CENSUS OF INDIA VOLUME X BOMBAY (TOWN & ISLAND) PART IV. HISTORY S. M. EDWARDES, I.e.s. BOMBAY: fED AT THE "TIMES OF INDIA" PRESS. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY NOTE .. , PART 1.-" Heptanesia"- Chapter I.-Mumbadevi ... 1 Ohapter ([.-Islam ~2 Ohllpter III.-Nossa Senhora de Esperan9a 2D PART n.-" The Island of the Good Life." Eleven Periods 42 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. The reason for the appearance of this first volume is to be found in a letter No. 106, despatched by the Government of India, Home Department, to the Local Government on the 12th July 1900. In the course of that letter the following words occur :- " For t.hese reasons, and also in view of the fact that no separate report was written on the census of Bombay City in 1891, while the earlier reports are in many ways defective, the Local Government and the Cor­ poration will doubtless desire that the l'aport of the census taken in the first year of the new century should not only examine thoroughly the current statistics, but should deal w01'tMly with the history and grozcth of the Oz't.if qf Bombay. Am pie materials for such an account are ready to hand in the three volumes of notes and records collected by Sir .James Campbell, and printed under the orders of the Local Government in 1893-94, &c." Now Sir James Oampbell's materials roughly relate to the period 1661-1800 A.D. only; and it appeared to me that no history of the Island could be called 111 any sense complete, which omitted to deal with the colonisation and circumstances of Bombay during the three earlier epochs, Hindu, Mahommedan, and Portuguese i and which also omitted to notice the chief events of the 19th century. At, the same time, the convict-ion that the first five months of my appointment would have to be devoted almost entirely to details of census ad­ ministration obliged me to look about for assistance in the necessary work of research. rrhree scholars of Bombay offered their services grat.is, and undertook to study the period with which they were severally best fitted to deal. The names of the trio, who supplied the materials, which hlLve been ""vorked up into t.he form in which they are now submitted, are as follows :- p. B. Joshi, Esq. ... Hindu period. KhRO Bahadur Fazlullah L~tfallah Mahommedan pel'iod. Dr. Louis Godinho, L. M. & S. ... ... Portuguffi8 period • A certain amount of hitherto unpublished information is now supplied, of which the most important item, perhaps, is thfl identification of that early colonist Bhima Raja with the son of the monarch of Devgiri. The evidence, forthcoming from the careful labours of Mr. Joshi, is important, in that our Prahhus, Panchkalshis, Palshikar Brahmins and others are thereby proved t.o have originally journeyed to Bombay from the Deccan, and not, as has hitherto been supposed, from Guja­ rat. The British period (1661.190l) has been studied by myself; and cannot lay claim to be anything more than a strictly chronological survey of the Island's .. 11 past, and an orderly collatioll of statements all'eady published in the works of the undermentioned authorities and others:- Sir James Campbell's materials. Maolean Guide to Bombay. Grose ... ... Voyage to East Indies . Fryer ... Travels in East India and Persia. Anderson ... English in Westiern India. Da Cunha ... Origin of Bombay. MutTay Gnirle Book of India. Douglas Bombay and Western India, Maltin The British Colonies. Amold India revisited. Temple Men aud events of my time in India. Hunter Bombay, 1885-1890. Mrs. Postans ... Wffitern India. Goviud Narayan ... ... Desoription of Bombay . The Bombay Bahar. The Jan-i-Bambai. The Indian Antiquary. Asiatic Society's Journals. The Municipal Oommissioner's Reports, 1864-1900. l'he l'im,es qf bulia (Daily Issue) 1838-1890. I have to express my thanks to Messrs. T. J. Bennett and L. G. Fraser of The Tz'mes of India, for placing an the back files of their journal at my dis­ posal ; and to Mr. Trimbak Atmaram Gupte, Head Clel k to the Collector of Bombay, for helping me to take extracts and quotations fl'om 'Various works. Finally, I would remark that, though lack of time has prevented the preparation of anything in the nature of a "Gazette.er," I have ventured to print this retrospect as a separate volume, in the hope that it may perhaps be con­ Bidered worthy of subsequent reproduction as a historical halld-book to the City and Island of Bombay. S. M. EDWARDEB, I.e.s. BOMBAY, 1st Octobu' 1901. ! Kola-6hat \ .... 52 2. 151and d AI-(}mallls, '. '\ 3 P(/ilav 4. Tam(/r/nd Trees, 5. ShrJl1e of flanuman. 6, 8handan'Sdflfmen!. 7, [Jong rr' 8 TctmarmdorChll7ch8i1nda~ 9. /(oliSdflemerll, 10./1. (JI/mps ofBrabs /2 KoIwcrr(CtlvP/ Vt/laje) 13 Orchan!ofJack TrPPS} 14 8. 6 Tt /nterspPrSeC , fa f;es with hilts 15 ?/antclrn-glYJve /6 Ko!; Iield/fljs /7 Gordm ofS/sJphlJ.Jj,!)fJ/;{l 18 fllll- VII/age or 61r!laIJm 19 Shnflf' of Wlage Goddf'ss, 20 FOlJr Chonnr';s orChowp{1Hy 2/ The Ladder or $11-1 22 8abhu/ grove 23 Valkfshvors Temple 24 -Sltr! GUild; 2J Shrines olMalio/uJ!( Malta- -Lalrsllfl/i ~'Malia Saraswaft 26 urov('of/(ombol 278mb Tms and Shriflf ld, He! ds or Ifh els Z9. /iomIff offhf Nlltjo. 30, fig TrrM {ffld Cmk S/ ClumpofBhl'f/{!;:s, 32, Pya -Dhu[//, the foot Wash, 33 Mochcho' 9(!IHI , 34 BhoJ08 threshing floor-Vl//0'lf. 35 Blub Trees, 36 5hrirrp alOlwn1pdev, 37 TaJ7](Jrfno Oe/1. 3IJ P(Jrali' VI/lo{jt',Shrtllt; and 5e!tlPtnfnt 01 Th[l/ftlrsBholstfc. 39 Prtdrly-fbar Trod ' 10 ,)//11'11 di 15\ 41 Natl}{l(!II,iahab;(pd by /(0/;5, : t4 49ris; Bharrdorts pte, 13 ,12 Brahmanj'pff/fmf!lt.lfaI!oI ,just/cr, BhimaRajas Vail I , Trmp/rs f( fJwrlfin9s t:rffilrb)/lj.'{ • PrJl1chifal.,hl:9 & ofhers, 43 Bon/(JII TrffS( Vadala) 41 Still va {lrBoundarJ Villarr !I " 45 CdyolMahlkavaft' " 48 fOfrsf(J{ CocooPalmr Mad Madmala, _:E/rr 17 Slmnp{J(Prabhtldm and MAP .)fttlemcfI( oftge 48 Shr/ne «{IIt/lagt ol/&/rlio­ -dt'Vt. ISLAND OF BOMBAY ---- "fY /foil YtJlafjt'. ('?ft'rtlr1tJCni from tIploll pllbils)m/m 1843) 51) !ianr'oll Gmv? ,~//{jwlml thp chiP! foeal {.>oturrs infrodtJcttl j/ f(hilld or BmJell oy tf;f /I/f/di/ pt'II(!r/ SME. .?2!{'5J, Fort/(i/IS offlip dlsfnd O(S/i05/lOs/Jfiolb'6 Vill0!lt's. PART II " HEPTAXERIA. ;, PINDAR.NElIIEANS. , Sow, then, some ~ood of ,-plendid words in honour of this Isle.' CHAPTER rfHE FIRST. MUMBADEVI. THE early IJibtol'Y of our Island of Bomh'ty i" slink deep in the :Night of Time. At inter­ \'al~ the light of antiquarian research casts a faint beam upon the darkness; a coin, an inscrip­ tion, perolmnce l1 copper-plate grant 01' patent, is discovered, aud published as evidence that some old dynasty 'l'vas paramount in' Aparanta' (the North Konkan) during remote ages. But laok of material has ever been a stumbling-block in the path of him, who would give to th(' world a connected tale of the island's expansion. Scattered uotes, wherein evidence cJ pre­ historic trade-routeR is confusedly mingled with the rlescript,ion of events ocourring in Christian eras, are all that exist, to throw light upon the rarI), cil'oumst::mces of Bombay. Yet, orderly arrrmgement of snch notes, combined with the introduction of any new material vouchsafed to us, may, perhaps, lead towards the result, which is set before us, namely, a chronological account of tho island's growth and of the people that visitAd or colonized it. At the outset of a journey across dim centuries, it were pertinent to enquire whence the bland sprang. 'Vas she, like Delos, a daughter of the sea, drifting before t,he waves and stress of winds, until Providence bound her fhst to pillars of adamant for ever? The geologist alone C::ll1 ;-;atisfy our curiosity. After keen scrutiny of the hmd's configuration, of the various strata which overlie ~1e another, and in view of the historical and uuassailable fact that Bombay was originally-not one island-but seven separate and amorphous isles, Geology declares that the whole western side of the contineut of India was subjected in prehistol'io times to a protracted series of npheayals and depressions, that it vibrated like a quagmire, tha vibrations diminishing ill axtent and force as tllO ages passed away. The varieties of strata, composing the islands which protect from the open sea the western shores of Iudi3, are in themselves evidenoe of a succession of titanic movoments, which hurled these lands upwards from the very fire-bosom of Nature. From Sewri to Love Grove, Worli, extend some seven bedR of stratified ronk, abounding ill ~ fresh-water remuins, and divided one from another by huge masses of trap, which indicate so lllany epochs of repose and of volcanic disturbance. Each frash upheaval was followed by pftl'ti..i subsidence, the two movemonts oombining to give to the Bombay Presidency its present coast-line, and to the Island a haven of deep water, wherein the argosies of commerce lllight ride safely at anchor. Further evidenoe of prehistoric eruption and depression is furniEhed by the discovery at W orli of petrified frogs,* imd of it submerged forest below the Prinoe's Dock. 1'he remaius of the latter, which came to light during the excavation of the dock, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, were 32 feet below high-water mark, and consisted of "a thiok forest of upright stumps of trees of a species still existing in the neighbourhood of this Island, the Khair (Arabia catechu).