KARANJA. Karanja or Uran Island, north latitude 18 51' and east longitude 73 2', about eight miles long and four broad, lies, in the south-east of Bombay harbour, about six miles south-east of the Carnac pier in Bombay. On the east it is cut off from the mainland by the Bendkhal creek, which at high tides is filled through its whole length. The island rises in two bare rocky hills, the smaller in the north and the larger in the south, between which lies a stretch of grass and rice lands wooded with mango trees and brab palms. On the east the salt pans have broken the creek into several small branches, but one arm, running from Mora Bandar in the north to Uran, is large enough to allow boats to pass to Uran at high tide. The rock of the island is trap crossed by dykes of black basalt. The trap beds, which are greenish and bluish and more or less amygdaloid, vary in structure and density. The water-supply is good. There are three built reservoirs, one along the roadside about half way between Mora Bandar and Uran, a second between Uran and Karanja, and the third and largest, called Bhinala, in Uran, is about a quarter of a mile round. Besides these three built reservoirs, many ponds and wells hold water for several months after the rains. The drinking water comes from springs of which the best, on a little hill not far from the Collector's house, runs with a full and constant stream into a reservoir built by the late Mr. Richard Spooner, Commissioner of Customs. In a narrow ravine in the larger hill, is a small square rock-cut room with a narrow entrance formerly protected by masonry. From the roof of this chamber a constant dropping of clear wholesome water forms a pool three or four feet deep. On the same hill, close by a ruined church, is a closed Portuguese well or reservoir of excellent water. Besides its rice crop, which is of considerable value, the island has two special exports, salt worth about 469,185 and moha liquor worth about 165,900 a year. The chief other industry is fishing. The salt pans, which cover about 3000 acres, lie in the great tidal marsh to the east of the island. The marsh is crossed by a long winding creek with numerous arms. The great area of the works, the shining white pans with their regular boundaries and rows of salt heaps, in spite of monotony and barrenness, have a curious impressive effect. The Karanja salt pans are probably very old. But the only reference that has been traced is Mandelslo's (1638) notice of the salt of Oranu-Bammara, apparently Uran-Mumbai. [Mandelslo's Voyages, 222.] In 1820 about 20,000 tons of salt were made every year. The trade was said to give high profits to the merchants and yielded a revenue of about 1100 (Rs. 11,000). Uran salt was thought better than any salt made further south. [ Description of Hindustan, II, 175.] During the last five years the export of salt has been estimated at 51,125 tons, and the yearly revenue at 271,934 (Rs. 27,19,340). The other great manufacture, the distilling of spirits, yields a yearly revenue of from 105,000 to 115,000. There are nineteen brick and tiled distilleries at the Mora pier, all owned and managed by Parsis. Almost all the spirit is made from moha flowers, brought chiefly through Bombay from the Panch Mahals and Jabalpur. The sea trade returns show, for the five years ending 1878-79, average exports worth 400,615 and

imports worth 56,406. Exports varied from 263,275 in 1878-79 to 503,285 in 187778, and imports from 46,115 in 1874-75 to 61,013 in 1878-79. [Karanja has two landing places, Mora and Karanja. The details are: Mora, Exports 1874-75 272,192, 1875-76 272,557, 1876-77 314,597, 1877-78 365,363, and 1878-79 198,680; Imports 1874-75 40,902, 1875-76 50,068, 1876-77 44,344, 1877-78 47,818, 187879 49,095. Karanja, Exports 1874-75 65,455, 1875-76 201,537, 1876-77 110,777, 1877-78 137,922, 1878-79 64,694; Imports 1874-75 5213, 1875-76 13,225, 187677 9126, 1877-78 10,322, 1878-79 11,917.] A metalled road runs along the whole east side of the island, and a road, 14 miles long, is being made between Uran and Panvel. A steam ferry boat runs daily between Bombay and Uran or Mora, calling at Hog Island and Ulva near Panvel and returning the same day. The fares from Bombay to Uran and Karanja, which are distant six and twelve miles respectively, are 4s. (Rs. 2) first class, 1s. and 1s. 6d. (8 and 12 as.) second class, and 6d. and 9d. (4 and 6 as.) for a deck passage. History. The only early remains as yet found in Karanja are, on the east face of the Kharavli or Kharpuse hill, about twenty feet above distillery number five, a small plain rock-cut chapel, cell, and cistern apparently Buddhist, and some plain cells in Dronagiri hill. Three land-grant stones have also been found, showing, that in the twelfth century, under the Silharas, the island had gardens and villages. [Details of the Kharavli or Kharpuse caves and of the three grant-stones are given under Objects of Interest.] Under the Portuguese (1530-1740) Karanja was the extreme south of the Bassein province. In the sixteenth century it was a populous island with two forts, one on the east, in the present town of Uran, and the other on the top of the southern peak. The fort on the southern peak was built in the form of a square, with an armed bastion at three of the corners. Close to it were the garrison barracks. [The strength of the garrison was a captain, six soldiers, one bombardier, and five peons, the cost was 24 8s. (30,000 reis to the captain and 480 pardaos for the rest). Da Cunha's Bassein, 202.] A hundred armed men were maintained for the defence of the island. In 1535 Fr. Antonio do Porto built the church of Sam Francisco and two other churches, Nossa Senhora de Salvacao and N. S. de Penha. All these are now in ruins. There was also the church of N. S. do Rozario and a Dominican hermitage built by Father Gen. T. Jeronimo da Paixao. A long winding flight of stone steps ran up the south hill, and, on the top, besides the fort, were garrison barracks and the ruins of the church of N. S. da Penha. It is said that when the foundations of this church were dug a blue stone was found with an image of the Virgin. [Da Cunha's Bassein, 202. Bishop Osorio (1504-1580) states that the Portuguese found a majestic Christian temple in Karanja. This is probably incorrect. The figure of the Virgin Mary may have been one of the mothers or matrikas suckling the infant Kartikeya the Hindu god of war, like the figure lately found in Elephants island. The blue stone may have been covered with the blue enamel which has also been found in Elephants. See above, pp. 91, 96,] In 1538 the island is described as two hills and a plain between, very

rich with orchards and rice fields. [Prim Rot. da Ind. 64.] In 1550 it is mentioned as having a tower and bastion and other houses. [Col. de Mon. Ined. V-2, 216.] In 1571 it was attacked by a party of Ahmadnagar troops from Chaul, but the garrison put them to flight leaving the island covered with dead bodies. [Da Cunha's Chaul, 50.] In 1585 the Franciscans are mentioned as having got charge of Karanja. [Archivo V. 1083 in Nairne's Konkan, 53.] In 1613 Karanja was the scene of a great riot which was quelled by the courage of Captain Fernao de Sampayo da Cunha. [Da Cunha's Bassein, 203.] In 1634 Karanja is described as a walled village, a gunshot from the fort, with thirty Portuguese families and slaves. In the same year it is mentioned as bounded by six Ahmadnagar townships, Karnala, Drago?, Pen, Sabayo (Shahabaj), Abeta (Apta?), and Panvel. From there the Moors could easily pass to the island, and the river between could be crossed dryshod at low tide and at high tide was not more than knee deep. The soil was fruitful and there was a good manufacture of a cloth Called teadas. [O Chron. de Tis. III. 261. In 1634, besides a balance to the state, Karanja paid 187 (5000 pardaos) a year to the bishop of Cranganor and 30 (800 pardaos) to the Japan Jesuits.] In 1670 Karanja and several other towns were plundered by Partabrao Gujar, a leader of Maratha cavalry. [Grant Duff, 111. The Surat factors particularly notice this incursion which they supposed Shiva'ji headed in person. They mention that he very severely plundered Karanja and carried away all the chief men except such as escaped in womens clothes.] In 1682, it was taken from the Portuguese by Sambhaji, apparently without resistance, and held by him for nearly a year, when it was recovered by the Portuguese. [Orme's Hist. Frag. 126. Mendonca's Topography of Karanja, 9; Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 67.] In 1720 Captain Hamilton notices it as a Portuguese island, with no trade but furnishing eatables for Bombay. [New Account 242.] In 1728 the fort had six pieces of ordnance varying from one to six pounders. The defences were out of repair. [O Chron. de Tis. I. 32.] In 1737, when the Marathas attacked Thana, the commandant fled to Karanja. But Karanja was soon after taken. In 1774, after the fall of Versova, Colonel Keating marched to Karanja and took possession. [Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, I. 453.] In the following March the conquest was confirmed by the treaty of Surat, the confirmation was repeated in March 1776 by the treaty of Purandhar, and it was finally ratified by the treaty of Salbai in 1782. [Aitchison's Treaties, V. 21, 33, 41.] In 1775 the town was described as lying between two lofty mountains on the west side, in size nothing more than a large Maratha village, with low straggling houses near a pond covered with wild duck and waterfowl. On its banks were a small fort, a Portuguese church, and a Hindu temple. [Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, I. 453-454.] In 1781 a resident was appointed. [Nairne's Konkan, 103. In 1781 the revenue of Karanja, chiefly from rice, was estimated at 6000 (Rs. 60,000). Bombay in 1781, 3.] In 1788 Hove, the Polish traveller, found it poorly inhabited. The soil was fertile, but the people spent their time either in fishing or in palm-juice drawing for which they found a good market in Bombay. On one of the hills were the ruins of a fort. [Hove's Tours, 189. Hove also mentions, but apparently incorrectly, several marks of a former volcano, and, in the chasm, pieces of iron ore both solid and in the form of ashes, and two species of zeolite.] The revenue for 1813,

including 3336 of land revenue, 1651 of excise, and 4091 of customs, was 9078 and the expenditure 1566. In 1820 Hamilton noticed that convicts were sent from Bombay and employed in cleaning ponds, repairing banks, and keeping the roads in order. [Desc. of Hind. II. 174.] The island, which is now generally called Uran, forms a petty division of twenty-two villages under Panvel. At high tide the Bendkhal creek surrounds it and cuts it off from the mainland. Mora, in the north, lies at the foot of a range of low hills. The beach is rocky and muddy, and most of the people are fishers living in low ill-built huts. Mora is the chief port of the island where passengers land and embark for Bombay. Most of the large buildings are connected with the distilleries. There is also a custom house, and, on a plateau about 100 feet above the village, a residence for the excise officer. Karanja in the south is a small fishing village with little trade and only a few good houses. The details of the town of Uran, which is a place of some consequence, are given separately. The Christian population of 413 has a church dedicated to Our Lady of Purification. It was rebuilt in 1852 by Manuel DeSouza, mamlatdar of Salsette, and measures 65 feet long by 27 broad and 30 high. The priest has a house and is paid 3 (Rs. 30) a month by the Goa government. There are three ruined churches, St. Francis, 124 feet long 58 wide and 30 high, has the nave unroofed but the sanctuary still arched and in good order; Our Lady of Salvation, 70 feet long by 26 broad and 20 high; and, on the top of Dronagiri hill, Our Lady of Penha, well preserved, and measuring 50 feet long by 15 broad and 14 high. There are also two chapels, St. John the Baptist's, the Buddhist rock-cut chapel in the east face of Kharavli hill, and, at the foot of the hill, Our Lady of Help, on the site of which a Hindu temple now stands. In the village of Sheweh is a ruined church of which the broken walls of the graveyard are the only trace. Objects of Interest. The chief objects of interest are the ruins on the top of Dronagiri the southern hill. They include the Portuguese fort, the guard house, and the church of Notre Senhora de Penha, and are approached by a long and winding flight of steps. On the slope of the hill are some plain cells now generally filled with water. [For details see Appendix A.] On the east face of the north hill, which is called either Kharavli or Kharpuse, about twenty feet above distillery number five, is a small rock-cut cave (25' x 24' x 10') apparently Buddhist. The front of the cave is supported on two square pillars with pot capitals. Opposite the middle of the entrance, in a rectangular recess in the back wall, nine inches deep, is carved in the rock what looks like a Christian altar, but may be a small relic shrine or daghoba. The cave has signs of whitewash. To the north is a small room about eight feet square with a water cistern about two feet deep. Three of the inscribed stones in the Collector's garden at Thana were brought from Karanja, two from Chanjeh three miles to the south, and one from Ranvad about a mile to the north-west of Uran. The earliest is a Chanjeh stone (3' 6" x 1' 3" x 6"). The inscription of sixteen lines is well preserved. The characters are Devanagari and the

language is Sanskrit. It is dated Shak 1060 Magh Shuddh 1 (January-February, A.D. 1138) and records the grant of a field named Ambe in Nagum, [Nagum is probably Nagaon three miles north-west of Chanjeh.] and of a garden belonging to one Joiak, by the Silhara king Aparaditya, to Shridhar, learned in the kramas, [Krama is a peculiar method of reading and writing Vedic texts, ' going step by step ' so called because the reading proceeds from the first number (word or title) to the second, then the second is repeated and connected with the third, the third repeated and connected with the fourth and so on.] for the spiritual benefit of Aparaditya's mother Liladevi. The inscription records, on the occasion of an eclipse of the sun, another grant by Aparaditya of a garden in the Chedija (Chanjeh?) village to worshippers of Mahadev, batus or badvas and to Vishtikas (?). The next in order of date is the Ranvad stone (3' 8"x 1' 6"x 9"). Above are the sun and moon with an urn-shaped water pot between them. The letters are well preserved Devanagari, and the language is Sanskrit mixed with Marathi. The inscription records a grant of land in Padivas in Uran, on Shak 1171 Chaitra Vadya 1 (April-May, A.D. 1249), the day of a solar eclipse, by the Silhara king Someshvara. The king's ministers were Jhampada Prabhu the great councillor, Deva (?) Prabhu the great minister of war and peace, and Dada Prabhu the chief justice. The last in order of date is the other Chanjeh stone. It records the grant of 162 paruttha drammas, [The paruttha dramma was probably a Kshatrapa coin current in the Silhara territory. Its value was about 6d. (4 as.). But 6d. (4 as.) had then probably as much purchasing power as 2s. (Re. 1) has now. Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji.] the fixed revenue of some garden land of Kothalsthan in Chadiche (Chanjeh?) in Uran, to Uttareshvar of Shristhanak (Thana). The grant was made in the reign of Someshvara, on Monday Chaitra Vadya 14th Shak 1182 (A.D. 1260). Someshvara's ministers were Jhampada Prabhu the great councillor, Maina (Ku?) Bebala Prabhu and Peramde Pandit ministers of peace and war, and Padhi Goven (Ku?) the minister of justice and of finance. On a small hill about two miles to the south of the village of Mora are two Government houses, one for the use of the Collector of Thana, the other of the resident officer of the customs department.