its sanctity. In the inscription of the Asokan era (Vth Rock Edict c.274-232 b.c). mention was made of the inhabitants of Aparanta. Aparanta also occurs in the Nasik inscriptions of Vasisthiputra Pulumari, c.l43 a.d.(Nasik Inc. 3:3 Epigraphica Indica, I: (67-68); in the Junagarh rock inscription of Rudradaman I,c.l50 a.d.(Jun. Inc. of Rudradaman I, ASW I, II: 128 f); in the Junnar inscription of a Buddhist nun, c.l50 a.d. (Junnar. Inc. tr by Ghokhale, 1985:34); and in the Kanheri inscription c.230 a.d. (Kanheri Inc. 98:38). The Bhuranakosa Sections of the Puranas also testify that western India was known as Aparanta (Chaudhury, 1969:187). In the Buddhist literature, Mahavamsa (XII.5) and the Dipavamsa (VIII.7) Aparanta is referred to as one of the countries to which Asoka sent his missionaries after the Third Council. IX. Asoka's daughter Vijaya is said to have sailed from Sopara with the first Buddhist mission to Sri Lanka (Mahavamsa VI. 46,47). Aparanta is also indirectly mentioned when reference is made to a kind of grain called Kumudabandika which is reaped and harvested within a month and constitutes the meal of the slaves and workers while the rice took five to six months to ripen (Milindapanha 11.121). Kautilaya refers to the fine cotton garments of Aparanta (Arthasastra II, 11.90). The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (c.247 a.d.) states that "beyond Barygaza (Baroach) the adjoining coast extends in a straight line from north to south; and so this region was called Dachinabades, for dachanos in the language of the natives means south (Chattopadhyaya,1980:130). Later he goes on to talk about Ouppara (which is taken as Sopara) between Broach and Kalyan as a local mart along the coast. Ptolemy too refers to the prosperity of the flourishing ports of Ceul and Sopara in the west coast. He mentions (in c.l50 a.d.)a Sopara between Nausaripa (Nav- sari) and Simyla (Ceul), (Chattopadhyaya,1980:137). Thus we have Ptolemy mentioning Similla,Hippokoura and Balipatna,while in the Periplus the market towns after Calliena are Semylla, Mandagora and Palaepatmae (ibid:131). Both the above authors confirm that the Greek traders sailed from Egypt to the Konkan port. Konkan or Aparanta does not seem at any time to have been a political unit. It has seen many chiefs and rulers trying to get hold over it for gaining supremacy over trade and trade routes. The earliest dynasty associated with this tract was that of the Mauryas. What is interesting is that Kautilya talks of Aparanta as a region known for its elephants, though only of middle quality (II 2); and for its excessive rainfall. On this basis scholars like Mookerji (1972:141) have identified Aparanta with the Konkan. The next rulers who held sway over this region after Asoka were the Andharbhrtyas, whose inscription at Nanaghat shows that they were ruling over Konkan around c.lOO b.c. They are said to have had their headquarters at Paithan near Ahmednagar and at Kolhapur (Mah.Gaz.Kolaba Dist:57)♦ Under their rule, trade in the west coast boomed. A number of Buddhist caves were carved out. Some of the important rock-cut caves in Raigarh district are Ceul, Pal and Kol near Mahad as well as Kuda near Rajpuri. Nahapana who is described as an independent ruler and the founder of the Katrapas extended his hold over northern Konkan in C.lOO a.d. Soon after conquering the Andharbhrtyas, the ksatrapas ceased to be foreigners, married Hindus, and gave up their foreign names (Fernandez 1927:75). By about c.l25 a.d. Gautamiputra Satakarni drove the Ksatrapas out of Konkan. In the inscriptions found in the caves at Naneghat (near Junnar) this king is described as"Khakharatvamsaniravsesakala" or the person who uprooted the entire family of Ksatrapas and Sakavavanapallavanisudana, the destroyer of Sakas,Yavanas and Pallavas(Mah.Gaz.Kolaba Dist;58). Soon after the decline of the Satavahanas, the Traikutakas took over the Konkan. These kings are said to have derived their names from the Trikuta hills in Aparanta, or northern Konkan (ibid : 63). A copper plate found in the relic mound in front of the Kanheri caves is dated to the 245th regnal year of the Traikutakas. 'M- This is ascribed by Burgess to c.l76 a.d. of the Gupta era and thus dates the copper plate to c.421 a.d (Bugess:1964). The Mauryas and the Nalas must have ruled the northern Konkan coast during the sixth century as Kirtivarman (c.550 to 567 a.d.), the first Calukyan king who conquered the Konkan, is described as the Night of Death to the Nalas and Mauryas (lA. VIII :24). A stone inscription found in the village of Veda near Thana belonging to the fourth or fifth century talks, of a Mauryan king Suketuverma as ruling over the north Konkan. The existence of the family name More, (interpreted as a derivative of the Mauryan) in the island of Elephanta and Karanja are proof in themselves. It is interesting to note that 'More' is a common name amongst the Marathas, Kunbis and the Kolis of Raigarh. In fact 'More' is a fishing village near Karanja in Raigarh district - about 14km from Bombay. Some silver coins discovered in the islands of Bombay and in Salsette have the legend of Krishnaraya, giving proof of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna's influence over Konkan (Fernandez, 1927) . The Shilaharas rose to power in the Konkan during the later half of the eighth century a.d. and held on until 1265 when Someshwar, the last of the Thana Shilaharas was crushed by Mahadeva of Deogiri. And by the end of the fourteenth century, the whole of the Konkan came under the domain of the Musalmans. From the beginning of their rule in 1318 the Deccan 15-. Musalmans seemed to have held the ports of Kolaba (Raigarh) of which Ceul was one (Briggs II, 1909;295). Under these Bahamani rulers their capital was shifted from Daulatabad down south to Gulbarga thus leading to a concentration of traffic to the Ratnagiri ports of Dabhol, Ciplun and Rajapur. By about 1489 much of the Konkan including Nagothana and Ceul came under the control of the Gujrat kings. In 1502 the Italian traveller Varthema (Badger's Varthema:114) placed Ceul in Gujrat; and in 1508 according to Mirat-i-Ahmadi (Bird,214) Mahmud Begada established a garrison at Nagothana and sent one army to Ceul. The author of Mirat-i-Ahmedi also makes a mention of Sopara among the ports which yielded revenue to the Gujrat kings. In 1509 the Portuguese who then held the position of 'Lord of the Sea’ entered into a treaty with Burhan Nizam Shah, the Ahmadnagar king by which the Portuguese promised to protect the Shah's port provided they (the Portuguese) were acknowledged as the rulers of the sea and received a yearly payment of 600 (2,000 gold paidaos (Da Cunha 1900:32). Thus a Portuguese representative was appointed at Ceul whose main duties entailed supply of goods to Goa and the Portuguese fleet. After this, however, by 1516 the Portuguese managed to establish a factory at Ceul with the permission of the Nizam Shah and thus had free access to the harbour than before. Amongst the ruins that still stand amidst the shady cocoanut palms of Revdanda (or lower Ceul as it was known then), stands the mute proof of long gone days. To give one example, "This building known as the Chavkoni Buruj was built by the Portuguese for their factory in 1516 a.d. and fortified between 1512 and 1524". Ceul by this time (Fifteenth Century a.d.) was a flourishing port and a capital on the west coast. At the same time in 1453, the Turks had gained full control of Constantinople and this turned the commerce between Europe and Asia to the Red Sea route. Sopara was slowly being deserted and fell into insignificance. Trade under Portuguese flourished at Ceul, Dhabol and Malabar ports. In 1586.a Venetian traveller noticed the two cities of Ceul, the lower Portuguese city at the mouth of the harbour very strongly walled, (after 1577 the Portuguese had strengthened their defences and raised fortification along the southern shore), and a Moor upper Ceul, 240 kilometres up the river, both being sea ports with great trade (Haklut, 1907:344). Thus the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw constant rivalry between the Portuguese, the Gujrat kings, the Nizamshahi kingdomes and the Adilshahi kingdoms for the control of the Konkan in and around Ceul, and thus subsequently capture the western seas (through trade). Simutaneously, another power arose in South Konkan. These were the Sidis of Janjira who were originally said to have come from Abyssinia (Briggs III, 1909:284).

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