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ASIA 



CENSUS OF INDIA 

VOLUME X 



BOMBAY 

(TOWN & ISLAND) 



Part IV. 

HIS TOR y 



BY 



S. M. EDWARD ES, I.C.S. 




BOMBAY: 
PRINTED AT THE "TIMES OF INDIA" PRESS. 

1901. 



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CENSUS OF INDIA 

VOLUME X. 



BOMBAY 

(TOWN & ISLAND) 



Part IV. 

HIS TOR y 



BY 



S. M. EDWARDES, I.CS. 




BOMBAY: 

PRINTED AT THE "TIMES OF INDIA" PRESS. 

1901. 



Census of 1901. 

Report of the Census of Bombay City. 



General Department. Bombay Castle, 

No. 190 lOtb January 1902. 

Letter from the Prop-incial Superintendent of Census Operatiolis, Bombay Presidency/ 
No. 6668, dated the Ist October 1901 :— 

" I have the honour to submit herewith six copies of Part I of the Census Report for the 
Town and Island of Bombay, being the historical narrative contemplated by the (Government 
.of India in paragraph 2 of their letter* No. 106, dated July 12th, 1900. As the remaining 
volumes of the Report will be shortly ready for issue, I refrain for the present from passing 
comments on the results of Mr. Edwardes' work. It is intended to issue Part II and the Tables 
during the present month." 

Letter from the Provincial Superintendent of Census Operations, Bombay Presidency, 
No. 7401, dated the 6th December 1901 :— 

"In continuation of my No. 6663, dated lOotober 1st, 1901, forwarding the first volume 
of the Census Report on the City of Bombay, I have now the honour to present to Govern- 
ment the remaining volumes and fo suggest that the complete Report may now be issued to 
the public. 

" 2. In bringing the results of Mr. Edwardes' work to the notice of Government, I 
would venture to summarize the special features of the recent census in Bombay City as 
follows : — 

(1) For the first time the enumeration has been carried out on the mofussil 
system instead of by the issue of household schedules. The greater supervision 
over schedule entries which the mofussil system permits seems to warrant the 
conclusion that the census of 1901 is the first really accurate enumeration of Bombay 
City. 

(2) The census was carried out at the height of the annual plagne epidemic 
which gave rise to special difficulties of a formidable nature. It is to the credit of 
Mr. Edwardes and his Assistants that these difficulties were not allowed to interfere 
with the progress of the enumeration on the night of March 1st last. 

(3) The requirements of the Municipality and Bombay Improvement Trust 
who were desirous of obtaining details of the distribution of the people by sections, 
circle, building, fioor and tenement and of information concerning certain structural 
classification of the buildings, have been carefully borne in mind. As a result the 
special statistics reviewed in the latter portion of Volume XI-A., Part VI, have been for 
the first time recorded and placed at their disposal. 

(4) In accordance with the wish expressed by the Government of India in their 
letter* No. 106, dated July 12th, 1900, a comprehensive review of the history of Bombay 
Town and Island from the earliest times has been drawn up. If the time allotted to 
Mr. Edwardes has not permitted him to deal at any great length with the latter period 
of the Island's history (it is to be noted that he wrote the whole of Volume X in the inter- 
vals of arranging for the enumeration of the Island and for the abstraction of the 
results), it may be observed that there are already in existence many books and 
records describing the recent history of the City, whereas the early period fully 
pictured by Mr. Edwardes in his interesting volume has not so far been adequately 
treated. 

" 3. In concluding these brief comments I would venture to assert that Mr. Edwardes, 
with great personal energy and no little tact, has discharged a peculiarly difficult task with 
complete success. The ready assistance volunteered to him by private firms and individuals 
is satisfactory evidence of the skill with which the work of organizing the large staff of 
Enumerators and Supervisors was conducted. I trust that Government may be disposed to 
agree with me that for this and for the satisfactory conclusion of his duties Mr. Edwardes 
and his Assistant, Mr. P. P. WAgh, are entitled to great credit." 

Eesolxjtion.— Government concur in the remarks made by the Provincial 
Superintendent in the last paragraph of his letter No. 7401, dated the 6th 
December 1901. The thanks of His Excellency the Governor in Council should 

'Fiinted in the preamble of Govenuuent Besolntion Noi S926, dated the 27th July 1900, 
Genl 472 



be conveyed to Mr. Edwardes and bis Assistant, Mr. P, P. Wdgh, for tfce able 
manner in wbich they bave carried out tbe census of, Bombay City in circum- 
stances of an unusual and peculiarly difficult description. Mr. Edwardes 
sbould be thanked also for the care which he has bestowed on the preparation 
of his able and interesting account of the History of Bombay. 

2. Copies of the Report and of this Eesolution will be forwarded to the 
Secretary of State and the Government of India and copies of the Eeport willbe 
distributed to all Departments and the officers and others concerned and placed 
on the Editors' Tables when orders are issued in connection with the Report 
relating to the Presidency. 

H. O. QUIN, 
Secretary to Government, 

To 

The Provincial Superintendent of Census Operations, Bombay Presidency, 
The Municipal Commissioner for the City of Bombay, 
The Chairman, City of Bombay Improvement Trust, 
The Private Secretary to His Excellency the Governor, 
S. M.' Edwardes, Esq., i.c.s. 



No. of 1902. 

Copy forwarded for information and guidance to 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Introductory Note 

Part I. — " Heptanesia"-— 

i 

Chapter I. — ^Mumbadevi 1 

Chapter II.---Islam 22 

Chapter III. — ^Nossa Senhora de Espeianga 29 

Part II.— "The Island of the Good Life." Eleven Periods ... 42 



INTEODUCTOEY 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 these 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 report of the census taken in the 
first year of the new century should not only examine thoroughly the 
current statistics, hut should deal worthily with the history and growth of the 
City oj Bombay. Ample materials for such an account are ready to hand 
in the three volumes of notes and records collected by Sir -lames Campbell, 
and printed under the orders of the Local Government in 1893-94, &c." 

Now Sir James Campbell'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 m any sense complete, which omitted to deal with the colonisation and 
circumstances of Bombay during the three earlier epochs, Hindu, Mahomraedan, and 
Portuguese ; and which also omitted to notice the chief events of the 19th 
century. At the same time, the conviction that the first five mouths of my 
appointment would have to be devoted almost entirely to details of census ad- 
ministration obliged me to look about for assistance in tho necessary work of 
research. Three scholars of Bombay offered their services gratis, 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 have been worked up into 
the form in which they are now submitted, are as follows : — 

P. B. Joshi, Esq Hindu period. 

Khsn Bahadur FazluUah Latfallah Mahooimedan period. 

Dr. Louis Godinho, L. M. & 8. ... Portuguese period. 

A certain amount of hitherto unpublished information is now supplied, of which 
the most important item, perhaps, is the 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 Prabhus, Panchkalshis, 
Palshikar Brahmins and others are thereby proved lo have originally journeyed 
to Bombay from the Drccan, and not, as has hitherto been supposed, from Guja- 
rat. Th« British period (1661-1901) 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 collation of statements already published in the works of 
the undermentioned authorities and others : — 

Sir James Campbell's materials. 

Maclean Guide to Bombay. 

Grose Voyage to East Indies. 

Fryer Travels in East India and Persia. 

Anderson English in Western India. 

Da Cunha Origin of Bombay. 

Murray Guide Book of India. 

Douglas Bombay and Western India. 

Martin The British Colonies, 

Arnold ... India revisited. 

Temple .'. Men and events of my time in India. 

Hunter Bombay, 1885-1890. 

Mrs. Postans Western India. 

Govind Narayan Description of Bombay. 

The Bombay Babdr. 

The Jan-i-Bambai. 

The Indian Antiquary. 

Asiatic Society's Journals. 

The Municipal Commissioner's Reports, 1864-1900. 

The Tims of India (Daily Issue) 1838-1890. 

I have to express my thanks to Messrs. T. J. Bennett and L. G. Fraser 
of The Times of India, for placing all the back files of their journal at my dis- 
posal ; and to Mr. Trimbak Atmaram Gupte, Head Clerk to the Collector of 
Bombay, for helping me to take extracts and quotations from various works. 

Finally, I would remark that, though lack of time has prevented the 
preparation of anything in the nature of a " Gazetteer," I have ventured to print 
this retrospect as a separate volume, in the hope that it may perhaps be con- 
sidered worthy of subsequent reproduction as a historical hand-book to the City 
and Island^of Bombay. 

S. M. EDWARDES, i.c.s. 
Bombay, 1st October 1901. 




MAP 

of tJ)C 

ISLAND OF BOMBAY 

{Rrproduced from a plan published in 1843) 
slmwing the chief local features introduced 
by the Hindu period. 

S.M.E. 




,/= 




Kola-hhat: 
Island of Al-Omanis. 
Pallav 
Tamarind Trees. 

5. Shrine erf Hanuman. 

6. Bhandari Settlement. 

7. Dongri. 

8 . Tamarind or Chincti Bandar 

9. Holi Settlement. 
10.11. Clumps of Brads. 

12 Hohar(Cavel Wla^e) 

13 OrchardofJackTrees^, , , 

/^ Brab Trees. ^ ^Z';''^'^ 

ir oi M • With huts 

15 riantain-grove. i 

16 Koli holdings. 

n Garden ofoisyphusjujuba. 

18 Hill- Village or Ginjaum 

19 Shrine of Village Goddess. 

20 Four Channels orChowpatty. 

21 The Ladder orSiri. 

22 Babhul grove. 

23 Valheshvar's Temple. 

24 ShriBundi. 

25 Shrines of Mahahali Maha- 
-Lakshnii ^MahaSaraswati 

^ Grove of Hambal 

27 Brab Trees and Shrine. 

2d. Fields or Khets. 

29. HamletofibeNaga. 

iO. Fig Trees and Creek. 

31. GlumpofBhendis. 

52. Pya-D hun(,iheFop t Wash. 

33 Machcha-gaun. 

M Bhayas threshing floor-Village. 

35 Brab Trees. 

36 Shrine ofGhorupdev. 

37 Tamarind Dell. 

3d Parali Village, Shrine, and 

Settlement of Thakurs,Bhoisetc. 
39 Pnchly-Fear Tract 
40Shivadi. 

41 Naigaonjnhabitedby Kolis, 
JIgris, Bhandaris etc. 

42 BrahmanSfttlement Hallof 
Justice. BhimaRaJa's Vadi. 
Temples ((Dwellings ofParbhus, 
Panchkalshia If others. 

43 Banian Trees(Vadala.) 

44 Simv o or Bounda ry Village. 

45 CityofMahikavati. 

46 Forest of Cocoa-Palms Mad 
Madmala. 

47 ShrineafPrabhadtYi and 
Settlement 

48 Shrine^fVillageafHdlika^ 
-devi. 

49 HoliVillaae. 

50 Banian Grove 
5'! Khind or Breach. 

52^53. Portions of the district 
ofShashashtiorBB Villages. 



Draylm ir i-itho Ovv* PfU'tOiincoO/fice, foonn 130/. 



PA RT I. 

" HEPTANBSIA. ' 



CTUfifl vuv aiy\diav rtva vdtju 

Pindae«Nemeans. 
' Sow, then, soma seed of splendid words in honour of this Isle.' 



CHAPTER THE FIRST. 



MUMBADBVI. 

The earlj^ history of our Island of Bombay is sunk deep in the Night of Time. At inter- 
vals the h'ght of antiquarian research casts a faint beam upon the darkness ; a coin, an inscrip- 
tion, perchance a copper-plate grant or patent, is discovered, and published as evidence that 
some old dynasty was paramount in ' Aparanta ' ( the North Konkau ) during remote ages. But 
lack of material has ever been a stumbling-block in the path of him, who would give to the 
world a connected tale of the island's expansion. Scattered notes, wherein evidence of pre- 
historic trade-routes is confusedly mingled with the description of events occurring in Christian 
eras, are all that exist, to throw light upon the early circumstances of Bombay. Yet, orderly 
arrangement of such 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 
the island's growth and of the people that visited or colonized it. 

At the outset of a journey across dim centuries, it were pertinent to enquire whence the 
Island sprang. Was she, like Delos, a daughter of the sea, drifting before the waves and stress 
of winds, until Providence bound her fast to pillars of adamant for ever ? The geologist alone 
can satisfy our curiosity. After keen scrutiny of the land's configuration, of the various strata 
which overlie one another, and in view of the historical and unassailable fact that Bombay was 
originally — ^not one island — but seven separate and amorphous isles, Geology declares that the 
whole western side of the continent of India was subjected in prehistoric times to a protracted 
series of upheavals and depressions, that it vibrated like a quagmire, the vibrations diminishing 
in extent and force as the ages passed away. The varieties of strata, composing the islands which 
protect from the open sea the western shores of India, are in themselves evidence of a succession 
of titanic movements, which hurled these lands upwards from the very fire-bosom of Nature. 
From Sewri to Love Grove, Worli, extend some seven beds of stratified rook, abounding in 
fresh-water remains, and divided one from another by huge masses of trap, which indicate so 
many epochs of repose and of volcanic disturbance. Each fresh upheaval was followed by 
partial subsidence, the two movements combining to'give to the Bombay Presidency its present 
coast-line, and to the Island a haven of deep water, wherein the argosies of commerce might 
ride safely at anchor. Further evidence of prehistoric eruption and depression is furnished by 
the discovery at Worli of petrified frogs,* and of a submerged forest below the Prince's Dock. 
The remains 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 thick 
forest of upright stumps of trees of a species still existing in the neighbourhood of this Island, the 
Khair (Arabia catechu). There were in all 382 trees, 223 standing trect and 159 prostrate, though 
still rooted in the soil. They were found on a decayed trap-rock soil, overlaid by the thick 
stratum of clay, whiqh forms the real bottom of the harbour. Among the trees, one was 
recumbent, charred in the middle, but bore no trace of having been cut down with any tool." 

• An issue of the Bombai/ Times of 1851 refers to the disoovery of foBsil frogs by Dr. Leith. 



2 

From the date, tlaea, of her first birth in remote eternity, our island was shaken by terrible 
pangs,ofwhichtheearlie3tprobablyseveredher from the mainland of India, and the lates 
i-aised above high-water mark those localities which we now call Mahim and the Esplanade- 
and when the last birth-throe had subsided, and the hour of man's appearance drew nigh, s e 
^ho had once been a portion of the continent, undivided, lay in a cluster of seven islets upon 
the ocean's bosom. For many a year the Heptanesia, as old Ptolemy called them in A.P. 1 &U 
were destined to glance atone another across the intervening waters ; but the Frov.dence 
which decreed their original dispersion, willed also that in after time they should be once more 

-united by the genius and energy of man. 

Let us glance for a moment at the cluster of Heptanesia, the outward appearance of 
which is defined with tolerable accuracy in an old map, reproduced in the year 184o. -°"*^«^!;- 
mostofall lay a narrow tongue of rocky land, which we to-day call Upper Colaba : north- 
ward thereof, and in close proximity, was a small and almost triangular islet, known to later 
generations as Old Woman's Island, whence one looked across a wider strait to the south-eastern 
side of a curiously-formed land, resembling in some degree the letter H. The western portion 
was composed of one high hill, covered with rough jungle and running down m a P°™* "'*^° 
the sea : and the eastern side of low-lying ground, bearing tamarinds and other shrubs 
^t intervals, and menaced from the north by a rocky ridge, which subsequent ages termed 
" Dongri " or the HUl-tract. Northward, again, beyond a very narrow creek, lay a smaller 
and more amorphous island, part hill, part dale, whereon the cassia fistula and the brab were 
yet to flourish. Three distinct islands composed the northern portion of what is now the Island 
of Bombay. The middlemost, shaped like a parallelogram, lay desert; and was flanked on the 
west by a narrow and tapering stretch of rook, now the outer boundary of a Worli section, and 
on the east by a straggling island, trifurcate at its northern extremity, and possessed of a 
strangely broken coast-line. Modern research declares the formation of these seven islands to 
have resulted from the breaks, Caused by volcanic disturbance, in a pair of rocky ridges, lying 
roughly parallel to one another, north-east and south-west, and separated in the south by the 
reef-guarded waters of a bay, known to subsequent generations as Back Bay. Through the 
fissures and breaks in these ridges, the ocean at high-tide swept with unbridled force, and 
covered with his waters a considerable tract of low-lying ground between the islands. 

Such was the appearance of our island about the period when the earliest settler set 
foot upon her shores. Now for many years prior to the dawn of the Christian era, and., for 
some time, indeed, subsequent thereto, the seven islands had no separate political position, but 
formed an outlying portion of that kingdom which Ptolemy denominated "Ariaka," and 
«arly Sanskrit writers of the Puranio period called " Aparantak" or " Aparanta. " The earliest 
ruler of this territory, which is identified by the historian and antiquarian with the North 
Konkan, appears to have been the great king Asoka, grandson of t^e celebrated Chandra- 
gupta of Pataliputra, who founded the dynasty of the Mauryas. That Asoka, who reigned 
between B.C. 263 and 229, had communication with this part of India, is proved by the 
rock -inscriptions,* found at Girnar in Kathiawar, at Khalsi in the Himalayas, and at Shahabaz- 
garhi in Afghanistan : for they tell us that in the middle of the third century B.C., that 
monarch sent Buddhist ministers of religion to Eastikas, Pethanikas and Aparantas. Moreover 
the Buddhist high priest Moggalputto is mentioned in the " Mahavansof ", a Ceylonese 
chronicle, as having despatched preachers of Buddhism, in accordance with the king's orders, to 
Maharatta, Aparanta and Banavasi. Further proof that this province of Aparantaka, with its 
outlying islands, once owed allegiance to that great king, is aflforded by the discovery at Supara, 
ihen the capital city of the kingdom, of a fragment of the eighth Edict. 

Now the glory of the great cities of the coast — Sopara (Ophir), Kalyan, Symulla (Cheul) — 
was noised abroad among the nations of those early days. The hardy trader of old Egypt, the 
Phoenician, and the Babylonian in turn must have helmed their craft past the twin rock-ridges 

* Inscriptions of Asoka, Vol. U,, p. 84. 
t Tumour's Mahavanso, pp. 71-73. 



•of this jsland, on their way to barter with the subjects of dusky Majesties, whose names only have 
m some cases been bequeathed to posterity. The wealth of the cities- of the western h'ttoral 
suffered not decay, albeit their rulers changed with the changing ages. Some five score years 
ere the Magi fared forth in the path of the eastern star, which heralded the dawn of Christianity, a 
dynasty of Shatakarnis or Shatvahanas were overlords of Aparantaka, which erstwhiles flourished 
under the sway of Asoka. Thus much one may learn from the cave-inscriptions at Nasik, 
the longest of which records that in the 19th year of the reign of King Pulumayi, the cave was 
■constructed and dedicated to the use of Buddhist saints and mendicants by Gotami, mother of 
king Gotamiputra Shatakarni ! * Moreover, a silver coin discovered in a stupa at Sopara by 
Sir James Campbell and the Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji in the year 1882, bore the legend 
" Banno Gotamiputasa, Siri Yanna Satakamsa," which being interpreted, means "This is the 
■coin of king Gotamiputra, Shri Yajna Shatakarni." This monarch, then, who is elsewhere 
described as " king of kings, and ruler of Asika, Surashtra (Kathiawar), Aparanta, Anup (to the 
north of the Vindhya range), Vidarbh (the Berars) and Akravanti (Malwa)t ," and as having 
destroyed the Sakas, Palhavas and Yavans, the last-named of whom are identified by Dr. Bhandar- 
kar with the Bactrian Greeks, | owned these Heptanesia as an outpost of his kingdom from about 
133 A.D. to 154 A. D.§ The dynasty, of which " he re-established the glory," and which is 
■termed 'the And hrabhrityas' in Puranic writings, and 'the Salivahanas' in local tradition, 
held sway for perhaps four centuries, until the rise of the Rashtrakutas of ilalkhed, and worthily 
maintained the commercial prestige of the kingdom. In their day, so the chronicles of Thana 
relate, the subjects of the Parthian monarch, Mithridales I, sought the marts of Aparanta, and 
witnessed the arrival of vessels freighted with all manner of merchandise — sesamum, oil, sugar, 
spices, even ' handsome young women ' of Hellas, destined to ' attend upon the king of the 
country ' and cry " Chareh " ( ^^'S' ) in his courts. For years, indeed, after the birth of Christ, 
the ships of the Greek, the Arab, the Persian and the Christian sailed between Egypt, Malacca, 
China, the Gulf, in a word between the World's ports and the Konkan kingdom. Merchants and 
sea-rovers of many nations must in that early Christian age have gazed from their decks upon 
our seven isles, perchance may have cast anchor for a space within their limits. But they settled 
not, so far as we know ; they came, cried ' Hail,' and passed away towards the rich cities of 
the mainland. 

It was not by the paths of the sea, but from landward that the earliest inhabitants of 
Bombay journeyed. At some date prior to the year 300 A.D., and prior perhaps to the Christian 
era, our desolate isles became the home of certain lithe dark men, calling themselves " Kulis " 
or " Kolis," which the antiquarian interprets to mean " Husbandmen. " Such is not the only 
derivation afforded of their name. The later Aryans, some aver, greatly contemned these early 
settlers, and characterized each member of the clan as ' Kola ' [a hog) ; othersjbolieve that they 
were ' Kulis ' or members of one ' Kul ' or tribe, even as the 'Kunbi' is member of a ' Kutumb ' 
-or family ; while another authority traces their title to the Mundar ' Horo ' or ' Koro,' that is to 
rsay ' Man.' The primary derivation, connecting the word with an old Dravidian root signi- 
i fying " agriculture," seems to us most fitting, in view of the origin of this people, as port- 
rayed in their physical characteristics. " The Kolis," remarks Dr. Gerson da Cunha, " belong 
to the Dravidian or Negrito type. The form of the head usually inclines to be dolichocephalic ; 
but the nose is thick and broad, and the formula expressing its proportionate dimensions is higher 
than in any known race, except the Negro." Admitting, therefore, that our earliest settlers 
were of Dravidian origin, it is quite possible that their title also was derived from a Di'avidian 
source ; a theory to some extent confirmed by the fact that, at the season of later immigrations 
into Thana, the Kolis almost certainly held the plain-country and were, as some of them still are, 
skilled field-workers. 

One would fain speak with more certainty of the date of their arrival on these shores ; 

but so remote, so shrouded in antiquity is the Koli Hegira from the mainland, that no definite 

^statement is permissible. It is probable, however, that these people, of whom there are many 

• Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I., Part IX, pp. 149,150, J Bhandarkar'a Deccau. 

t „ „ Vol. XVI. (Nasik). § Ibid, p. 166. 



different tribes, spread themselves along the Western Coast smd peopled our then nameless 
Heptanesia in some dark age before the Shatakarni dynasty rose to power. Successive waves^ot 
invaders or settlers have advanced upon the Koli, have almost threatened to engulf him ; hat 
some natural sturdiness in him has formed his support. He is amongst us to this day ; has got 
those old Non-Aryan deities of his admitted into a Brahmanic pantheon ; has even borrowed 
from later settlors the idea of a pedigree ! The heralds' college of Brahrainism furnished him, 
doubtless on payment of some kind, with a metaphorical escutcheon, and hid the truth of his- 
lowly origin in a specious tale of descent from a Lunar Monarch. Among the most remarkable 
divisions of this aboriginal stock is that of the Son-Kolis, resident along the Thana coast, th^ 
prefix of whose name recalls the term-Shron or Son-Aparanta-used in the Buadhist legend 
of Purna of Sopara to denote the North Konkan, and may perhaps have some connection with 
the word 'Son' or 'Sonag,' which, on the authority of the Gazetteer, v^a^ the equivalent 
in Southern India of the term 'Yavan' or 'Greek.' One wonders if any bond was 
formed in those early days between the dark-skinned aboriginal settlers of the Thana 
coast, and the Greeks, who visited the land as traders or as captives of a victorious- 
Shatakarni. 

The family of Son Kolis, however, is of less importance, so far as Bombay is concerned, 
than that of the Meta Kolis, who are declared to have been the earliest colonists of our Islands, 
and to have fished in these waters, tilled the soil and worshipped their primeval gods, long before 
a higher Aryan civilisation left its mark upon the land. In what localities precisely they built 
their scattered groups of huts, is somewhat difficult to decide ; but local nomenclature gives a 
clue to the position of their hamlets in subsequent ages, which may reasonably be held to have 
arisen on the site of original homes. They undoubtedly existed in the two Southern islands ;. 
which thereby acquired the title of " Kola-bhat " or " Kolaba," the Koli estate.* Immigrants 
of a later period gave the smaller of the twain a separate title, « the Island of the Al-Omanis, " 
or deep-sea fishermen, which was metamorphosed into ' The Old Woman's Island ' of the British 
epoch: but the name exists no longer in these days; both islands have, by the hand of man, 
been linked together under the one name, which testifies to their having sheltered our earliest 
settlers. In that straggling island, third in order as one passes northward, there are also traces- 
of an early home. Who does not know our ' Mandvi Kolivadi,' our ' Dongri Kolivada ? ' Their 
situation in these days is comparatively remote from the sea-shore ; for reclamation and 
engineering have pushed back the ocean, and left the sea-shore hamlets high and dry. 
But for centuries after the Kolis first dwelt in these islands, those hut settlements, now 
lost among the brick and plaster edifices of the twentieth century, must have been situated near 
the marge of the sea, which afforded them sustenance. The name of a street in the heart of 
modern Mandvi—" Daryasthan "—perhaps exemplifies our belief. Though lost to-day in the- 
rumble of bullock-carts, and the shrill chatter of the passer-by, the voice of the waves may 
once have sounded clear, claiming the neighbourhood as the ocean's portion. Further evidence- 
of their presence in this third island is afforded by the name of " Cavel," (the area now included 
in the Dhobi Talao Section), which the antiquarian derives from '' Kol-war," the Koli Hamlet. 
The hamlet originally covered the whole of the land now divided by the Kalbadevi Road into 
Cavel proper and old Hanuman Lane, and must have been a seaside settlement, whenever the 
waves at high-tide poured through the Great Breach, which divided the present area of 
Mahalaksbmi from the Island of Worli. For many centuries it was the first village, at which 
the traveller arrived, on his way from Dongri or the '' Fig-Tree Creek " (Umarkhadi) across 
the narrow strip of land which yoked the eastern levels with Malabar Hill on the west, and 
was also the home of the earliest converts to Roman Catholicism. In later years one " Munga,"" 
lineal descendant of original colonists, owned a " Bhat " or landed estate, on the road from 
Cavel to the hill-village (Giri-gaun=Girgaum) ; and the observant wayfarer of this twentieth 
century, who seeks Malabar Hill by way of Qirgaum Road, will remark upon his right hand, 
hard by the shop of Lawrence, the carriage builder, a " Mugbhat " (Munga-bhat) Lane, which, 
approximately marks the site of the old Koli's possessions. 

• Dr. G. da Cunba, " Origin of Bombay, " p. 64. 



Our Koli, however, was not invariably responsible for local nomeuclattire : in at least 
one instance lie seems to have borrowed a title from the physioal characteristios of his 
early dwelling-place. We have already remarked the Hill-traot on tJn eastern' side. of 
our third islan-l. Hindu immigrants of subsequent yeari cn,lled it " Dongri," and the people 
■whom they found settled aronnd it " Dongri Kolis," as if they wero ?ome distinct branch 
of the old stock. Modern rcs'iarch declares definitely that theywere identical with the rest 
of the tribe upon our islands, were simply Meta Kolis, living above their brethren on the 
low ground. 

A conviction that they settled also in the fourth of our seven isles is based upon the 
origin of the name " Mazagon," and upon the presence of a modern temple of " Ghorupdeo." 
Mazagon, which contains to this day a Koli-vadi or Koli settlement, owes its name, we fancy, 
to the pungent odonr of the fish, which its earliest inhabitants caught, dried and ate. Agricul- 
turists and fishermen the Kolis have been from time immemorial ; but those of them, that 
settled m the fourth island, found fishing more profitable than agriculture, and. became so 
wedded to the pursuit, that their home earned the title of " Machcha-ganv " or " the Fish- 
village." Regarding the shrine of Ghorupdeo, Dr. da Cunha tells us that. to the Koli of these 
57 
A.D., invaded the Korth Konkan and defeated the Mauryas, who were then paramount therein. f 
Now the Mauryan dynasty, which presumably succeeded that of the Rashrakutas, has left behind 
it certain traces of its paramountcy. Whence, cries the antiquarian, did the Koli acquira that 
surname of " More," which he bears to this day, if not from the Mauryan dynasty of Puri ? 
The Koli Las always borrowed something from each new tide of settlers or immigrants ; and 
just as he acquired lunar descent from tl)e Brahmin, or a rude typo of Christianity from the 
Portuguese, so ho obtained a surname from the dynasty, which owned him as its subject in 
the sixth century. Again, where was the city of " Puri," that flourishing capital, described 
as " goddess of the fortunes of the western ocean ?" By keen analysis, intelligent inspection 
of old ruins, copper-plates and " oval seals of ligiit ruby-coloured cornelian " engraved with the 
word 'Narayana,' it has been shown that this reinarkable city was built upon the north-eastern 
portion of the Island of Gharapuri, ' a ilho ila Elephanle,' the Island of Elephanta ! From the 
writings of early Portuguese travellers it is clear that up to the 16th century of the Christian era,. 
the Isbnd of Elephanta was known by tho name of Puri, and that the names " Gharapuri " and 
" Elephanb " are of later origin. Garcia da OrtaJ, who visited the place in 1.534 A.D., remarks- 
that: " There is another pagoda better than all others, in an island called " Pori," and we 
name it the Island of the Elephant. There is a hill on it and at the top of this hill an under- 
ground dwelling hewn out cf a living rock. This dwelling is as largo as a monastery, and has 
open courts and cisterns of very good water. On the walls around there are large sculptured 
images of elephants, lions, tigers and of many human figures well represented. It is a 
thing worth seeing and it seems that the devil put there all his strength and skill to- 
deceive the heathen with his worship," Old Simao Botelho also records how "the Island 
of Pory, which is of the elephant, was rented in 1518 to Jcao Pirez for one hundred and five 
pardaos." 

In the sixth century A.D., therefore, the early fisher-folk of these Heptanesia must 
have been in close touch with a higher civilisation ; for almost within hail of their rude 
villages, lay the capital of a powerful government, whose territory included probably all the 
islands of the Northern Konkan, a town of great importance and opulence, the " Lakshmi " 
of the •Kestern seas§, which excited the envy of neighbouring chieftains, and sent forth stern 
men-at-arms to battle with Chalukya hosts, that swept like an ocean across the islands. 

Though Kirtivarman defeated the Mam-yas in the middle of the sixth century, the 
sovereignty of the North Konkan was not wrested from them until tho opening of the seventh 
century A.D. It was Pulakeshi, the son of Kirtivarman, and the most powerful of all the 
Chalukya kings, who compassed their downfall. During his reign (611-640 A.D.) the 
kings of Lata, Malwa, Giirjar, Kanoj and Banavasi were brought into subjection ; and Cband 
Danda, his general, set forth with hundreds of ships, and drave the Manryas from Puri. Na 
material relics of Chalukya dominion over these islands have been bequeathed to us ; but, 
as in the case of tlie Manryas, so in theirs, a surname in use among the Kolis testifies to the 
influence which they wielded. " Cholke,'' which is directly derivable from " Chalukya," 
recalls to the mind that dim past, when the civilisation of an outer world had drawn very 
near our seven isles, commanding them to awake from their deep birth-sleep for ever. 

* T!(ana Gazetteer, p. iHK J Dr. Q. da Cnuha. 

t Cnnningham'B Archaological Puivey, Perort IX, p. -SO. § Burgess' Archseological Survey, Report III, p. 26. 



Passing onward from this date, and across the inarticulate gloom o£ the eighth century 
.D., we arrive at a period which exercised considerable influence upon the islands of Bombay. 
In alllikelihood, the Chalukyas held the mastery of this country until the advent of the 
Silaharas or Shelaras in A.D. 810. Twenty Silahara kings ruled in the North Konkan from 
A.D, 810 to A.D, 1260! They called themselves " Tagarpiiravaradhishvar " or "Lords of 
the glorious city of Tagar," and claimed descent from Jimutvahana.* Among their chief cities 
were Puri, the capital, Hamjaman (Sanjan), Sliri-sthana (Thana), Chaul, Lonad and Uran. Of 
Kapardi, the first of his line, little is known ; but an inscription (No. 78) in the Kanheri caves 
describes his son Pulakeshi as the Governor of Mangalpuri in the Konkan, and us tho humble 
servant of the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha, whence one may infer that tho Silaharas wore 
subordinate to the R-ashtrakutas. That Kapardi 11 was also a tributary is also proved by another 
inscription in the same caves. Jhanjha, the fifth king, is mentioned by the Arab historian, Mu- 
sudi, as ruling over Saimur (Ohaul) in A.D. 916 A.D.; while Aparajita, the eighth of the dynasty, 
appears from a copper-plate, dated A.D. 997, and found at Blier in Bhivandi, to have become 
independent, on the occasion of the defeat of -the Rashtrakuta overlord Kakkal, by t]jp Chalukya 
monarch Tailapa.f In a copper-plate grant of A. D. 1097, Arikesari, the tenth king, is described 
as lord of 1,400 villages in the Konkan ; and mention is made of Puri, Sbristhanak (Thana) andl 
Hamjan, as his principal cities.t Mallikarjuna, the 17th monarch, wielded great power, and as- 
sumed the title of ' Rajapitamaha,' ' the grandsire of kings I ' It came to pass that one of his 
bards journeyed unto the Court of Kumarpal, the Gujarat king, and there sang of tho glory of his 
lord ; whereat Kumarjial waxed wroth and bade his general Ambada marcti against the country 
of Mallikarjuna. But the latter worsted A mbada in battle and drove him back to Gujarat. Once 
again did Ambada make the essay with a stronger force ; and, having de.'"eated and slain " the 
grandsire of kings," returned in triumph to Anahilpura, the capital of the Gujarat monarch. 
Soma or Someshvar was the last of the Silahara line. He, by ill hap, had to face Mahadev, 
the king of Devgiri, who, in 1260 A.D., invaded the Konkan with a large army, consisting for 
the most part of elephants : and being worsted, he took shelter in his ships, and there met his deathf 
probably by drowning. Hemadri, the celebrated minister of Mahadev and Ramdev, records 
his death in the 17th verse of his ' Rajaprashasti ' : — " Soma, the Lord of the Konkan, though 
skilled in swimming, was with his host drowned in the rivei"s, formed of the humour that fell 
from the temples of the mad elephants of king Mahadeva. t " 

Who the Silaharas were and whence they came, is yet largely a matter of conjecture r 
but the ending ' ayya ' of the names of almost all their ministers, as, for example, 
Nagalayya, Lakshmanayya, which occur in their copper-plate grants, and the unsanskrit names 
of some of their chiefs, favour the view that the dynasty was of Southern or Dr,ividian origin. 
Other names which confront us are Anantpai Prabhu and Belala Prabhu, who are supposed to 
have been Kayasths, the ancestors of the Kayasth Prabhus of the Konkan. Howsoever it be, 
the Silaharas seem to have fostered colonisation and trade in the highest degree, and to have 
introduced into these sparsely-populated islands a social and religious element, hitherto 
unknown. Hindu, Musulman, Parsi, Persian, Arab, Jew and Chinaman, all visited and settled 
in the Thana ports in their day, or braved the dangers of the sea— and they were not few — for 
the sake of the sandalwood and ambergris of Socotra, the aloes, camphor and spikenard of 
Siam, Java and Sumatra, the porcelain of China, and the cowries and gold-dust of Sofala. 
Ten thousand Persians and Arabs made their home in Chaul : the Jew brought a living freight 
of women, eunuchs and boys by way of the gulf to Chaul, Sanjan and Sopara : thirteen Chinese 
ships " made of double firwood, fastened with good iron nails, and daubed with lime, chopped 
hemp and wood oil" passed the stormy months of 1292 A. D. in the harbour of Bombay. Nor 
were the Celestials the onlv visitors to our islands, 'there were sea-robbers and corsairs in our 



• An account of how Jimutvahana by his self-sacrifice saved his tribe from the oppression of Garuda or Wasnki is 
given in the Sanskrit drama " Naganand." 

t Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, Part II, p. 18. 

+ ^m mf^^^wt\ fJiP? ^Tii'i I ^m^i II 



harbour at the close of the thirteenth century, for Marco Polo himself saw them,— one o^^ 
mhnj bands of pirates, who harassed the coast-trade from Gujarat southwardg, and later gave 
their name to a hill and promontory of our island. 

Not only in the matter of conimeroe did the Silaharas evince their aptitude for dominion. 
They organised their land revenue also,, by creating large districts called ' Rashlraa,' whic 
were again subdivided into ' Vishayas ' and ' Gramas ' (villages). In charge of each village wa3 
a Pattakil or headman, which is the modern Patel. Further they constructed a ' Rajapath or 
' king's high road,' passing a little north of Bhandup and following the same line as the 
present road from Bombay to Thana.* 

That our seven islands and their hut-settlements must have been brought into closer 
connection with the brisk life of the Konkan cities seems to us inevitable ; and although no 
definite record of new colonisation exists, one inclines to the belief that our Koli occasionally 
met with visitors from among the many stranger people,' who flocked by the path of fie sea 
or by the king's high road to the territory of the Silaharas. To this epoch, indeed, we would 
ascribe the origin of the name ' Old Woman's Island,' now Lower Colaba. The derivation was 
for sometime doubtful ; all manner of speakable and unspeakable persons were . declared res- 
ponsible for the name ; until at length the compiler of the Bombai, Gazetteer solved the ndd.e, 
by suggesting that *' as the fishers of Mazagon fish solely within harbour limits, while the 
Oolaba fishers have their stakes in the open sea, the Colaba Kolis were known as ' Al Omanis, 
the deep sea fishers, from ' Oman,' the conjmon Persian and Arab name for the sea that washes 
Western India." The wOrd may Well date'back to this epoch of Siiahara dominion, when the 
Atab, on his way to plunder or to trade at Puri, visited the southernmost of our Koh 
settlements. 

Our conviction in regard to the existence of more constant communication between 
Bombay and the mainland is in no wise shaken by the remembrance that the capital of the- 
dynasty was in closest proximity to our seven isles, was in fact Puri or Elephanta Island, 
described by them as ' Mangalpuri,' ' the City of Prosperity,' and in the ' Kumarpal Charitra ' 
as-' Shatanandpari Jaladhiveshtite 't or ' the sea-girt city of an hundred joys.' Moreover with 
one particular portion of our island the name of the Silaharas is indissolubly connected. At the 
extreme edge of the promontory, which is known to late-comers as Malabar Point, they dis- 
covered a strangely-cleft rock, ' a fancied yoni, of no easy access in the stormy season, 
incessantly surf-buffeted. ' Being of Dravidian origin, they termed the spot " Shri-Gundi J " 
which has been interpreted to mean 'Lucky Stone': and to further mark the sanctity "of 
the spot, they, staunch Shaivites as they were, built a mighty temple, ornate with carven 
images of the Trimurti. 

The influence of the shrine and cloven rock upon all men must have been considerable, 
^rom the fisherman, with his ' rag-gods and pot-godlings of the tree ' to the aged yogi, with 
.rosary of Rudraksha berries, many an inhabitant of surrounding districts must during the Siiahara 
and later epochs have visited the temple, and, passing through the trees to the land's verge, have 
sought regeneration by the perilous passage of the yoni. Now the original name of the 
place was ' Srigundi ' • but some years later, the Brahmin priests attached to the shrine, 
invented for the greater glorification of the temple and the deity, a tale, which is responsible 
for the modern name of the locality, laying it before their public in the form of a Mahatinya 
or Panegyric. Rama, so ran the story, erstwhiles halted here, on his journey to Lanke, 
and made himself a'linga' of the sand of the shore; wherefore the deity whom we 
and ye rightly reverence, ."hall be called " Valuka Ishvara," "the Sand- Lord. " The 
tale found merit in the eyes of man ; and the place is called " Walkeshvar " unto this day. 

* Bovibay Gazetteer, Vol I, Part II., p. 21. 

t Dr. Gr. da Cuuha opines that '^hntanandpur is the same as Santapir, an old name for Elephanta, transform'id bv 
the Portngiieso into Santapon ; and saggests a connection between Shantipori or Shonitpur and Souapur, the site of a 
former English Cem'tery ner nt that the said Antaji Baghnnath having been accused before the tribunal of the 
Inquisition, craves your protection, and therefore yon desire that the Said documents be examined in out Court of 
Judicature, where if they are found to be true, an intimation may be made to the Portuguese to abide by what may be 
reasonable, to which I beg to reply : Thai you are aware that the decision of such claims rests solely with the Government 
that granted the Inam and that no other (Government) can interfere ; and this being bo, it is useless for the said Antaji 
Baghunath to justify his claims in any tribunal, nay for any Government to interfere with its authority or request, if the 
Kkid Astajin Baghunath ia accused before the Inquisition, over which the Boyal authority itself has no power. I hope yon 
will command me in soma other bnsines!!, in which I may be serviceable (to you)." 



12 

Now, as Mr. Fleet's ' Kanarese Byaasties' proves, the Nilyak family was in high favour 
with the Devgiri monarchy ; for in A.D. 1272 Mahapradhan Achynt N^yak was riamdev s 
viceroy in the province of Salsette. 

Secondly, there is in existence a Persian patent, bearing the seal of Mahomed Dahl, 
Dewan of Sultan Ala-ud-din of Bedar and dated the first year of the accession to the throne, 
that is about the year 1436 A.D., which shows that " in the Salivahan era 1212 (A.D. 1290) 
Raja Bimbashah, having taken the ownership and possession of the country from the hands 
of ' Karson', kept it for himself. The country contains fourteen Parganas from the jurisdiction 
of Saratbhata to the limits of Daman. At the same time, the office of Sirdesai and Sirdesh- 
pande was under the control of Govind Mitkari. The said Mitkari lived for 3 years in the 
reign of Raja Bimbashah.* " 

From the early history of the Decoan, we already know that in the Shalivahan Shaka 
1212, a Brahmin named Krishna of the Bharadvaja Gotra was the viceroy of King Ramdev 
in the North Konkan ; and we cannot help being convinced that the " Karson " of the Patent 
from whom Raja Bimb took possession, was identical with that Krishna. 

Lastly, a D^napatra, or grant of the rights of Rirdesai and Sirdeshpande, made by king 
Bimbdev to his Rajguru Purushottam Kavlein the year Shaka 1221 (A.D. 1299), shows that the 
province of the Konkan contained 14 Parganas or districts, and 2 Kashas or sub-districts and that 
the island of Mahim (Bombay) was called a Pargana, containing 7 hamlets, t It further states 
that " In the month of Magh Shaka 1220 (A.D. 1298) Mahar^jadhir^ja Bimbshah purchased from 
Changunabai, widow of Govind Mitkari, the watan of Sirdesai and Sirdeshpande in the provinces 
of Malad, etc., for 24,000 Rayals ; and after keeping it in his possession for one year and three 
months, presented it as a religious offering to his spiritual guide Purushottam Kavle of the 
Bharadvaja gotra, on the occasion of a Solar Eclipse in the dark half of the month Vaisakh in 
the Shaka year 1221 (A.D. 1299), and in the presence of an assembly consisting of the Prime 
Minister Madhavrao Shrinivas, Chitnavis Chandraban Parbhu, Patangrao Nyayadhish, and 
others, merchants, mahajans and Jamindars.J" 

The above evidence leads us to the conclusion that our king Bhimdev, who died in the 
Shaka year 1225 (A.D. 1303) § and was succeeded by his son Pratapabimba or Pratapshah, was 
none other than Bhima Raja, the second son of king Ramdev of Devagiri. It was a common 
custom among Hindu princes, whenever they found their lives or kingdom in danger, to send^ 
to a place of safety a scion of the royal house, in order that the " Vansha ' ' or royal line might 
not become extinct : and it seems to us probable that Ramdev, seeing his other son Shankar over- 
powered, and being surrounded by the advancing army of Ala-ud-din, took the precaution of 
despatching his second son Bhimdev to the Konkan, which had up to that date been free from 
Moslem attack, and was indeed in the guardianship of Krishna, a viceroy of his own choosing. - 

With the advent of Bhimdev and his followers begins the history of the growth and 
colonisation of Bombay. The island of Mahim upen which he settled, had, previous to his arrival, 
been known as ' Newale ' or ' Baradbet ' (the desert island) ; one of a group of isles, sparsely peopled 
by families of Koli fishermen and other low-castes, overgrown with babul trees, and dowered with 
a fine temple of Valkeshvar and a shrine of the ancient goddess Mumbadevi. Here Bhimdev 
stayed and builded a fair city of temples and palaces, for himself and his followers, which he called 
* Mahikavati ' (Mahim). Those that accompanied hira upon his journey belonged, according to 

* Appendix No. VI in Vaidya'B Account of the Ancient BrahminB of the Notth Konkan, p. 36. 
t The detailB are as follows :—Talnka Malar conBisting of 57 villagee, Taluka Karol of 57; Perganaa Mahim 
(Bombay) of 7, Uran Bhorgaon of 9, Panch Nad of 65, Kbairan of 45, Eaman Khanch of 65, Sayban of 84, Manoii of 84 
Aseti of 84, Mahim of «4, Mahah of 27, Tarapur of 364 ; Kashas, Vasai of 12, Sopara of 16 ; Ptaot Sanje and Kamhan 
of 574. 

J The original oT this Danapatra is now in the poBBesBion of the descendants of the Rajgum Family at Alalad ' 
»icfe Vaidya'B Account, Appendix, p. 8. 

§ Vide S, Nayak'e History of the Pattane Prabhns, p. 59. TTiis appears to be a veiy short period for all the 
Improvements, etc.) attributed to Bimb Baja. 



13 



Sniied r.T. -rr^'P^''^ '^'"^'''^'^ °^«^ *»- f-°« "f the Heptanesia, throve, 
ZS;l; . r*^ "''^'^ .'^t ^^ P^^^^'"^ •-^■^ «^'^*«-«' *at ««« f^m other countries, both 
Brahmins and trader., came thither also, seeking the shelter of Bhima's rule. 

inflnv nf '' ^"?^^. '" ^'' " ^"""^'' °° *" O^'^^^' ^^"^s °f Bombay" observes that the great. 
dTr fL M^'T ^' . ""'*'' """^ '"""' ^°*° ^""'^^J^' '"'^y b« t'^^ced to certain events which ren- 
der he political and commercial history of the island a living record ; and that by studying 
ne r recoi-ds, traditions, usages, origin, and meaning of the names of localities, and especially 
eir janguages, one may fairly come at certain conclusions regarding the history of this island 



a^Kl Its dependences, particularly Salsette. Now of the four main classes that accompanied 
rsmmdev, the foremost, whereof the historian makes mention, is that of the "Prabhus" or 
ords — a noblesse of commerce and politics, one might say, with " the grand thaumatnrgic 



tacujy of thought in their head." These were they who aided their ruler to build the 
temp e to his family deity, Prabhavati or Prabhadevi,- to divide the dependencies of 
iviahikavati into mahals or districts, and pakhadis or hamlets, who watched the growth 
ot the kmgdom, fostered trade, settled disputes, and generally presided over the course 
ot public affairs. With the Parbhus came also their ministers of religion, men who could 
read the stars, and knew much of sickness and the healing virtue of herbs. They belonged 
to the Madhyandin Shakha of the white Yajurveda and were in after time called 
f aishikar Brahmins, from the village of Palsawli, in which they made their home. These 
were the priests of the people ; and doubtless gained many a convert among the 
aboriginal worshippers of Rook and Tree, by investing their rude deities with greater 
majesty. The legend also talks of the arrival of certain Sheshavanshis or " Bhandaris, " 
a title derived from the Sanskrit " Mandarak," ' a distiller f.' Concerning these men,, 
some doubt exists ; for, in the words of the Bombay Gazetteer, " their strain of late 
or foreign blood can be but small," " among some the remembrance of a hurried flight 
from the south still remains," and ''they seem to be Agris with a larger share of foreign 
blood. " Now the Agris claim allegiance to Bhimdev, stating that they came to Bombay from 
Mungi Paithan with Bhima Raja, the son of Rama Raja ; but, considering their position relative 
to other old communities of the Thana district, one inclines to the belief that some of them may 
have been resident in the Heptanesia, prior to Bhimdev's arrival. That being so, it is not im- 
possible perhaps that the Bhandari or Palm-juice-drawer of Bhima's retinue, mingled and in 
time intermarried with the women of an aboriginal stock, giving birth to a race of " Agris with 
a larger share of foreign blood. " Howsoever it be, it is to the Bhandaris and their offspring 
that we owe our plantations, and the name and locality of " Munmala," which includes the 
modern Mahim woods : for "Munmala" is simply "Madmala" or "the Orchard of Cocoa- 
palms." Together with the Vadvals and Malis, husbandmen and gardeners, who also arrived at 
this epoch, the Bhandaris initiated cultivation in our seven islands, introducing many of those 
fruit and flower-bearing plants that have lent their names to portions of modern Bombay. Nor 
were there wanting warriors and craftsmen for the more complete foundation of Bhima's polity. 
The Somavanshi Kshatriyas or Panchkalshis also came in the king's wake, a numerous class that 
has earned an undying reputation for hard work. Panchhahhi ani kon mhanel alshi, " who can 
call a Panchkalshi idle ? " so runs an old saying, testifying to the stout hands and hearts of our 
early colonists. 

We may pause for a moment at this juncture to see what historical inferences, if any, 
can be drawn from the language, or usages of these early castes and communities. Though 
the language, nowadays spoken by the Prabhus, Panchkalshis and Bhandaris, is MMrathi, their 
home-tongue contains a large percentage of -Words borrowed from the aboriginal settlers, the 
Koli and the Agri. The Palshikar Brahmins, being by reason of their religious duties socially 

S. M. Nayek's History of the Prabhns, pp. 60-59. 
f " Among the Bhandaris were certain ' Bhonple's,' or Sirdars of the Community. They were the ^heshavanshi 
followers ot Bhima Kaja, were soldiers and petty officers in his army, and had the privilege of playing the ' Bhungli ' or 
bugle. The actual occupation of the island by the BhongWs took place during the period of Mnssain-an domininn. They 
held the city for about 8 years having usurped possession of the island from the Mahommedans."— (Mi. P. B. Joshi). 
4 



14 

and intellectually superior to the other castes, and being also in constant touch with re igioug 
Sanskrit literature, have, not introduced into their home-speeoh so large a proportion o 
aboriginal words and phrases. And yet, even in their case, the language spoken by the oldes 
of their females differs widely from modern Marathi ; and resembles, in truth, the langttage pre- 
valent in the Deccan in the thirteenth century of the Christian era. Pick out, for example, from 
the ' Dnyaneshvari ' or some similar old Marathi work of the thirteenth century, a few words 
of pure Marathi origin which might now be considered obsolete or out of use, and ask an 
uneducated old lady of this Brahmin community whether she understood any of them. 
Not only will she be found to understand thom, but to have actually used them in her 
conversation, until the chiding of an educated daughter or daughter-in-law bade her discontinue 
the practice.* 

The language, therefore, spoken hy the highest of the communities that journeyed hither 
with King Bhimdev, does not differ greatly from that in vogue in the Deccan at the time of the 
migration of the king and his followers to the Konkan. The cause of the phenomenon la 
obvious. Bhimdev's successor did not reign long in Bombay ; for in the middle of the fourteenth 
century, Moslem rule was firmly established in the ishmd, and remained unchanged till the 
advent of the Portuguese. After the Portuguese came the early period of British dominion; 
and during the whole epoch, from Musalman to British rule, the people were practicallv cut off 
from all intercourse with their brethren in Deccan, and had consequently no opportunity for 
improving their language, which has thus preserved the character which it possessed at the hour 
of the exodus. 

The traditions of the Prabhus, Panchlialshis, and their priests the Palshikar Brahmins, 
•distinctly favour the theory that they came from Paithan with king Bhimdev, the son of 
Eamdev, Raja of Devgiri at a time when the city of Devgiri was besieged by Ala-ud-din 
Khilji, Emperor of Delhi ; and their view finds support in the old Marathi and Persian records 
■which some of them possess. 

It remains to notice any impressions, left upon our Island to this day by Bhimdev's 
Hegira. The aboriginal settler had lormed hut-settlemenls within her limits, and raised rnde 
shrines to Khadakadev ; the Silaharas had built now tem})les and taught the Koli and Agri 
customs of a hijfher order ; ihe immigrants from Devgiri built a capital city, introduced cultiva- 
tion, built more temples, and made our islands the heail-quarters of a kingdom. Previously, 
Bombay had been merely an appendage of ' Pui-i ; ' Bhimdev deserted ' Puri ' and raised Bombay 
to the position of a capital under the title of Mahikavati or Mahim. 

Among the most noteworthy legacies of his rule were the special privileges or rights, 
which many of the castes, that came with him, enjoyed till quite a recent date. Look for 
example at the following patent of Governors Wyborne and Child, the original of which is at 
present in the joint possession of Chintaman Balambhat !Naik and Nilkanth Vithal Padhye, 
the hereditary priests of Mahim : — 

" Whereis Kashioath Gambha Naique, Vithal Naique and Bana Paddia of 
Mahim, Brahmins, have for many years past been granted the office of Brahmins in 
tile township of Mahim, and its jurisdictions, in performing the rites and ceremonies 



•The following are a 


few words of the kind mentioned :— 




Old Marathi. 


Current Marathi, 


English meaning. 


Tnkn^, 


Uchaii e, 


To raise np. 


SnrawM, 


Aniikula, 


Favinrable. 


Wokhiten, 


WMt, 


Bad. 


Cbolchat, 


Shnddha, 


Pure. 


TJpeg, 


Urayng, 


Use. 


Th^l^D, 


TheviWn, 


Placed. 


Dekhane, 


Pabane, 


To see. 


Lataoken, 


Klioten, 


False. 


Sha-. ala, 


Panilfaara, 


White. 


Udele, 


UriayaB ale, 


Came to Uglit, dawned, 


P.ikhala, 


Adarila, 


EoQonred. 


Paik, 


Shipai or cbakar, 


Sepoy or Servant,— (Mr. P. B. JobW.) 



15 

of marriage, aJministering physio to the sick, and doing and performing all other 
ceremonies relating to the said office, as appears to me by several orders, I have 
thought fit and do hereby order you the said Kashinath Naique, Vithal Nalque and 
Bana Paddia, to continne in the said office of Brahmins, giving full power to act in 
the same and to perform all the rites and ceremonies of marriage, and to administer 
physic to the said inhabitants of the town of Mabim and its jurisdictions, prohi- 
biting all persons whatsoever from molesting or disturbing you in the execution of 
the said office upon any pretence whatsoever." 

Given under my hand and sealed with the seal of the Court of Judicature of 
the Island of Bombay, this 22nd of August, Anno Domini, 1685. 

(Sd.) STEPHEN COLT, (Sd.) J. VAUSE. 

Secretary. 

" I do hereby confirm and ratify Cassinath, &c., Brahmins in their offices, in order- 
ing all the respective inhabitants of Mahim to pay a dutiful respect suitable to 
their employs. " 

Bombay, this 29th October 1686. 

(Sd.) JOHN WYBOHNB. 

" Upon the request of the within-named persons this is confirmed upon them." 
Bombay Castle, 22nd June 1689. 

(Sd.) J. CHIT.D. 

Again, there is to this day in the village of Naigaon, which lies between Vadala and 
Parol, a spot known to the villagers as "Bhima Raja's Wady." At present the place is occupied 
by the ' Arshe Mahal ' or Mirror Palace of Jivanlal Maharaj : but local tradition, prevalent 
among the descendants of Bhim Raja's followers, declares that here stood of old one of the two 
palaces, built by that king, the principal seat of '' Nyaya " or justice. The second palace was at 
Khcda, Lower Mahim. Now hard by the halls of justice were quarters reserved for the use of 
the Raj-gurn or royal preceptor, and other Brahmin followers, which earned the title of ' Brah- 
man All ' or ' Baman-Ali,' the street of the Brahmins. This is the origin of the name 
" Bamnoli," which clings to the spot unto this day. 

Those well-known names 'Thakurvadi ' and ' Bhoivadi ' also date from this epoch ; for the 
Thakurs, Bhoirs, and Gawands were three recognised divisions among the lower classes of Bhim- 
dev's retinue. The Thakurs were the petty officers of his army ; the Bhoirs or Bhois were hia 
palanquin bearers ; and both have left the legacy of thoir name to the locality in which they 
made their home. The Prabhus settled in the vicinity of the old temple of Prabhadevi, which 
was, in A. D. 1519, razed to the ground by men, who for about a century and a quarter waged a 
fruitless battle against the old deities of Bombay. Fruitless indeed ! For in the dark half of 
Vaisakh, full seventy-eight years after the sceptre had departed from the men of Portugal, 
Prabhavati appeared in a vision, and bade the Prabhu brotherhood build a new temple ia her 
honour. Thus, there is to-day in the Mahim section, a shrine of Prabhadevi ; and the four-armed 
goddess still watches over the descendants of the first settlers. 

The Somavanshi Kshatriyas or Panchkalshis formed a colony in what is now Parel. 
Dr. da Cunha, following the teaching of the Gazetteer, and on the analogy of other place-names 
in the island, informs us that the origin of the name Parel is traceable to the existence of a plant, 
the Bignonia Suaveolens, or Tree-Trumpet ITlower, which is known in the Hindu tongue as 
" Padel." We venture to put forward an alternative, and equally plausible, derivation. The 
early history of our island is, as Dr. da Cunha remarks, closely interwoven with the history 
of its temples ; and it is admitted by all that, some time after Bhimdev's immigration, 
a Parbhu named Mankoji founded a shrine in Parel village, and perpetuated his name in the 



16 

title of the deity, who is known as "Mankeshvar" or Mankoji's god in these days. It is 
extremely unlikely that the J'anchkalshis should have possessed no shrines, peculiar to their 
community. Moreover, it is stated as a fact, that they built tliree temples under the patronage 
of the Raja, two for their family deities Wageshvari and Chandika, and a third to Mahadev. 
Now the " ling " of this Mahadev is said to be " Swayambhu " or non-artificial, and was therefore 
held to be of equal importance and sanctity with the celebratad " ling " of Vaijanath at Parali 
in the Deccan. Therefore the third temple, which the Panchkalshis built, was called the 
shrine of Parali Vaijanath Mahadev ; and as the deity's title was Vaijanath Mahadev, the first 
portion of the title was given to the village, in which his temple stood. The present temple of 
Mahadev, which is stated to rest on the exact site of the original temple, stands in the middle 
of the « Parali," " Paral," or " Parel " village. 

The memory of Bhima Raja the Good, the Benefactor of Bombay, has not entirely 
departed from among the children of men. The villagers have deified, and still worship him : for 
in that Oart, called by them Bhima Raja's Wady, and by others the * Arshe Mahal,' the descend- 
ants of old Bhois and Thakurs have set up a black stone, representative of the king, besmeared 
with red ochre and adorned with flowers, to which they offer, at certain seasons, milk, 
butter, fruits, and even goats and fowls. Till quite a recent date, an annual ' jotra ' or fair, 
at which animals were sacrificed, was held in his honour • but the new Maharaja, owner of the 
Oart, a strict Vaishnav, forbade the custom, advising the people that the feeding of Brahmins was 
a surer method of pacifying Bhima Raja's spirit than the slaughter of dumb creatures. We like 
the idea, prevalent among the uncultured denizens of Parel, that the spirit of the old monarch 
still haunts, still watches over, the lands for which he did so much and upon which he set an 
ineradicable seal. 

In the year Shaka 1225 (A.D. 1303) King Bhimdev died, and was succeeded by his 
son Pratapbimb, or Pratapshah, as he is sometimes called.* Nothing of importance is known 
or recorded of him, save that he built another capital city at Marol in Salsette, which he named 
Pratappur. The name of the city still lives as Pardapur or Parjapur, a deserted village near 
the centre of Salsette. 

In the year 1318 A.D., after the reduction of Devgiri and the defeat and death of Harpaldev, 
son-in-law of the Yadava monarch E,amdev, Mubarak, the Emperor of Delhi, ordered his 
garrisons to be extended to the sea, and occupied Mahim and Salsette.f But Mahommedan 
supremacy was probably not firmly established till later ; for old Marathi records show tkat 
Pratapihah reigned for 28 years, that is till A.D. 1331, when he was slain, and his kingdom 
usurped, by his brother-in-law Nagardev, the Chief of Cheul.| 

Nagardev reigned for 17 years, that is, till the year 1348, when his dominions passed 
into the hands of the Moslem rulers of Gujarat § : and thus came to an end the sovereignty of 
old Hindu Kings over the islands of Bombay and its dependencies. |l 

*Bhimdev was also called Bhim Shafa or Bimb Shah. In a Persian record, possessed bv the family of the 
late Sirdesai of Malad, it is stated that in the year Shaka 1208 (?) Eamdev Raja with his son Bimbdev went to pay his 
teBpects to Ala-nd-din at Delhi. He was well received, and the king, taking Bhimdev ns his own son, conferred upon him the 
title of Sbab. 

It is tme that Bamdev visited the Delhi Court, but the date given above does not appear to be correct. Compare 
the following; — 

" Ramohitidra was received there (at Delhi) with great marks of favour and distinction; and royal dignities were 
conferred upon him. Not only was he restored to bis government, but other districts were added to his dominions, for all 
of which he did homage and paid tribute to the king of Delhi. The kinc; on this occasion gave him the district of Nausari 
in Gujrat as a personal estate, and a hundred thousand tank^s to pay his expenses home. " — Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I, Part 
a, p. 532. 

t Bom. Geo. See. Trans., Vol. V, p. 129. 

t P. M. Nayak's History of the Prabhns, pp. 59-60. 

%Ibid. 

II According to Maratha accounts, the following causes combined to bring about the fall of kins Nagardev. The 
king had a favourite named Bhagadchari, This man was the son of one Jaitchuri, an illegitimate son of the kine-. Bhagad- 
chnii having been appointed by Nagardev Governor of the province of Sashti i Salsette) greatly oppressed the iihabitams of 
that region. He had the land measured and divided it into ' kathis,' ' bighas," and ' haras ' ; and for each ' hara ' (^8 
bighas) the rayats were ordered to pay fonimaunds of the prodnce of the land. Thus revenne was raised and royal favour 



17 

Ere the curtain fafls upon this dim period of our island-story, it ware well to take a rapid 
journey across the Heptanesia, noting such of their peculiarities, as may be discernible from 
locahties or names existing in these days. The two southern isles can hav© changed but little 
hy the close of the Hindu period, and since the Koli's first arrival on these shores. The tw<> 
together form the Kola-bhat (Colaba) or Koli'a portion ; and the smaller of the twain, being 
inhabited by deep-sea fishermen, has been endowed by Arab seamen with the separate title of 
Al-Omanis' Island (Old Woman's Island). The numbers of inhabitants may possibly have been 
augmented by the settlement of some of Bhimdev'a Bhandaris, the descendants of whom are to 
this day resident in the old Colaba village. 

The third island, as we pass northward, is more noticeable. At the edge of its nearest 
promontory wo seem to discern a rude landing-place or beach, used doubtless by our aboriginal 
fishermen, around which there has grown up a species of shrub or tree, whose shoots introduce a 
gleam of colour into the surroundings. What more natural than that, by the end of the era of 
Hindu dominion, the place should have been known as " Pallav' or " Pallav Bandar," " the 
Harbour of Clustering Shoots ?" From "Pallav " to " Palio," which was the name of the region 
in a Government Memorial of 1743, is no great change : nor is the final alteration from *« Pallo '^ 
to '' Polo, " and thence to " Apollo " incomprehensible. Apollo Bunder ! One of the best known 
areas of modern Bombay, ornate in these days, not with burgeoning shrubs, but with embellish- 
ments of more lasting character.* 

Passing forward, one remarks a wide plain, part of which has been converted by 
later generations into an Esplanade, containing palm-groves, tamarind trees and a small 
settlement of Bhandaris, Agris or others. Perchance it was one of those tamarinds, which 
lived to see the building of a Cathedral of St. Thomas, and to give the title of " Amliagal " 
(" in front of the Tamarind ") to the Elphinstone Circle. Not far away, probably, was 
a rude shrine of the monkey-god, Hanuman or Maruti, beloved of the aboriginal and 
lower classes. Dowered by Vayu with the gift of ' Chiranjiva ' or immortality, Hanuman 
still lives with us in the Hanuman Street and Cross-lanes of a modern Market Section. Between 
the shrine and the creek which separated the island at high-tide from the fourth island, of 
" Machchagaum, " lay Dongri, the hill-tract, peopled by the Koli and others ; and southward 
thereof on the lower ground, were probably small groups of Brab-palms, near which dwelt 
Bhandari families, and which have been responsible for such modern place-names as " Sattad " 
(Satar) or " Seven-Brab " Street, and " Dontad " (Dontar) or " Twin-Brab " Row. Here also, 
close to the sea-shore, were more Tamarinds (Chinch= Tamarindus indica), whence we derive the 
name of the " Chinch Bunder " or " Tamarind landing place," a sub-section of the modern 
B Ward, To the north-west of Dongri there must have existed a plantation of the Thespesia- 
populuca, called in the native tongue " Bhendi," which has given its name to the well-known 
Bhendy Bazaar ; and a little westward of the rising ground, a small creek or * Khadi,' with one or 
more specimens of the Fkus glomerata growing upon its banks. " Umbar " is the Vernacular name 

gained ; and to the complaints made against Bhagadchari.Nagardev on thia account paid no attention. Discontent was wide- 
spread ; for Bhagadchari indulged bis vicioas propensities to the fall, outraged respectable women, and committed more than 
one murder ; yet was permitted by the king's favour to go unpunished. 

The immediate cause of Nagardev's downfall, however, was the degradation by him of one of his Sirdars, Nathrao Sindha 
Bhongle. Nathrao happened to displease one Thakur Chaughale, a favourite of the king, and was publicly disgraced. Burn- 
ing with desire to be revenged upon the king, Nathrao journeyed to Wadnagar (?), interviewed the Sultan of that place, and 
urged upon him the advisability of conquering the North Konkan. The Sultan, therefore, ordered bis General Nika Halik to 
set forth. Nika Malik, taking an army of 12,000 men, reached by rapid marches the Pargana of Saiwau (Bassein Taluka? ) 
and there enoaTiped near the Patalgangn in the forest of Karvi trees. Thence he proceeded by night to the Kanheri caves 
where he divided the army into three deiachments. rine marched aguinst Pratappur, the second against Thana, and the 
third, under Nita Malik himself, invaded Mahim (Bombay). So sudden was the attack that Nagardev, who had gone to Wal- 
keahvar for religions purposes, was quite unaware of the danger. The defence of the royal palace, iherefi>re, devolved upon 
his queen and a few retainers ; and in the struggle, the queen was slain and the palace looted. By this time a message had 
reached Nagardev, who gathering his men together, marched back to meet the Moslem forces, A battle ensued at Bhaya- 
khala (Bycnlla), in which Nagardev was defeated and slain. These events happened in the year Shaka 1270 (A.D. 1347-48), 
—(Mr. P. B. Joshi.) 

» Sir James Campbell derives the name from ' Palva,' a, boat or fighting vessel. The derivation adopted by the 
writer is that given by Dr. da Cunha in his ' Origin of Bombay. ' 

«• 

6 



a 



18 

of this tree, the water-giving and medicinal qualities of which have ever marked it as sacrosanct^; 
whence we now reckon among the sections of B Ward an " Umbar-khadi " or " Oomerkhan 
Before quitting this eastern portion of the third of the Heptanesia, one would draw attention to 
a remarkable channel of water, lying hard by the Fig-tree creek and in the direct path oi the 
traveller, as he fared southward from Mazagon or Machchagaun and the northern islands, ihe 
stream, though sluggish in the fair season, flowed throughout the year ; and the inhabitants ot 
Mahikavati or Simva, the boundary-hamlet, would halt awhile and lave their tired feet therein. 
Hence the spot came to be known as " Pya-dhuni " or " The Foot-wash. " In later ages the 
rapidity and strength of the current during the monsoon led a Christian government to build a 
bridge over it, and subsequently to fill up the channel, and lay down highways and dwelling- 
places. To-day the site is covered with houses, shops and temples or mosques ; and the name 
of it alone survives in the " Pydowni " Police Station ! 

The modem names of many localities within the island point to the existence of a Tree or 
Plant-worship among the earlier colonists. Nor is this surprising, when one remembers that at 
least three of the separate communities which accompanied lihimdev, earned their livelihood by 
husbandry or by the care of a particular species of tree. The comparatively narrow belt of 
land which united the eastern portion of the 3rd island with the jungle -cove red hill on the west, 
must have been thickly sown with plantations or groves of various kinds, among which one may 
noteagarden of jack-fruit trees or " Phanas," origin of our modern section of Phanaswadi ; agroup 
of plantain and brab-trees, which have been responsible for the " Tadvadi " and " Kelevadi," 
leading ofe the Girgaum Eoad ; and lastly an orchard of Bor (Zizyphus jujuba), which we call 
" Borbhat. " Borbhat has grown old, and can scarce recollect the days when the people came up 
out of the low-lying fields or Khet-wadi, to worship at the shrine of the village-goddess (Gaumdevi); 
but the name may still be seen by the wayfarer on the Girgaum Road, not far from the site of Mug- 
bhat, old Munga's ancient holding. Kolvar (hodie Gavel) has already been noticed ; it stood 
near Phanaswadi, and must have formed quite as large a settlement as the Hill-village or Giri- 
gaum (hodie Girgaum), which was situated west of Borbhat and the palm-groves. There was 
probably a " Gramndevata, " peculiar to Girgaum, whose shrine, set up on the outskirts thereof, 
may have eventually resulted in the name of that thoroughfare aud locality — Gamdevi or Gaum- 
devi— which lies between the Qowalia Tank and Chowpatty Sea Face. The name '' Chowpatty '' 
must also date from this epoch of Hindu colonisation, when the sea swept through the 
W'orli breach at high-tide, and swamped those regions which now form the central sections of 
the city. The sea was responsible for a " Foot-wash," for " a Fig-Tree Creek " ; and may simi- 
larly have formed four channels in the neighbourhood of Girgaum, which, on the analogy*of 
the word " Satpati" (in the Thana district), would have endowed the neigbourhood with the title 
of " Chow-pati " or Chowpatty. 

From the village and shrine one reached the path of the " Ladder," Shidi or Siri, which 
wound upward to the ridge of the great hill. At the southern extremity thereof was " the 
Lucky Hollow," through which Shivaji crept in after years, in hope of washing away his blood- 
guiltiness. There, too, was the great shrine, dedicated to the cult of Shiva, round which a small 
colony of ascetics and others may have gathered, and relics of which, broken pillars and carven 
blocks, are still in existence. On the left of the '' Ladder " was a plantation of the Acacia ara- 
bica or Babhul, the reverence paid to which must have occasioned the building of a shrine of 
' Babhalnath ; ' and some distance to the north of it was still higher ground, a continuation 
really of Malabar Hill, which has earned, however, the separate title of Cumballa Hill, irom 
the grove of " Kambal, '' '' Kamal," or Odina wodier, which flourished upon it at the close of 
this Hindu epoch. 

The traveller of those early days gazing westward from the Kambal-grove, would have 
marked the hill sloping downwards to the sea, and at its foot three shrines to Mahakali, Maha^ 
sarasvati, and Mahalakshmi.* The goddesses were there, had not yet leaped into the waves of 

* Th>- Jlalialalisliini temples of to-day are of comparatively modern date, having been erected after the constraotion of 
the Hornby VeUard. 



19 

the " Ksherasagara, " as the Worli creek was named, to avoid ruthless profanation by Moslem 
•fanatics. From their shrines they looked out upon the " Khind," (Candy) or Break in the 
Book- Ridge, called in after time Breach Candy, through which the ocean ''swept with 
all the fury ^nd pleasure of an Arabian colt. " At each successive tide, the waves claimed 
as their portion the low-lying ground which intervened between the foot of the hill and 
the rising-ground of Dongri in the distance. Here and there, perhaps, some land-mark 
may have appeared, some small area may have risen above the waste waters. That there 
were Brab-Palms (Tad) flourishing below the hill of Kambais, one feels convinced ; and 
remembering the special sanctity which in India and other countries has attached to trees 
yieldmg mtoxicating drink, it seems not unlikely that these gaunt hrabs were looked upon 
as the special haunt of a Deva, a " Tad-deva " or Brab-Tree God. lu these days the trees 
are overlooked by the chimney-stacks of factories, and long line's of mill-roofs ; hut the name 
of the section in which they stand-— Tardeo, which is " Taddeo " or " Taddev"— -still calls to 
mind their pristine importance. To southward of the Brab-trees, the Agris and others must 
have initiated a rude cultivation, dividing the marshy land into " khets " or fields, which were 
reclaimed during the period of British doqjiinion and transformed into the ' Khetwadi ' section ; 
while to the eastward, some slightly higher ground may have afforded room for a small 
settlement of Agris, and shrine of the " Naga " or serpent, beloved of Kolarian, Dravidian, 
and even Aryan immigrant. Other origin of a modern Agripada and Nagpada we know not. 

Thus, then, the tour of our third island is complete ; but, before passing northward, it 
should be home in mind that this island was the original island of Bombay, as distinct from 
Mahim, Colaba, and others, which have, during the period of British rule only, been welded 
together under the one title. We may well pause for brief consideration of the origin of a 
name, which, so far as we know, was not universally recognised till after the fourteenth or 
fifteenth century of the Christian era. For many years the name of Bombay was held to have 
arisen from the juxtaposition of the Portuguese words " Buon " (Good) and " Bahia " ( bay or 
harbour), and to be proof of the attachment which the men of Portugal formed towards the 
excellent island-haven. But the rules of euphony forbid the acceptance of this view, and the 
fact that early Portuguese writers refer to the place as " Bombaim " and not as ' Bombahia,' shows 
that this derivation cannot be correct. Another version connects the name of our island with 
the name of Mubarak I, Emperor of Delhi, who seized the sovereignty of Mahim and Salsette 
duriiig the early years of the fourteenth century A.D. ; but the absence of any record showing 
that he gave his name to the island, and the probability that, had he done so, it would have 
been designated " Mubarakhpur " or " Muharakhabad," militate againat this derivation. For a 
truer conception of the origin of the title, one must seek among the traditions of our oldest 
settlers. Local folklore, based upon an old work known as the Mumba Devi Mahatmya or 
Puran, declares that the island of Bombay owes its name to the goddess " Mumba.* " Whence 
comes this name " Mumba ? " Is it of foreign origin, or the name of some Hindu female, given 
to the goddess ? Some authorities believe that it is derived from " Munga " the name of the Koli, 

* " We have," writes Mr. P. B. Joshi, " a copy of this so-called Puran. It is written in Sanskrit and contains 52 verses 
or nearly 208 lines. It states that years ago there lived on this island a powerful Daitya, who won the approval of Biamha 
by the performance of religions austerities. In response to the demon's request, Bramha granted that he should be invincible 
by men, gods, yakshas, gandharvas, demons, animals, serpents, birds and beasts and the Daity* then begin to harass the 
people of the earth. (This story may be connected indirectly with the religious persecution set on foot by Muba'ak I, who 
destroyed many Hindu temples in Bombay.) The people sought the help of Vishnu, who, accomp.inied by Bramha, went to 
KaUasa and reported tbe Demon's evil practices to Shiv. Shiv, in great wrath, cast from his mouth a portion of his ' Tej ' or 
lustre, and commanded the other gods to do likewise. From the combined lustre of aU the deities was created a female 
goddess, who mounted upon hev ' Vahan,' the lion of Ambadevi, gave battle to the demon Mumbarak and defeated him. 
On his ;fromising to cease persecuting the people, he was permitted to repair to ' Fatal ' (the lower regions), after first 
receiving the assurance of the goddess that she would adopt the name of Muinbadevi and remain upon the island. The writer of 
the Puran remarks in conclusion that ' Those who desire health and prosperity, victory in battle, power of oratory and- 
progeny, etc., should worship the goddess with flowers, fruits and presents of money, ornaments and jewels ; and thither 
votaries should also feed Brahmins and give them ' Dakshina ' or pesents of money.' The author was clearly a Brahmin 
priest, fond I if dakshina, and was probably also but half -educated, as the verses are full of grammatical inaccuracies and are 
occasionally framed without regard to the rules of Sanskrit prosody. He volunteers this further information towards the close 
pf the pOem :->-'Havipg heard of the prowess of the goddess from Eama, the great warrior Hanuman came to Bombay at 
once, and has been living ever since upon the island'; and 'in order to strengthen the defences of ihe islinl a,!!;ainst foreign - 
encroachment, the goddess Mumba commanded 100,000 of her 'ganas' or fighting followers tooome and settle in Bombay. ' " 



20 

who built the original temple; but we like best the derivation of the word from " Maha-Amba," 
Patrou deity of our earliest settlers, in other words, BhavAni, consort of Shiva ! The femmme form 
of the word ' Munga ' is ' Mungi ' or ' Mugi ' (c./. Mugbhat): and the correct form of the island s 
name would have been ' Mungi-ai ' and not ' Munga-ai ' or ' Mumbai.' BhavJlni. on the other 
hand, is often known as ' Amba,' ' Ambika ' or ' Maha-Amba' ; while the suffix ' ai ' meanmg 
' Mother,' is a term of respect often used by Marathi- speaking Hindus towards their goddesses. 
' Mambai ' or ' Mumbai ' is the exact name of the city and island among the natives of these 
days, and has been transformed by the Portuguese into ' Bombaim ' and by the English into 
' Bombay. ' 

There was doubtless a temple or shrine of Mumba-devi or Mumb-ai upon our third 
island at the close of the Hindu period, situated perhaps upon the very spot (near the present 
Victoria Terminus), which a shrine of later construction occupied during the earlier years of 
British dominion. But the island had not at that date acquired sufficient importance to b© 
designated, save in the common parlance of Hindu fisher-folk, by a separate name. It was 
merely one of the dependencies of Mahim, an island of no little political and commercial 
importance during the fourteenth and fifteenth centnriBS of the Christian era. But the influence 
of the old goddess, though subjected on occasions to disastrous eclipse, has survived the changes, 
of centuries, and has finally given one common and immortal name to the scattered islets- of the 
Hindu period. 

Passing across the Fig-Tree Creek, to the shores of the fourth island, the traveller would 
have entered the " fish-village " or Machchagaum, of which we have already spoken ; and 
journeying north-westward, would have discovered a tract of land, overgrown with Brabs, which 
were doubtless in charge of the Bhandaris and others, who dwelt in the village. " Tad-vadi '* 
(the Brab-garden) would have been the title of the locality, whence we of the twentieth century 
A.D. derive the name of the " Tarvadi " or " Tarwari " section. Westward again of the Brab- 
garden was a level stretch of land, extending as far as the marshy domain of the sea, which 
in the days of Antonio Pessoa was known as ' Bhoycalem,' and in our time as BycuUa. Whence 
the name is derived is a matter of doubt. Some authorities opine that the Hindu 
name of the Cassia fistula, viz., ' Bhava ' or ' Bhaya,' may have combined with the -word 'Khala 
or ' level ground,' to produce the modem designation of a much wider area. Others, again, 
characterizing this view as far-fetched, believe that hereabouts was of old time the " Khala 
or the " thrsshing-floor " of one 'Bhaya.'* Whatever the truth may be, it is perhaps per- 
missible to suppose that there existed on the western shore of the island some small hamlet, 
whose inhabitants followed the calling of agriculture or propelled their rude craft across the 
future site of the Kamathis' township. 

Faring forward once more across the ocean's intercepting arm, one remarks the 
fretted coast of the largest of the three northern islands. In the extreme south lay a 
tamarind-covered valley, which they called '' Chinch-pokli " (the dell of Tamarinds) and we 
of these days Chinchpooghly— a district not unknown to local Mill-agents and employers 
of labour. The valley was succeeded by level ground, containing the village of " Paral " or 
" Parel," with its habitations of Thakurs and Bhois, and enclosed on the east by rising ground, 
and on the west by the sea and a tract of land, which from the luxuriance of its prickly-pear 
bushes, must early have earned the title of ' Mingut-Maudali'. The name exists to this day in 
every Municipal chart of the island. North of Paral lay Naigaum, the boat hamlet, in which 
Bhimdev built his hall of justice and his Brahman followers had made their homes. Brahmins, 
Prabhus, Thakurs, Kolis and others must have transformed the old hamlet into a comparatively 
populous settlement by the close of the Hindu era. Now on the eastern side of the rising ground, 
which looked down upon Bhimdev's settlements, lay a small promontory, called in the Hindu 
tongue " Sivadi," from the fact probably that it once contained a shrine of Siva or Shiv, the 
Lord of Death.t The shrine in course of time fell into ruins, and was replaced by a fort, of 
which the remains alone are now visible. But a new shrine has in later years been dedicated 

* Vbaya, MdyaidiC., are common names amoDg Agris and Kunbis, 'Bbayacha Kbala' (the tbteshing-floor c{ Bhaya} 
may easily have beeome Bhayakhalao' Bycnila. 

t The word may also have origmated in " Shiv-vadi " or " Sbivar-vadi." 



21 

to the Destroyer, whose name still lives in a modern Sivari, Sivri or Sewri section, whither the 
European community hears its dead for burial. North of Naigaon were groups of great Banian 
trees, termed ' Vad ' in the Hindu tongue ; whenoe is derived the modern place-name, ' Vad-ala ' or 
Banian avenue ; and lastly, on the verge of the land lay the Boundary-hamlet, (Simva=Sion), 
•expanded doubtless since its early foundation, by the immigration of new people, owing allegiance 
to the overlord of Mahim, and of travellers from the Shashashti villages and the mainland. 

In the midmost of the three northern isles lay the city of Mahikavati, of which no trace, 
save the first half of the name (Mahi or Mahim), remains in these days. It must have been a 
goodly city, this capital of Bhima Raja, with its colonies of Palshikar Brahmins, of Prabhus, of 
Bhandaris and others, with its great temple of Prabhavati, and the wide forest of cocoa-palms, 
which ultimately gave the name of " Mad-mala " ( 2.e., cocoa-palm avenue ) to a tract, now 
included in the Mahim section. There were also, according to Dr. Gerson da Cunha, a shrine and 
village of Kalikadevi or Kali, goddess of the aboriginal Koli, in this island of Mahikavati. 
In later years, the shrine was removed to the third of our Heptanesia, during the period, perhaps, 
of Mahommedan intolerance, and eventually left the legacy of its name to that modern artery of 
the city, Kalkadevi or Kalbadevi Bead. At the close of the Hindu period and for many years 
subsequent thereto, Mahim was the most important of all the islands, and formed the head-quarters 
-of a government, which held sway over lands now welded together under the name of Bombay. 

' From the southern limits of Mahikavati, one looked across a channel upoii the last of our 

isles. Rocky and narrow, this seventh island lay like a carelessly-placed barrier in the path of 
iha tide, stemming the direct onslaught of Ocean, yet suffering him at (he same time to cr^ep 
through chasms at either extremity, and claim as his portion the low-lying land within. The only 
inhabitants of the land, as far as we know, were the Kolis ; and the most noteworthj- feature of the 
locality was a fine grove of Banian trees (Fieus indica). The shade of the Banian, the medicinal 
properties of its roots, which are said to cure thirst, sorrow and melancholy, have always ensnred 
it a high place in the estimation of the Hindu ; and the respect accorded to the trees by early 
Hindu immigrants probably led to the name " Vad-ali " (Banian Row) being applied to the whole 
island. The people of later ages, confusing the palatal * d ' with " r,' called the place Var-ali, 
•which is now become Varli or Worli, — a locality not unknown to Municipal Drainage Engineers. 

• 

Such was Bombay at the close of the Hindu period. Out of the infinite backgrourid of 

the ages a motley company of actors has advanced, each of whom, his part in the island-drama 
ended, has vanished in the darkness, leaving scarce a trace behind. The aboriginal Koli intro- 
is'of semi-Arabic origin, "Zigeris" being admitted by erudite scholars to be a corruption 
of"Jazirah,"an island.f 

Some fourteen years after the flight of the Prophet from Meccah to Madinah, that is in 
A.D. 636, the earliest Moslem Arab expedition was despatched by Uthman-ath-Thakafi, the 
second Khalifah Umar, to the Konkan. Though the Arabs landed successfully at Thana, the- 
expedition degenerated into little more than a raid, and provoked an angry remonstrance from 
the Khalifah, who, on the safe return of the forces from El-Hind, wrote thus lo the Governor 
of the Arabian Irdk : " Brother of Thakif ! It is well ! Thou hast placed the worm in the- 
wood, but by Allah I had any of my men been lost, I should have taken an equal number from 
thy tribe ! " { The Khalifah Umar and his successors were not favourably impressed with 
India as a field for proselytism or settlement ; and their views were doubtless responsible for th& 
paucity of early Moslem expeditions against Western India. When the highly-gifted hnl 
illiterate Badawi, companion of Al-Hajjaj ibni Eusuf (A. D. 685-706) was asked to describe 
India, which according to the Arab notions of the day included Khurasan, he replied that t 
*' The sea of El-Hind is pearls, its rooks precious stones, its leaves spices and its people a flock 
of helpless pigeons ; but the way to it is through a land whose waters are snows, and whose 
people are an ever watchful foe." 

About A.D. 636 the Arab Governor of Bahrein fitted out two fleets against the ports of the 
Gulf of Cambay ; and subsequent to that date Arab attacks upon the seaports of Western India 
became more frequent. In A.D. 730 Broach was attacked ; in A.D. 7.58 and 778 fleets were 
despatched against the Kathiawar coast ; and, in the reign of the Umaiyad Al Walid,. 
Muhammud, son of Kasim, came overland from Shiraz and made his famous raid from Debal to 
Delhi. The rule of the Silaharas and their successors in the North Konkan was most favoarable 
to Musulman settlement ; for Al Masudi refers to the wise and enquiring Hindu JhSnjha,. 
Governor of Cambay, whom the modern historian identifies with the 5th Silahara monarch IT ; 
while Suleiman, the first Arab Geographer and Traveller (A. D. 851), states that the " Balharas,"' 
by which name the Arabs styled the Silahara dynasty, were of all Hindu Kings the most 
partial to the Muslimin. Not only did the Arab soldier and seaman find welcome on 

* Abnl Fida, Keinand's II, ccol, s:!!xiv. 
t Thana Gazetteer, XIII, p. 6!. 
t Al-Bilazuri (A. D. 949) in Elliot I, 116. 
t Bombay Gazetter, p. 422, Vol. liii, I. 



22c 

these shores, but many a trader, eqcouraged by the complacent attitude of Hindu chieftains, 
took up his abode ia Anahilvada, Cambay and Sindan. * Treated with much consideratioD, 
allowed to build mosques freelyf, and practise their religion without hindrance, these early 
Persian and Arab settlers spread themselves along the coast line, intermarried with the Hindu 
population and thus gave birth to the " Nawaits " or " Nditia " community, which formed 
the ancestry of the oldest Moslem comumnity in Bombay, the " Konkani Mahommedans" 
of 1901. In later years came fresh Moslem invaders, who have left their traces in the 
four-fold distribution of the Mahommedan population into Sayads, Sheikhs, Mughals and 
Pathans. 

We pass on to the close of the thirteenth century, when Moslem invasion became more 
determined, and the old Hindu monarchies began to apprehend danger. Farishtah tells of Ala- 
ud-din Ghori pursuing Ramdev of Devgiri to the very gates of his capital in A, D. 1294 | and of 
how his followers discovered 3,000 bags of salt, stacked near the gates, which had been brought 
thither for sale by a merchant of the Konkan. This event doubtless led to an agreement on the 
part of the Yadava king to pay annual tribute to Ala-ud-din, who in return granted him the title 
of Rai-i-Rayan, the R5i of Rrfis or King of Kings,— a rich reward, and the confirmation of 
all his possessions with the addition of Navsari. § To Ramdev succeeded Shankar who was slain 
by A,la-ud-din in 1312 for refusing the continuance of the tribute paid by his father; and to 
Shankar succeeded Harpaldev, his son-in-law, who got the original graat revoked by a similar act* 
of contumacy, and subjected his dominions to invasion by a Moslem force from North Gujarat. % 

Now it is, in A.D. 1318, after the fall of DeVgiri, that the first direct evidence of Musulman 
supremacy in our island is vouchsafed tons. Sultau Kutb-ud-din, or Mubarak Shah I, who 
reigned from L317 to 1320 A.D., is stated to have ordered his outposts to be extended to the sea 
and to have occupied Mabim in Bombay and Salsette. || The large Mahommedan population 
which dwelt peacefully in the coast-towns under the generous sway of Hindu monarchies, 
doubtless helped towards the success of that policy of empire, which for a short season guided 
the actions of this Emperor. Bat the spectacle of impartiality and toleration afforded by Hindu 
dominion taught no lesson to Mubarak I ; and the establishment of his garrisons was merely the 
signal for a fanatical persecution of old Hindu deities. The destruction, by his orders, of the old 
temple of Mumbadevi, guardian goddess of our island, the temporary departure from our shores 
of Mahalakshmi and her sisters, resulted naturally from the pursuance of that policy of repression,, 
which the friar-i Jordanus and Oderic remarked during their sojourn in Thana from 1321 to 
1324. tt " The Saracens," said they, " hold the whole country, having lately usurped the domi- 
nion. They have destroyed an infinite number of idol temples, likewise many churches of which 
they have annexed the endowments." According to their account the head-quarters of the king- 
dom were at Thana, which was governed by a Military officer or Malik and by a civil officer or 
Kazi ; and the country was well stocked with big game, notably black-lions (probably the black 
Javan panther) and the rhinoceros. The Hindu population followed the custom of carrying their 
dead with great pomp (just as the Kamathi or Telugu-speaking Hindus bear their dead with 
music and song to this day) to the fields and casting them forth to the beasts and birds, || 

Beyond the fact of his establishing an outpost at Mahim, and of his earning immortal 
obloquy as the demon Mumba Rakshasa, we know but little of Mumbarak Shah's connection with 
our island. It seems, however, probable that Musulman supremacy was never very firmly 

* AUdrisi, 1070-1100 A.D. t Farishtah, Persian Text, I., pp. 165, 166. 

t Ibni-Haakal, A.D. 943. § Ibid. p. 206. 

f- The Bombay Gazetteer, XIII, II, 438, note 6, Buppo.«ea that the Malik who commanded this expedition was 
Malik-nl-Tnjjar. But Malikul-Tujjar was a Bahmani noble, who rose to power about A D. 1417, and this event ia recorded 
as having taken place under the Khiljis (A. D. 1295-1317). The firi-t conquest of Mahim by Mulik-uI-Tnjjar Khalaf Hassan 
Basri took place in 1429 (»jdc Farishtah I, 630). It seems probable that the Malik here referred to was Malik Nasvat, men- 
tioned by Farishtah as one of the two generals of Ala-nd-din who came with XJlugh Khan from Sindh (Farishtah 1, 179). During 
the Khil.ii piriod "Malik" was a common and favourite title. Signifying literally 'king,' it was at first given to 
Bajpntsof positi'U, 'ho embraeei the faith of Islam, to distinguish them from foreign Mnsnlman officers and nobles, 

II Bombay Gazetteer, XIII., II, 438. ft Bombay Gaietteer, XIII, II, 439. 

}t Sir James Campbell (XIII, 11, 440) takes this as proof of Parsi influence. Vide also Thana Gaaetteer, 11,251, 



24 

e.ublished in Bombay •; and in the time of Mohammad Tughlak (^-D- 1325-50) U may 
even be held to have languishedf. It was three years prior to the conclusion of his dominion 
that the new Mahommcdan invasion of the Konkan necessitated by Harpaldev s retusai to pay 
tribute, took place, an,l that our Island of Mahim was for the second time overrun by the 
followers of Islam. 

In 1347 (the Shaka year 1270), as we have seen, Nagarshah or Nagardev ^^« '^"'j'JS 
over Salsette and Mahim. The immediate causes of his downfall were, according to Maratha 
accounts, the evil practices of his favourite Jaitchuri and the degradation of one of his Sirdars, 
Nathrao Sindha Bhongle, who fled to Vadnagar in North Gujarat and begged the Musulman 
ruler (probably one of the " Amiran-i-Sadah " or centurions of the Delhi Sultan) to turn his 
arms against the North Konkan. | An army set forth under the Malik Niku (the Nikka Malik 
of the Bimbakhyan), one part of which attacked Pratappur in Salsette, a second portion marched 
against Thana, and a third laid siege to Mahikavati or Mahim, which in the absence of the 
King was courageously defended for a time by his queen and a few retainers. The struggle 
was, however, hopeless : the queen was slain ; the city looted ; and finally a pitched battle was 
fought at Byculla between the Moslem host and the forces of Nagarshah, in which the former 
proved victorious. For the second time, therefore, the islands of Bombay became directly 
subject to the Mahommedan ; garrisons -were set up in different placeSj while the Malik Niku 
and another Moslem officer fixed upon Pratappur and Bassein as their respective places of 
residence. 

It seems possible that the growth of the Musulman community in our islands was 
directly encouraged by the victory of the Gujarat forces under Malik Niku. Not so very many 
years after the sack of Mahikavati and the heroic death of Nagardev's queen, there was birn in 
our island of Mahim a very remarkable man. Shaikh Ali Paru, or, as he wai5 subsequently 
styled, Makhdum Fakih Ali, " the Worshipful Jurisconsult Ali, " whose shrine still attracts 
thousands of the faithful annually from all parts of India. The saint died A.H. 835 or 
A. I). 1431 at the age of 69, as we learn from the " Kashful Makhtum " or " Revelation of the 
Concealed " by Mahommed Yusuf Khatkhate, B.A. ; and a mosque and shrine were 
straightway built to his memory, which repaired and enlarged in A.H. 1085 (A. D. 1674), 
and improved by the addition of verandahs in A. H. 1162 (A. D. 1748), exist upon our island 
to this day. 

Notwithstanding the conquest of Mahim and the Northern Konkan by Malik Niku, the 
followers of Islam evinced no great interest in our island, until the establishment, at the close of 
the fourteenth century, of the beneficent rule of the Gujarat Sultans, whose ancestor Zafar Khan, 
afterwards Muzaffar Shah I of Gujarat (A.D. 1390-1412), was appointed Viceroy of the province 
of the North Konkan by Firuz Shah, nephew of that questionable potentate, Mahommad Tugulak. 
Zafar Khan, on his first arrival in these parts, found two Governors, one of Navsari, the other of 
Mahim, who had been appointed by the Khilji generals ; but these officials of the Delhi monar- 
chy were shortly removed in favour of men, owing more direct allegiance to the newly-founded 
house of Gujarat. § During the reign of Sultan Ahmed of Gujarat (1412-1441) one Malik- 
ush-Shark, a Gujarat noble of renown, was posted for some years at Mahim, and in addition to 
instituting a proper survey of the land, did a great deal towards the improvement of the revenue 
system. About the same date also occurred the great rebellion of the Bhongles, the descendants of 
Bhima Raja's Bhandari Sirdars, who were men of considerable influence and wealth. According 
to one account the Bhongles excited disaffeetioti among the subjects of the Ahmedabad monarch, 
and having thereby seized the Island of Mahim and its dependencies successfully held them for 
eight years against Sultan Ahmed Shah. Others opine that the rule of the Bhongles lasted for 
a longer period ; but, whatever the duration of their supremacy may have been, it is tolerably 

* Bombay Gazetteer, XIII, J, 216. 

t Briggs Faiishtab 1,413, Rasmala, 223. Thana Gazetteer XUl., II, AiO. 
t Bimt'akyan, pp. 60, 120, 123, 125. 

§ According to the Bimbakhyan, one Jafar or Zafar Khan, Fon of Hamir Klion, vuled Mahim for 30 yeari. The 
names given by the Prabbn writer are misleading, e. r;., Dafar for Zafar, Ambil for Hamir or Amir. 



certain that the nature of their public actions could not have conduced to a very firm establish- 
ment thereof. According to the Bimbakhyan, these Sirdars could not command the allocriancfr 
of a discontented people, among whom " the rule of the Bhongles" vras synonymous with every- 
thing false, disorderly and corrupt in the administration of a country. 

In the year 1429 (H. 833), as we learn from Farishtah, Sultan Ahmad Bahmani of the 
Deccan despatched his general Khalaf Hassan Basri to subjugate the North Konkan, and drive 
thence all contumacious local chieftains.* In the course of this invasion, Khalaf Hassan Basri 
captured Salsette and Mahim in Bombay. Hearing of this event, the Ahmedabad monarch sent 
his son Zafar Khan, with a well-appointed force, to recapture the lost territory. An obstinate- 
battle was fought on the shores of one of the island creeks between Zafar Khan and the Deccan 
army, which had been further reinforced in the meantime by the arrival of new forces under 
Prince Ala-ud-din Bahmani. The army of the Ahmedabad monarch won the day, routing their 
foe with the loss of 2,000 men, and 2 nobles, and capturing Husain, own brother to Khalaf 
Hasan Basri,- who was now styled Malik-ul-Tujjar.f 

This defeat in no wise tended to subdue the jealousy of the Bahmani monarch, who at 
length found an opportunity of retrieving his losses in the death of Qatub Khan, the Gujarat 
commandant of Mahim.J Once again did he despatch Malik- ul-Tujjar against the islaud. 
Sultan Ahmad of Gujarat on his side sent forth his son Zafar Khan, under the guidance of a tried 
warrior and noble, Iftikhar-ul-Mulk, to stem the tide of Deccani invasion ; and further ordered 
Mukhlis-ul-Mulk, the head of the Gujarat naval dep6t at Diu, to help with a strong maritime 
armament. Having collected seventeen ships-of-war from Diu, Gogha and Cambay, Mukhlis- 
ul-Mulk hastened to join the Prince at Mahim, where it was decided to attack the town of Thana 
simultaneously by sea and land. Malik Sohrab was ordered to precede the Prince and 
endeavour to drive out a considerable Dakhani force, which held Thana under the command of 
a Kotwal. The latter held out bravely for three days against the combined attack of the 
Gujarat forces ; but seeing the enemy daily reinforced by fresh arrivals, and finding that no 
assistance was forthcoming for the garrison, he decided to relinquish the defence and save 
his own life by flight. This action and the consequent occupation of Thana by a strong Gujarat 
o-arrison forced Malik-ul-Tujjar to retire to Mahim, whither Prince Zafar Khan speedily follow- 
ed him. Malik-ul-Tujjar threw up on all sides of the island a stockade of thorn trees, and 
martialling his forces, calmly awaited the enemy's onslaught. Terrible was the battle which, 
ensued ; for it lasted the whole day, and the dead lay in heaps upon the field. As evening wore 
on Malik-ul-Tujjar, deciding that further opposition was useless, retired with the remnant of his 
host to the island of Mumbadevi, Mumbai or Bombay. He subsequently made two fresh attempts- 
to regain the island of Mahim and its dependencies : but the overlordship of the Gujarat Sultan 
was too firmly grounded to offer hope of success in such an enterprise, and a marriage, which the 
latter had arranged between his son and the daughter of the Eai of Mahim, in A. D. 1432, served 
but to strengthen the position which he had won for himself and his house by sheer force of arms. 

Some years ago a portion of the cemetery near the Mahim shrine was washed away by 
the sea ; and numbers of bodies in various stages of preservation, and interred layer upon 
layer were thereby disclosed amid the strata of the beach. These are held to have been the 
bodies of the warriors who met their death in the battle between Zafar Khan and Malik-ul- 
Tuiiar ; and to this day the name of the place is ' Ganj-i-Shahidan,' '' the Catacomb of Martyrs." 

During the greater part of the fifteenth century, that is to say, from the reign of 
Ahmed Shah (1411-1441) to that of Bahadur Shah (1527-1536), our seven islands of Bombay 
Brobably formed a portion of the territory of the Gujarat Sultans ; for Erskine, iu the second 

* Farishtah, Persian Text, I., 630. 

-f " The title of Malik-nl-Tnjjar or Prince of Merchnnta seems cnriona, when applied to a distinguished minister 
, general. Hasan Basri, however, was a merchant before he entered the service ot Snltan Ahmad Bahmani. Ahmad, it 
at the time when his elder brother was on the throne and decided to blind him> fled from the capital. The first 
whom he met in his flight at the city gate was the merchant Khalaf Hasan who gave hun the royal salutation; and. 
• return the printe styled him Malik-ul-TujJBt"— (Faiishtah, Persian Text, I., 810.) 
X Farishtah, Persian Text, I., 370. 
7 



26 

-volume of his history, informs us that Sultan Ahmed in the course of his reign reduoed all the 
lowlands to the south of Gujarat and below the ghats, the Northern Konkan, and the Island 
of Bombay ; while a list of the possessions of the Gujarat monarchs, given in tha Mir-a-ti 
Ahmedi,* includes, among other places in the Konkan, the districts of Bassein, Bombay, 
Daman and Danda-Rajpar, Goa, indeed, is also mentioned, though its addition strikes us as 
hypothetical. But that our Heptanesia during the fifteenth century owed allegiance to the 
princes of Gujarat, there is very little room for doubt. 

Meanwhile the Bahmani Sultans of Gulbargah and Bidar in the Deccan were lords 
paramount of the South Konkan. In the year 1436 Sultan Ala-iid-din Bahmani reduced to 
subjection the Rajahs of Eairi (Raigadh) and Son-kehr, the position of which has not yet 
been satisfactorily determined. As one result of this victory the daughter of the Rai of Son-kehr, 
whose beauty had earned her the title of '' Pari-cliehrah," or *' Fairy-face," became a member 
of the Sultan's harem. In 1469 the Bahmani general Khajah Mehmud Gavan reduced Dabhol 
to subjection ; and this appears to have been the last notable achievement of the Bahmani monar- 
chy, ere the rise of Bahadur Khan Gilani. This remarkable man was the son of one of Khajah 
Mehmud Gavan's officers, who had been appointed Governor of Goa ; and shortly after 1478 
threw over his natural allegiance to the Bahmani Sultanate, seized Dabhol, and proclaimed himr 
self ruler of Daria-bar or the Coast-Tract. His example was followed in 1485 by Malik Ahmed, 
who established the Nizamshahi dynasty of Ahmednagar, and by Yusuf Adil Khan, another 
Bahmani noble, who founded the Adilshahi house of Bijapur. 

It was hardly to be expected that new and vigorous powers such as these would fail to cast 
covetous eyes upon the wide possessions of the Gujarat monarchy ; and hence, three j'ears after 
the Nizamshahi King had obtained peaceful possession of Danda-Rajpur and other portions of the 
North Konkan (A. D. 1490), we hear of the invincible Bahadur Gilani harassing the Gujarat 
ports, seizing many ships belonging to the Sultan of Gujarat, and sending out his slave Yakut the 
Abyssinian with 20 ships to lay waste the island of Mahim in Bombay.f Thus for the fourth 
time our island served as the arena of a struggle between the Moslem powers of the mainland. 

Bahadur Gilani, however, did not long enjoy his forcefully-acquired dominion ; for the 
Gujarat Monarch Sultan Mehmud Begada sent forth Malik Sarang Kivam-ul-Mulk with a 
powerful army by way of the land, and a fleet of 300 boats, well furnished with men and 
ordnance, against Dabhol. These forces oo-operated with the generals of the Bahmani dynasty, 
who had also decided to take vengeance upon the rebel ; and in a battle, said to have been 
fought near Kolhapur J, Bahadur Gilani was slain, his head was forwarded to Sultan 
Mahmud Begada § and the fleet which he had gradually collected was handed over to the 
general of the Gujarat forces. || Subsequent to this event, the power of the Sultans of the 
Bahmani dynasty gradually declined, and their possessions in the Konkan were divided between 
the kings of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur. U 

Now it is during the reign of this same Mahmud Begada ("1507-8) that the future of our 
island is for the first time dimly shadowed forth. The Mir-a-ti Sikandari** makes mention of 
the Sultan's advance against certain ' Firangis,' who had created great disturbances in Mahim. 
These were none another than the adventurous men of Portugal, commencing to consolidate 
that dominion, which subsisted until the signing of Charles the Second's marriage treaty in the 
Palace of "Whitehall. Mahmud's expedition wa s of little use ; for by the time he reached Dahanu 

* The Mir-a-ti Ahmedi by Bird, 110, 129. 

t Bombay Gazetteer, I.,n, 32. The Mir-a-ti Sikandari (K.B. PazluUah's translation, p. 73) gives another reason 
for GiZani's action. When Khajah Jehan was assassinated by Sultan Muhammad Bahmani, MaKk-ul-Tujjar fled to Cambay, 
where he died, leaving behind him a daughter. Gilani aspired to marry her, and sent a message to that effect to het guardian', 
who unceremoniously refused, saying that a slave, purchased the other day by the lady's father, need not presume so far.' 
Gilani, thereupon, had the guardian murdered and attempted to carry off the lady by force. In this attempt, however, he was 
foiled by the people of Cambay, Thi5 to enraged him that he commenced plundering all the Gujirat ports, stopped all the 
importsjrom South Malabar and reduced the people to such straits that they had to eat coriander seed with their ' pan,' instead 
«J betel-nut, the usual concomitant of the leaf. 

X Bombay Gazetteer, I. II, c3. . || Eriggs Translation of Farishtah, iv, 62-156. 

§ The Mir-a-ti Siltan'-ai (KUan Bahad'ir Failullah, 1 Bombay Gazetteer, I. II, 33. 

"'^T")- •• Khan Bahadur Fazlnllab's Translation, 75. 



27 

news was brought that hia slave-admiral Malik Ayaz had inflioted a grievous defeat upon 
ihei Portuguese near Bombay, sinking one of their largest vessels and killing nearly 20,000 men. 
The check thus given to the Portuguese was of only a temporary nature ; for from the year 
A.D. 1536, when Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat died, they gradually but surely strengthened their 
influence and hold upon all the ports of the Western littoral from Diu to Goa, being assisted in 
no small degree by the internecine dissensions which broke out among the nobles of Gujarat. 

By the year 1572 the old Sultanate was swept away ; and upon its ruins rose the 
Mughal dominion, established by Akbar, whose moderation and friendly feeling towards the 
Portuguese is attributed partly to the presence in his seraglio of a certain lady of Portugal, 
and partly also to the guidance of Rodolfo Aquaviva, the Jesuit father, who, together with 
Antonio de Monserrato and Francisco Enriques, was summoned by Akbar from Goa.* 

Here then ends the tale of our island during the period of Mahommedan supremacy. 
The very indefiniteness of the story seems to us proof of the comparative indiflference displayed 
by the Moslem towards our Heptanesia, and of the shadowy nature of their dominion over 
these islands. Search, as one may, for proofs of their connection with Bombay, one cannot 
with cerlsunty say more than this, that the ancestors of our Konkani Mahommedans once dwelt 
in Mahim, that a Moslem commandant and garrison were from time to time stationed on the 
island, and that on four or five occasions our island gave shelter to stern warriors, who chose it 
-as the scene of their struggles with the servants of other Moslem potentates. We are inclined 
to believe that Musulman supremacy was little more than theoretical, and that the care of the 
people, and internal administration were practically in the hands of tributary Hindu Rais or 
•Chieftains, such as he of Mahim, who married his daughter to a prince of the Ahmedabad 
Monarchy in 1432, or the Rai of Bhiundi, who according to a stone relic bearing the date 1464, 
was in the habit of making grants of land to the inhabitants of his possessions. And this being so, 
one is better able to understand the almost complete absence of Musulman relics, rich either in 
architectural beauty or in historical interest. Our Heptanesia had passed from the position of a 
chosen land, the new home of sturdy colonists and politicians like Bhimdev of Pattan, to that 
of a small and unimportant military outpost, the civil administration of which was entrusted 
to petty Hindu Chiefs, who, being tributaries, did not feel it incumbent upon them to prosecute 
with vigour the further colonisation and enrichment of their territories. 

It was not till after the establishment of Portuguese rule upon the western coast of 
India, not till after Musulman coast-villages had been burned, the men butchered and the women 
led away captive in the bitter crusade, waged by the devotees of the Virgin against the followers 
of the Prophet, that the bulk of the higher-class Mahommedan population emigrated to our 
island. And it was not till 1818 A. D., that any Mahommedan writer was found to point 
proudly to Bombay, lying midway between the islands of Salsette and Kolaba, and say " The 
best of all things are the middlemost." t 

A final word is permissible on the subject of the Naitias or Kokani Mahommedans. Their 
■original home in these islands was, as we have seen, at Mahim. On the advent of the Portuguese, 
large numbers of them who dwelt upon the shores of the mainland, emigrated to Bombaj'- proper 
^nd founded a colony on land subsequently included within the Fort. Following at first the 
profession of ship-masters, ndklwdas, ships' officers and sailors, the community gradually 
throve, turned its attention to commerce and official business, and rapidly became the most 
influential Mahommedan class in Bombay. In consequence of the scare caused in Bombay 
by the troubles with Haider Ali, and by the ofFer of Napoleon Buonaparte to assist 
^' Citoyen Tippu " and subsequently in consequence of the great fire, the old Mahommedan com- 
munity of the Fort was given building sites in " Old Nagpada " and other regions, situated to 
t;he north-west of the present site of the Crawford Markets ; and again, when the present Infantry 
lines to the east of the markets were constructed, a large number of Konkani dwellings were 
removed to new streets northward of the Paidhoni or Foot-wash. 

* Ain-i-Akbari, Elliot, iv., 60. Also B^och^l^nn. 

+ These are the words of a nameless Persian traveller, who wrote " the Jan-i-Eambai " in A.D. 1818. 



28 

The one architectural legacy of early Mahoinmedan rule is the shrine of the Saint Makhdum 
Fakih Ali Paru, built upon the eastern side of the town of Mahim. The.inner side of the dome^ 
which rises above the shrine, is ornamented with an Arabic inscription in gilt, givingthe name and 
dates of the birth and death of the Saint. Southward thereof lies the grave of his mother 
and other kindred. During the rule of the Mughals (in H. 1085 A. D. 1674), and shortly after 
Bombay had become a British possession, the shrine was wholly repaired. To the north* of the 
domed enclosure is a wooden mosque, near which stands a very ancient step-well, doubtless in- 
tended for the ablutions of the Faithful. From the position of certain old graves and other 
mural structures, which are only revealed to view at low-tide, it appears that the sea was origi- 
nally at a far greater distance from the shrine than it is at present : and in all probability, at the 
hour when the Hindu Eai ruled the land under the eye of a military olBcial of Gujarat, our 
island of Mahim covered a considerably wider area than in 1843, when Mr. Murphy prepared his- 
chart of the seven islands of Bombay.* 

* The following note upon the mosques and shrines of Bombay has ;^b( en kindly supi lied by Khan Bahadur 
Fazlnlbh Lalfnllah :— 

"Except the ./ania Mosque none of the mosques of Bombay claim any great mtiquity. The date cf the con' 
sttnction of the Jamii Mosque is derivable from the chronogram uy j^ ) J La Jahdei-dkhirat or " the ship of the world to 

come '' in allusion to the structure being erected over a tank, and the value of the letters— jaMz and alcliirat ^amounts to (H)- 
1217^A. D. 1802. The tank over which the mosque was built formed, it is said, part of f.n old temple which stood near tho 
mosque. It was transferred by Government to a certain influential headman of the rich Jamd-dt of batchers, whose name was- 
Nathii PatteU. It was at first too small to with justice lay claim to the title Jama or Jamil the mcsqne which collectively 
can hold the whole prayer-saying faithful of a town*. It was rebuilt, it is said, in the mutiny year by the non-Konkani 
Musalmans, chiefly with the help of the butchers. It was again repaired and extended at d enlarged in 1837, at the expeuse- 
of Mr. Muhammad Ali Boghay. A storey was added to it and shops to serve as the demesne of the mosque added. The 
income of aU the properties with which the mosque is endowed amounts to no less than Es. 50,000 annually. The mosque and 
its properties are managed by a board consisting of twelve directors and a Nazir. The ofBce i f the Nazir has lately been entrusted 
to a Musalman gentleman, a Konkani, who is a graduate of the Bombay University. The Konkani element also predominates lu 
the directorate of the institution. The staff of the Jdmi mosque consists of an Imam or Prayer-leader whose duties are to lead the- 
prayers on Fridays and the two Id holidays. He has two assistants to call the Tekbii — the Azan, or prayer- call— and help him 
in taking his place during small every-day prayers. There is attached to the mosque a well paid staff of teachers, afnlly qualified 
Maulavi and several assistants. It is the duty of this staff to give gratuitous instruction to any Mnsahna'n who is desirous- 
of receiving it in religion'' matters, both from Arabic and Persian books. Besides this, the chief or Jami Mosque, 
there are the Sat-Tar Mosque, situated in the quarter of that name near Masjid Bander, with a a annual income of Es. Jl,0O0,, 
the Zakaiiyyah Mosque built by Hilji Zakariyyah, the great Memon philanthroj ist, at Khadak near Mandvi, with an income- 
ofBs. 5,000, theltmail Habib Mosque near Paidhownie (Rs. 4,500), There aie, besides these, many small mosques, each 
street and community having generally a mosque of its own. 

Then there is the shrine of Sheikh Misri atSivri. It is noticed in Mr. Murphy's Map of Bombay, 1843. There is a 
shrine of Sayyid Eadiuddin t at Bhindi Bazaar. Umarkhadi has the shrines of Sayyid Nizamuddin J and Sayyid Badruddin, 
Dongi-i has the shiine of a saint named Ashik Shflh. §, Sat-'J'ar that of Sayyid E nsein ||, Don-Tiir that of Sayyid Hisa'm l?d- 
diu.H Cawasji Pattell's Tank has the shrine of Sana Shilh. In the Esplanade, adjoining the G. I. P. Railway line, there is the 
small cottage-like shrine of Pedro-Shah** a Christian-Convett to Islam who obtained the honour of sanctity. Within the 
compound of the station and to its south-east is the shrine of Bismillah Shah. There is the cenotaph of ShAh Taval in 
Eiimbharwada, that of Shah Madtir in Don-Tar and another in Bhindi Bazaar. F eir the Kolabi Light House Saint Shah. 
Hasan Ghazati lies enshrined. There is the shrine of Mama Hajani at the end of the Hornby TeUard. This is included 
in Murphy's Map (1843), but the more prospeious shrine of Haji Ali, at the head of the VeUird, at a Httle distance from the- 
shore on a small rook, is not shown in the plan. 



* The wtrd J 


62 


5 


Parbhus 


22 


25 


9 


5 


6 


3 


70 


6 


Goldsmiths 


60 


90 


31 


22 


4 




207 


7 


Banians 


54 


48 


18 


16 


2 




138 


8 


Bhansalis ., 


30 


30 


18 


22 


1 




101 


9 


Coppersmiths 


6 


18 


15 


6 






45 


10 


Panch Kalshis of Parel ... 


101 


114 


46 


23 






284 


11 


Agri Kunbis 


37 


44 


17 


12 






110 


12 


Kunbis of Nagaon 


36 


50 


14 


12 






112 


13 


Sion Coolies 


30 


45 


12 


18 




...... 


105 


14 


Kunbis of Matunga 


61 


82 


31 


14 


1 





189 


15 


Mahim Punch Ealshis 


158 


192 


83 


53 






486 


16 


Kunbis of Sion 


48 


52 


26 


26 






152 


17 


Agris of Thakurwadi 


46 


42 


15 


10 






113 


18 


Bhoivada Kunbis 


46 


57 


26 


18 






147 


19 


Mahim Sattas Coolies 


17 


25 


7 


5 






54 


20 


Mahim Bhandaris 


38 


63 


32 


17 







150 


21 


Kunbis of Sivri 


16 


18 


9 


7 






50 


22 


Kunbis of Vadala 


104 


132 


39 


39 






314 


23 


Bhandaris of Matunga 


43 


56 


28 


21 






147 


24 


Carpenters of Mahim 


21 


27 


8 


2 


1 :... 


59 


25 


Barbers 


22 


5 










27 


26 


Knnbis of Khar 


84 


97 


56 


35 






272 


27 


Sivri Coolies 


53 


53 


28 


19 






153 


28 


Dharavi Coolies 


27 


32 


19 


5 






93 


29 


Sion Bhandaris 


43 


52 


14 


16 






125 


30 


Kilmekars 


80 


54 


49 


7 






190 


31 


Chan Kalshis 


33 


47 


21 


14 






115 


32 


Weavers 


20 


27 


10 


2 






59 


33 


Kunbis of Bamnanli 


19 


21 


8 


7 






55 


34 


Bhandaris of Mahim 


43 


53 


32 


14 






142 


35 


Washermen ,. 


21 


23 


n 


7 


3 


1 


66 


36 


Worli Panch Kalshis 


107 


124 


72 


30 






333 


37 


Tailors 


20 


32 


14 








66 


38 


Kitta Bhandaris 


12 


11 










23 


39 


Bhatias 


11 


6 


6 


1 






94 


40 


Moormen (see 49 below) 


113 


114 


80 


38 


13 


11 


369 


41 


Moorish Weavers 


123 


124 


47 


26 


4 


4 


328 


42 


Maguellas 


64 


73 


34 


25 






196 


43 


Wool-makers 


22 


25 


3 


5 






55 


44 


Mocry Coolies 


13 


17 


10 


4 






44 


45 


Warli Coolies Pankars 


296 


302 


107 


97 






802 


46 


Do. do, Thalkars 


210 


239 


117 


81 






647 


4V 


Turners 


4 


6 




2 




■ •■ 


12 

10 

406 


48 


Shoe-makers.. 


5 


4 


1 






49 


Moormen 


136 


168 


37 


35 


30 




60 


Bhandaris Kate Kamle 


32 


36 


8 


10 






86 


51 


Washermen of Parel 


18 


26 


7 


4 


q 




64 


52 


Christians 

Total ... 


1,686 


2,092 


1,090 


726 


74 


58 


5,726 


^^_ 


4,353 


5,146 


2,412 


1,573 


155 


87 


13,726 



97 

As we close the tale of this period, we cannot help remarking the extraordinary change 
which our island underwent in the space of little more than a century. Those seven disconnect- 
ed isles of 1661, with a population of ten thousand persons, had by 1780 become practically 
one land with a population more than ten times as numerous. Oolaba and Old Woman's 
Island, it is true, still held aloof ; but the time was not far distant when they also should become 
merged in the Island of Bombay. The nineteenth century, to which the course of the narrative 
has almost brought us, is characterised possibly by more brilliant progress, by more notable 
reforms ; but the satisfaction which they evoke cannot be greater than that with which the 
tale of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries inspires us — the tale of quiet progress in the 
face of many and great difficulties, of triumph over internal disabilities and external peril, the 
story of a Company of merchants practising with one accord the old doctrine of good-will 
to all, and guided by their strong men towards the goal of political supremacy. , 



98 

Period the Sixth.— 1780 to 1814. 

As we survey the period subsequent to the year 1780, and cast about for the most 
convenient point at which to intercept the course of the narrative, two dates— the years 
1812 and 1814— at once engage the attention. Estimates of the population of Bombay 
are recorded against both years ; and the only question for decision is which of the two is 
the more suitable for our purpose. Glancing at the figures of 1812, one notes that the large 
total of 235,000 by no means represents the normal population of Bombay ; but that some 
70,000 persons are classed as " migratory " or as " famine refugees." It is quite clear that 
the population of Bombay in 1812 was abnormal, was subjected to spurious and temporary 
augmentation owing to certain unusual circumstances. This being so, it seems advisable to 
reject the year 1812 as a halting-stage, and look forward instead to 1814, in which year, 
according to Warden, our population was 18,000. There is no reason to doubt the approximate 
accuracy of this estimate, and it only remains, therefore, to notice whether a rise of over 
sixty-five thousand in the number of our inhabitants synchronized with any conspicuous political 
events or with any remarkable internal changes. 

So far as the Marathas are concerned, the present period merely witnessed a 
continuance of the struggle, which, commencing with the Ist Maratha War, had been 
temporarily interrupted by the humiliating retreat of Colonel Egerton's army to 
Wurgaum. In 1781 Mr. Hornby was still at the head of affairs in Bombay ; and knowing 
the views which he held in regard to the Maratha power, one is not surprised to find 
hostilities recommenced in that year. We do not mean to infer that Mr. Hornby alone was 
responsible for the continuance of hostilities. The Bengal Government recognised quite as fully 
as he, that the struggle between ourselves and the Marathas was both necessary and inevitable. 
But there mcty have been among the Bombay public persons who, knowing in what great need of 
funds Gtovernment then was placed, might have felt disposed to postpone actual warfare for 
some time longer ; and to the subversion of such opinions the general belief in Hornby's sagacity 
and prudence must have in no small degree contributed. la 1781, therefore, we find the 
English in possession of Kalyan, and General Goddard marching to the siege of Bassein. " The 
European part of his army was sent down to Salsette by sea, the battering train was prepared 
in Bombay, and the sepoj-s were to march by land. Early in October the whole of the dispos- 
able force at Bombay and in the neighbourhood, consisting of five battalions, was placed under- 
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hartley, who was instructed to drive out the enemy's posts 
and cover as much of the Konkan as possible, so as to enable the Agents of the Bombay Govern- 
ment to collect a part of the revenues, and secure the rice harvest, which is gathered at the 
close of the rains. There is, perhaps, no part of Mr. Hornby's minute more exi)re3sive of the 
distress under which that Government laboured than that where, alluding to the field forces they 
were preparing, he observes, ' our troops will better bear running in arrears when employed on 
active service, and subsisting in the enemy's country ' ; for it is a principle with the British 
Government and its oflBcers in India, than which nothing has more tended to the national 
success, always to consider the peasantry under their strictest protection. " After a spirited 
action, whereby the enemy were for a time driven out of the Konkan, Hartley was enabled 
to cover so successfully the siege of Bassein, that the city capitulated on the 1 1th December 
1781. 

In the meantime Hyder Ali of Mysore had been endeavouring to form a confederacy of 
all the Native Powers of India against the English ; and the opportunity appearing favourable 
the Governor-General decided to make peace with the Marathas, and utilise against Hyder the 
forces which would otherwise be engaged against them. General Goddard was accordino-ly 
directed to ofl:er terms to the Court at Poena, while Scindia was vigorously attacked in his own 
dominions by another division under Colonel Camac. Of Goddard's advance to the foot of the 
Bhore Ghaut, and his disastrous retreat to Pam el, ''with a heavy loss of 466 in killed and 
woimded, of whom 18 were European Officers," it is unnecessary to speak at length. Hostilities 
were eventually closed by the Treaty of Salbye in 1782, whereby we at last gained permanent 



99 

possbssiou of Salsetfce, Elephanta, Caranja and Hog Island, but gave back Bassein and all our 
conquests in Guzarat to the Peshva, and made over Broach to Scindia. The Marathas on their 
part agreed to become the allies of the English against Mysore, and the Peshva pledged himself 
to hold no intercourse with liuropeans of any other nation. The cause of Baghoba was definitely 
abandoned by tlia English and he became a pensioner of the Peshva. " The treaty was a good 
stroke of imperial policy, "says Maclean, '' for it set the English free to deal separately with 
Hyder Ali; but, in spite of some brilliant feats of arms performed in Gujarat, the Konkan 
and Central India, it cannot be said that the reputation of the British arms bad been 
raised by a war in which they had suffered two snch i-everses as the capitulation of 
Wurgaum, and the retreat of General Goddard. These disasters were plainly due to the in- 
competency and want of enterprise of the ofEcers in command, who sjstematically over-rated the 
strength of the enemy, though the Marathas wore always beaten easily, when there was any 
actual fighting. There was safety in aggression, but none in retreat before an enemy quickly 
elated by any sign of discouragement among their adversaries ; and had some of the brave young 
■officers who chafed at Colonel Egerton's irresolution been in command at Talleygaum, the 
British force would have entered Poena as conquerors instead of being sent back in disgrace to 
Bombay." 

Until 1802, no farther hostilities took place openly betweon ourselves and the Marathas. 
But the internal affairs of their kingdom were in the interval leading to a crisis, which resulted 
in the Treaty of Bassein and the Campaign of Assaye, " The main object of ihe policy of Lord 
Wellesle}'^, who succeeded Sir John Shore as Governor-General in 1798, was to drive the 
French out of India. To attain this end, he compelled the Nizam to accept a British subsidiary 
force in lieu of a French contingent, crushed Tippoo, and used all his means of persuasion 
to induce the Peshva and Sindia to become subsidized allies of the British Government. 
Nana Fadnavis, " the Maratha Machiavel," who for the last quarter of the eighteenth century 
was the principal political personage at the court of Poena, always steadfastly opposed the 
admission of the English into the Deccan ; and, even when Madhaji Scindia marched to Poona 
with the design of upsetting the authority of the Brahmins, and becoming master of the Deccan, 
Nana did not ask for the fatal aid of English troops to secure himself in power. Madhaji died at 
Poona at the moment when his ambition seemed on the point of being fully gratified : and 
Daulat Rao, who succeeded him in 1794, had not the capacity to carry out his plans. The in- 
fluence of Sindia's military power remained, however, supreme in the Deccan. The young 
Peshva Mahadu Rao, in a fit of despondency at being kept in a state of tutelage by Nana 
Fadnavis, and forbidden to recognize his cousin Bajee Rao — the son of Raghoba — threw himself 
from his palace window and died from the effects of the fall ; and Baji Rao, obtaining the support 
of Sindia, was proclaimed Peshva, to the temporary discomfiture of Nana Fadnavis, who, how- 
ever, subsequently had the address to reconcile himself with Baji Rao and Sindia and to regain the 
office of Minister, which he held till his death in 1800. The Governor- General tried to per- 
suade Sindia to return from Poona in order to defend his diminions in the North-west against 
the Afghans, but instead of listening to this advice, Sindia and the Peshva meditated joining 
Tippoo against the Engiish, and were only disconcerted by the rapidity and completeness of the 
English success. The weakness of the Peshva's Government, and the natural disinclination of 
the predatory Marathas to abandon the pleasant habit of plundering their neighbours, caused the 
greatest disorders throughout the Maratha country, and every petty chief with a band of armed 
followers made war and raised revenue on his own account. In Poona itself lawless pxcesses of 
.all kinds were committed ; and the Peshva and Sindia were both at the mercy of a .turbulent and 
rapacious soldiery. In 1801, a new power appeared on the scene. The Holkar family had for 
many years been kept in check by Sindia : but Jasvant Rao Holkar, the most celebrated of all 
.the Maratha freebooters, succeeded in getting together an army strong both in cavalry and in 
disciplined infantry and artillery. Marching on Poona in 1802 he won a complete victory 
over Sindia in a desperately contested battle ; and the pusillanimous Peshva, who had not 
.appeared on the field, fled first to the fort of Singhnr, and thence to Revadanda on tlie coast, 
where he found an English ship to take him to Bassein." 



100 

This crisis of affairs appeared to Lord Welleslej' " to afford a most favourable opportun- 
ity for the complete establishment of the interests of the British power in the Mardtha Empire." 
Hence negotiations were set on foot, which resulted in the Treaty of Basssin being signed by 
Baji Rao on the 31st December 1802. By that treaty he bound himself to accept a subsidiary 
force of 6,000 men and to assign territory worth £260,000 a year for tlieir pay, to give up his 
claims on Snrat, to accept the Company as arbiter in the disputes of the Peshva with tbe 
Gaekwar, to admit no Europeans into his service, and not to negotiate with any other power 
whatever without giving notice and consulting with the Company's Government. In return 
the Company undertook to replace him on the " Masnad " at Poona, and did so on the 13th May 
1803 ; an action which resulted in the campaign of Assaye, Argaum, and Laswari against 
Sindia and the Kaja of Berar. The military force at Bombay wms emfjloyed during the 
campaign in reducing the Fort and territory of Broach, and the possessions of Sindia in Gujarat 
and to the southward of the J!^ei-budda — a work which was successfully carried out. It may 
be noted that in 1799, when extra help was required to crush Tippoo, our town and Island 
raised a corps of Fencibles 1,000 strong, of which Mr. Forbes equipped and paid 50 men ; and 
that for the campaign of 1803, Mr. Duncan, the Governor, was authorised to convert this corps 
into a regular regiment, the 9th Regiment of Native Infantry. The war of 1803 was followed 
by war with Holkar in 1804, which was finally concluded by the peace of 1805. From that 
year up to the end of the period under review open hostilities with the Maratha power were 
temporarily held in abeyance. 

It was not only for her own hand that Bombay fought during this period ; she also aided 
the Government of India in its war with Mysore, by the despatch in 1781 of an expedition under 
Colonel Humberstone, which took Calicut and Ponany, and by the supply of reinforcements in 1782 
which took Honore, Mangalore, Candapur, Karwar, and all the strong places on the coast of the 
province of Kanara. The story of the assault of Bednore and the death of General Mathews and 
twenty other Bombay ofiBcers is too well known to require repetition. Once again in 1799 did 
Boinbaj' stretch out a helping hand against the son of Hyder Ali ; and to such good purpose 
that the Marquis Wellesley expressed in the warmest terms to Mr. Jonathan Duncan, then 
Governor of Bombay, his appreciation of the work done by the Bombay contingent, declarino' 
that " the merits of Generals Stuart and Hartley, as well as of Colonel Montresor and other 
officers, have seldom been equalled and never surpassed in India." 

Bombay, in truth, was supremely conscious that she had become a political power, 
and was determined to raise her military prestige to the same level with her commercial 
reputation. Thus we hear of her citizens, headed by the Governor himself, subscribing a sum of 
Rs. 3,00,000 towards prosecuting the war with France, of the raising of a corps of armed men • 
and finally there are the eulogistic words of Lord Wellesley, in reply to an address from the 
inhabitants of Bombay upon the glorious termination of the Mysore War. '' The distinguished 
part," he wrote, " which the seltloment of Bombay has borne during the late crisis in the labours 
and honours of the common cause has repeatedly claimed my warm approb'atiou, and will ever 
be remembered by me with gratitude and respect. In your liberal and voluntary contribution 
towards the exigencies of your native country, and towards the defence of the Presidency under 
whose Government you reside, and in the alacrity with which you have'*given your personal 
services for the military protection of Bombay, I have contemplated with pleasure the same 
character of public spirit, resolution and activity, which has marked the splendid successes of 
the army of Bombay from the commencement to the close of the late glorious campaicn." 

The despatch of a detachment to occupy the island of Perim in 1799, and to initiate 
political relations with the Arab chief of Aden, the equipment of the expedition to Egypt 
under Sir D. Baird in 1801, when " the troops embarked in five days after the requisition was 
made for them, and the whole business was conducted with regularity and rapidity " : and 
finally the operations a<;ainst the Pirates of the Coast ; all these events are proof that the power 
of our settlement was increasing, that our island was gradually gaining the position, which 
might justify the subjects of other Governments seeking her protection. Notwithstanding that 



101 

An gria's power had been shattered, piracy was still carried on -by Maratha cruisers which issued 
from Malwan in Kolhapur or from Vingorla in Savantwadi ; •' while to the north of Bombay no 
serious attempt had yet been made to harry the nests of pirates, who had sheltered from time 
immemorial in the creeks and islands along the coasts of Gujarat, Cutch and Kathiawar. " 
During these years Boml)ay bestirred herself to rid the western coast for ever of those atrocious 
sea-rovers, of whom such early writers as Ptolemy and Marco Polo had spoken with disgust, and 
whose presence had given the name of " Pirate's Isle " to the sacred island of Beyt. In 1807 the 
Kathiawar States were taken under British Protection ; in 1809 Colonel Walker, the Political 
Agent, induced the Rao of Cutch to sign a treaty binding himself to co-operate with the British 
Government in the suppression of piracy ; while in 1812 treaties were made with Kolhapur and 
Savantvadi, whereby the sovereignty of Malwan and Vingurla was ceded to the English, and all 
vessels found equipped in a' warlike manner were given up. Although the final blow to piracy 
was not dealt till the period succeeding that of which we write, enough has been said to show 
that the long-established power of the Corsairs was seriously undermined by the year 1814. 

"What then was the position of our Island by the end of this period ? In 1782 our out- 
posts had advanced as far as Thana ; and the Bombay Government could claim the sovereignty 
of all the group of islands in the estuary from Basseiu to Colaba. The Bombay Marine had 
established its supremacy along the Malabar Coast ; the Bankot district had become British 
territory ; and in Gujarat the authority of the Gaekwar was practically wielded by servants 
of the English Government, The year 1800 witnessed the trausfer to the Company of the whole 
administration and revenues of Surat, whose ruler received in exchange a pension. Finally 
" the peace of 1805 left Bombay in possession of political authority almost co-extensive — if we 
exclude the province of Sind — with that which she now enjoys. She supplied subsidiary forces 
to the Gaekwar of Baroda and the Peshva, and garrisoned the Portuguese city of Goa, occupied 
by the English during the continuance of the French War." She could send out expeditions to 
foreign lands, and at the same time successfully guard her own territory against attack ; for 
" English policy and arms had successively subdued all the native powers, and reduced to mere 
ciphers those of them that still retained a nominal independence." 

These events were sufficient in themselves to occasion a rise of population ; for, as 
General Wellesley remarked during his visit to the Island in 1804, " increasing channels of 
w'ealth " had in consequence of his victories been opened " to this opulent settlement." " This 
island," he wrote on another occasion, " has now become the only place of security in this 
part of India for property, and for those who are the objects of the Peshva's enmity and 
vengeance, a circumstance equally honourable to the character of the British nation and 
advantageous to their interests, and affording the strongest proof of the confidence which 
the natives repose in the justice and wisdom of our policy and our laws. " Commercial 
rivalry on the part of other European nations was an event no longer to be apprehended ; 
trade was in a flourishing condition ; and the old system of impartiality and good-will to all 
manner of men, which had first been born of the great mind of Aungier, had, in conjunction 
with carefully fostered military strength, insensibly, but none the less inevitably, led to the 
steady colonisation of a once barren and " inconsiderable " land. 

As regards domestic affairs, it w^ill perhaps suffice to notice on the one hand certain 
administrative measures, designed for the better government of our possession, and on the 
other hand any alterations which the town or island may have undergone during this period. 
We have already made mention of the good work done by the Bombay Marine ; of how the fleets 
of the king were repaired in the Dockyard ; how it had become the police-force of the Indian 
seas. Its importance as a part of the executive power was increased by the appointment in 
1785 of a Marine Board, and in 1786 of a Comptroller of Marine. " The reasons which you 
offered during the war," wrote the Court in March 1785, " that the ships belonging to his 
Majesty's squadron so fully engrossed the marine yard that you could not then carry into 
execution our orders and regulation of December 1778 for forming a Marine Board, 
can no longer exist, now that peace is restored. Hor can the excuses offered in your letter 

26 



102 

of the 10th February 1784 of the many more necessary avocations in which our President 
is engaged be admitted for further postponing this essential business. In our opinions the 
Regulations bid fair to produce the most beneficial consequences to the Company as well as to 
those merchants who may build or repair their ships at Bombay. They have been drawn up 
with all the care and attention due to so salutary a measure. And we are determined our 
orders shall in this respect be obeyed. You are, therefore, to consider it as our positive demand 
to • which we will not admit any further evasion or excuse, that immediately upon receipt of 
this letter you do form the Marine Board and comply with the several orders and instructions 
respecting the same, as directed in our letter of the S 3rd December 1778." During these 
years, a Marine Survey was also established, for the benefit of both Government and 
private merchants. Equally important were the measures taken to ensure more accuracy 
and despatch in the general business of the State. In September 1785 the Directors 
forwarded the following instructions : — " Instead of the various sub-divisions of departments by 
which the business of our settlement is now conducted, it is our order that the whole detail 
should be carried under the following branches : — 

1- The Board of Conncil, I 3, Boaid of Bevenue, 

2. A Military Board, ' 4. Board of Trade. 

Our President and Council will still continue to act in their double capacity of Public and Secret. 
As the duties respectively belonging to each seem to be accurately defined in a Minute of the 
Governor-General and Council of September 23rd, 1783, we enclose a copy thereof for your 
guidance. The sole difference is that, in the definition of the business of the Public Department, 
it mentions matters which regard commerce and shipping, whereas our intention is that matters 
of that description shall belong to the Commercial Department." The Court proceed to lay 
down the constitution of the Military Board, and of the Board of Trade, adding that all subse- 
quent despatches will be addressed to the Bombay Government in its Public, Secret, Military, 
Revenue and Commercial Departments. Four years later the Political Department was insti- 
tuted ; and also " the post of Private Secretary to the Governor's Office, " to which Mr. Edward 
Galley was appointed on a salary of Rs. 500 a month. 

The most notable change in the Judicial Department of the administration was the 
foundation in 1798 of a Recorder's Court, which succeeded the old Mayor's Court, on the arrival 
of Sir William Syer, the First Recorder. The Court was accommodated at first in Colonel 
Jones' House in Marine Street (now the Apollo Bonded Warehouses) ; and by 1800 in the 
Admiralty House (Mr. Hornby's), which in these days has become the Great Western Hotel. 
Sir William Syer died in 1802, and was succeeded by " Sir James Mackintosh, ' the Man of 
Promise, ' who, in the words of his diary, used to vary his idle and disengaged life at the 
Governor's noble country house of Parel by days of business at the Recorder's Court. In 1804 
he writes : I have four terms for civil business and four sessions for criminal. The number of 
my days of attendances is about 110 in a year ; and I commonly sit three or four hours each 
day. I have found the business very easy, indeed rather an amusement than a toil. The two 
Barristers are gentlemenlike men. " Another important measure during these years was the 
appointment of Justices of the Peace. In 1793 the Governor and Members of Council were the 
only Justices of the Peace in Bombay, and in 1796 sat in a Court of Quarter Sessions, inviting 
two of the inhabitants, agreeably to Section 155 of the Assessment and License Act, to sit 
with them. This system appears to have continued until 1798, when the duties of the Justices 
were lightened by the transfer to the Recorder's C!ourt of the Sessions of Oyer and Terminer. 
In 1807 the Governor aud Council of Bombay were empowered by Act 47, George III, 
to issue commissions, appointing so many of the Company's servants or other British in- 
habitants, as they should consider qualified, to act as Justices of the Peace, under the seal of 
the Recorder's Court. The first commission was issued in 1808, whereby a Bench of twelve 
Justices was appointed, whose principal duties were to attend to the proper cleaning, and 
repairing and watching of the town, to raise money for this purpose by assessment on its 
inhabitants, and to grant licenses for the sale of spirituous liquors. 



103 

Not only by appointment of Justices did the Bombay Government endeavour to preserve 
the health of the growing town. Vaccination is for the first time spoken of in these years ; is 
mentioned by Dr. Hove, the Polish Savant, who visited Bombay in 1788. " Mr. Farmer," he 
writes, '' has inoculated about thirteen hundred old and young, out of which he did not lose more 
than two. This has remarkably abated the small-pox." In 1803 we find the Bombay Government 
forwarding to the Court " twenty copies of u pamphlet recently published at this Presidency by 
Dr. George Keir of your medical establishment, containing an acoount of the introduction of the 
cow^-pox into India," and adding that " the zealous exertions of that gentleman have proved a 
principal means of securing the blessing of the discovery to this island." 

For the further convenience of Bombay inhabitants, regular postal communication with 
Madras was established in 1788. The scheme originated with the Governor and Council at 
Fort St. George, who " resolved that an attempt should be made to keep up a regular and 
constant communication between that settlement and Bombay, on the principle of its being 
attended with both a public and private benefit " and the following plan, proposed by Mr. Morris, 
was carried into execution : — 

1. That there shall be stationed at each Presidency i pairs of Kasids (messengers). 

2. That the first pair shall be despatched by the Government of Madras the first 
Wednesday in the month, and be directed to proceed to Bombay by Hyderabad and 
Poona. 

3. That the second pair shall follow on the third Wednesday, and so to proceed in 
regular routine, despatching them every other Wednesday till the four pairs are in employ. 

4. That as soon as the Kasids can be procured at Bombay, they shall be returned 
from thence on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month, by pursuing of which 
method, a constant and regular communication will be kept on foot. 

5. That such individuals as choose to avail themselves of this mode of conveying 
letters to and from each Presidency, are to pay when put into the office, for a single letter 
Es. 2, for a double letter Rs. 4, and for a treble letter Rs. 6. Packets, according to their 
weight, at the rate of Rs. 4 per ounce. 

6. That the K^sida undertake to deliver the packets entrusted to their charge for 
either settlement within 25 days, and to return within the same period with other des- 
patches, unless detained by Government on account of their packets not being ready. 

Of minor arrangements for the benefit of the people, one may remark in particular the 
emancipation of the Kolis, and the refusal to grant a five years' monopoly to the sellers of betel- 
leaf. " As we understand," wrote the Directors in 1791, " that an old arbitrary power, which 
was established when the island belonged to the Portuguese, has been exercised in later times, 
and perhaps is in some degree still exercised, against that most useful set of people, the fisher- 
men, a certain number of them being obliged to fish in the Breach water, and to act as palanquin- 
bearers to some of the gentlemen in office, for the first of which duties they either receive no 
pay or scarce any and for the latter not near the wages customary, and that they experience other 
grievances which must not only subject their industry to imposition, but their persons to insult 
and oppression from the sepoys or others authorized to compel ?hem to execute such duties, we 
direct that in case such grievances do still in any degree exist, they be on receipt of this letter 
entirely abolished and the fishermen released from all such servitude and left as free as the other 
inhabitants of the island."' The idea, of a betel-leaf monopoly was sternly discountenanced, on 
■the ground that " monopolies of this nature, however apparently calculated or intended .for the 
public good, frequently produce inconvenience and grievances, which in this case would chiefly 
fall on the lower order of people, to whom betel-leaf is an absolute necessary of life. " 

Such were the more important domestic improvements of this year ; but no survey of 
the period would be complete without a reference to building operations. As early as 1787, 
encroachments within the walls of the garrison had become so numerous that a special Committee, 



104 

consisting of the Land Paymaster, Collector and Chief Engineer, was appointed to examine the 
private buildings which natives were erecting, and decide how far they might prove prejudicial 
to public works and the general health of the inhabitants. One learns that in the absence of 
any restriction respecting the height of houses, " the confined extent of their ground has led 
many of the black inhabitants to raise their houses to so great a height as may be injurious 
to ihe healthiness of the town. It has likewise been unfortunate, both for the coolness and the 
appearance of the town, that little attention has been given to the breadth of the streets, and 
to keeping them as much as possible straight cutting each other at right angles. " The 
Committee made various suggestions for improvement ; that the principal street of the town 
should be enlarged to fifty feet, the cross-streets to twenty-five feet, and the lanes or ' galis ' to 
fifteen feet ; that no native house should exceed thirty-two feet in height, " from the terreplein 
to the eaves " ; that all shop-projections should be removed, '' as being positive encroachments 
on the streets, and receptacles for every kind of filth and nastiness " ; that every house-holder 
should be compelled to clean daily that part of the street opposite his dwelling-house ; that 
any house-holder " allowing dirt to remain in the street opposite his dwelling-house " should 
be fined ; and that the piling of goods on the green or any other open area within the town 
should be restricted to particular kinds of specified goods ; " and that the inspection and control 
of the business should be placed under such authority as might effectually prevent the incove- 
nience from going beyond the limits allowed by Government. " Notwithstanding the approval 
of these suggestions, and the issue of an order to carry them to a practical issue, some external 
stimulus was needed to effect definite expansion and improvement. An opportunity of intro- 
ducing wider and more regular streets, and of relieving congested localities, was eventually 
afforded by the great fire which broke out in the north of the town on the 17th February 1803. 
How it orose, was never definitely decided ; but to quote the words of the Honourable Jonathan 
Duncan, " So great and violent was the conflagration, that at sunset the destruction of every 
house in the Fort was apprehended. The flames directed their course in a south-easterly 
direction from that part of the Bazaar opposite to the Cumberland Eavelin quite down to the 
King's barracks. During the whole of the day every effort was used to oppose its progress, but 
the fierceness of the fire driven rapidly on by the wind baffled all attempts ; nor did it visibly abate 
till nearly a third part of the town within the walls had been consumed, " A letter from the 
Bombay Government of the 26th February- 1803 shows that altogether 471 houses were 
destroyed, out of which 5 were the property of Europeans, 231 of Hindus, 141 of Parsis, 83 
of Mahommedans ; while 6 " places of worship " and 5 barracks (the Tank barracks) were also 
burnt to the ground. The last embers were hardly extinguished, before the Bombay Government 
was initiating the work of reform. A careful survey was made not only of the quarter affected 
but also of those localities which had escaped ; we read of many houses being removed as 
dangerous, 10 in Church Gate Street, 7 in Govind Kanoba's Street, 5 in the lane opposite 
Sorabji's house, 2 in Vithoba Yadavji's Lane, 2 in Framjl Nanabhai's Lane, 4 in Purshottam 
Chimaji's Street, 5 in Oavasji Patel's Street, 3 in Nahabhai Bamanji's Street, 2 in Kavasji 
Subehdar's Lane, 5 in the Governor's old stable and 9 others. A large quantity of matting 
was removed from the European quarter to the north of Church Street, and demands were 
made for the demolition of certain Bhoys' (Bhois or Palanquin-bearers') houses near the Bazar 
Gate. The real importance of the fire, however, lay not so much in the improvement of the 
town within the fort walls, as i« the inducement which it offered to the construction of a new 
town outside. The area beyond the fort had in an earlier period been practically and sparsely 
built over ; but it was not till after the fire of 1803 that the native town, as we know it to-day, 
began to spring up. The idea of a new town outside the walls was strongly approved l)y 
Government. '' It must probably appear, " they wrote, " under every point of view preferable 
to allot a space in the oarts adjoining the fort and esplanade for the erection of a black town 
such as at Madras ; or gradually to effect such a separation between the town and fortifications 
as exists at Calcutta. " Later, in writing to the Town Committee, they expressed a hope that, 
that body would be able " to convince the natives in question of the unadvisableness of their 
residing in a garrison crowded with lofty structures filled vsdth goods and merchandise and 
intersected by such narrow streets as existed before the late fire. And that from the conviction 



105 

forced on their niinda by the late sad calamity, they will willingly concur in the expediency of 
their dwelling houses and families being without the Fort, where they ought to be sensible that 
under' the advantage of our insular situation both will be in perfect security. " In order lo 
■encourage the building and rebuilding of bouses outside the walls, a fresh site was selected for 
the import and traffic in such inflammable substances as oil, dammer and ghi ; the old passage 
of the Mandvi or custom house was closed ; and every facility was afforded to the dealers in 
ouch substances for settling in close proximity to the new site. Pressure was also brought to 
bear upon those whose houses had been destroyed, and who were anxious to rebuild upon their 
old sites, in order that the area of the conflagration might be reserved for a better and less 
inflammable stylp of building. " The exclusion of inhabitants," said the Committee, " is a desi- 
rable object to be attained, as many of the previous inhabitants had no right to a residence in 
Port. They had no business to transact, and were merely drones in the hive interrupting the 
business and pursuits of others. The change of the Mandvi will also withdraw a considerable 
number of petty traders who will find it to their interest as well as to be more convenient to be 
near the -scene of their traffic. Thus the accommodations within the Fort will be left to the more 
respectable and wealthy merchants, who have the best claim to its protection." By 
the close of 1803 the Committee were steadily engaged in apportioning new sites outside the town 
walls, and in granting reasonable pecuniary compensation as well, in all cases where the 
aiew extra-mural plots were of less value than the old sites. 

The fire of 1803 was in reality a blessing in disguise ; for it accelerated the foundation 
of that settlement, which gradually grew into the City of Bombay. The Hornby Vellard and 
smaller dams bad provided the necessary ground ; the conflagration resulted in the conversion of 
that ground to a practical purpose. Milburn in his '' Oriental Commerce " gives the following 
sketch of the old town, as it appeared between 1803 and 1808: — ^"Between the two marine 
gates is the castle called Bombay Castle, a regular quadrangle, well built of strong hard stones. 
In one of the bastions is a large tank or reservoir for water. The fortifications are numerous, 
particularly towards the sea, and are so well constructed, the whole being encompassed by a 
broad and deep ditch, which can be flooded at pleasure, that it is. now one of the strongest places 
the Company have in India. Besides the Castle are several forts and redoubts, the principal 
of which is Mahim situated at the opposite extremity of the island, so that, properly garrisoned, 
Bombay may bid defiance to any force that can be brought against it. In the centre of the town 
is a large open space, called the Green, which in the fine weather season, is covered with bales of 
ootton, and other merchandise entirely unprotected ; around the Green are many large well-built 
and handsome houses ; the Government house and the Church, which is an extremely neat, 
commodious and airy building, are close to each other on the left of the Church Gate. On the 
right of the Church Gate is the Bazar, which is very crowded and populous and where the 
native merchants principally reside. At its commencement stands the theatre, a neat handsome 
structure. This part of the town suffered much by a destructive fire, which broke out in Febru- 
ary 1803 and destroyed nearly three-fourths of the Bazar, together with the barracks custom- 
house and many other public buildings, and property of immense value' belonging to the native 
merchants. Many houses in the neighbourhood of the Castle were battered down by the- Artil- 
lery to stop the progress of the flames, and preserve the magazine, or in all probability the 
whole town would have been destroyed. Since the fire of 1803 this part of the town has been 
Tebuilt, and the whole much improved, at a considerable expense to the Company. " 

The Governorship of Jonathan Duncan will ever be remarkable, if for no other reason, 
for the construction of the Sion Causeway, which connected the island with Salsette. The doom 
of the old ferry-boat service was sealed in 1798, when the work was begun under the supervision 
of Mr Robert Nicholson. In 1799 we find mention thereof made in connection with a severe 
storm 'which swept over the island in the month of November. « I have further the satisfaction to 
inform you," writes the Engineer, "that during the late severe storm, in which it may be 
supposed the water was very much agitated, not a single stone was displaced. » The causeway 
was completed in the year 1803, and must have proved of incalculable benefit to the migratory 
portion of the island's population. 

27 



106 

Before finally quitting this subject, we would call attention to one or two of the more- 
noteworthy buildings of this epoch. The Colaba Light-house, which was completed by the year- 
1772, is noticed by Milburn in the following paragraph :—" Close to Bombay, separated 
only by a small creek fordable at low water, is Colaba or Old Woman's Island, which partly 
forms the north side of the harbour. It is about 2| miles long. Near its southern extremity 
stands the light-house. This building is of a circular form, and has within it a flight of 
steps to ascend to the top ; the height is upwards of 150 feet above the level of the sea, and- 
the light may be seen in clear weather the distance of seven leagues. There is also a signal 
station where a regular watch is kept day and night, the expense of which is defrayed by a. 
rate levied on all vessels frequenting the port. On this island are barracks for the military, and 
occasionally a camp is formed here, being esteemed a healthy situation. It has many delightful 
villas scattered about. The point of Colaba on which the Light-house stands, is guarded on all 
sides by an extensive reef of rocks, divided into prongs ; the most dangerous is the S.-W. prong,, 
which forms the northern boundary of the entrance into the harbour, and Tull Reef the 
southern. The breadth oC the channel between the prongs and Tull reef is about three iniles." 

For many years there bad been complaints about the inconvenience of the Town Jail,, 
which after 1745 was situated in the Marine Yard. " This building, the County Jail," wrote 
the Civil Auditor in 1798, " would be very valuable, if laid into the Marine Yard. And I do 
not see any necessity for having a prison within the fort. The present one has been often and 
very justly complained of for not affording snflELcient accommodation to the prisoners. " In 
1799, therefore, a plot of ground was purchased at Umavkhadi, upon which the present 
Common Jail was built. An inscription on the western gateway of the enclosure shows that r 
" This Gaol was built during the administration of the Honourable Jonathan Duncan, Esquire,. 
1804. " 

Mr. Hornby's house in Marine Street, whi'ch forms another landmark, was used till the 
opening of the nineteenth century as an Admiralty House ; for, as the Bombay Government 
explained, it was "necessary to. provide a proper house for the accommodation of the Commander- 
in-Chief of the fleet in India, and there was no other in the place either in point of situation or 
convenience or in other respect so well adapted for his residence. " But in 1800 the main 
building was reserved for the accommodation of the newly established Recorder's Court, a small, 
portion being utilized as a store-room for the Admiralty furniture. 

Another building, which has given its name to a portion of the Island, was the Cooper- 
age, described in 1759 as "ashed the coopers work in." The erection in 1781 of proper 
Cooperage buildings on the Esplanade resulted from a recommendation by Rear Admiral Sir 
Edward Hughes to the effect that, " As the Company furnish warehouses for the reception of 
salt provisions sent to this place for the service of his Majesty's squadron, and as much incon- 
venience has arisen to the inhabitants residing in the garrison from the necessary surveying 
repacking and repickling the said provisions, I am of opinion that lodging such provisions in a 
dry well-built shed or in a house erected on the Apollo Ground, walled round and tiled on the 
roof, would relieve the inhabitants from the much-complained-of stench, arising from doinw 
what is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the salt provisions. " In consequence of the- 
Admiral's letter, Government decided to erect "a proper shed on the Apollo Ground for the 
reception of the King's provisions. " 

Of some interest in those years must have been the house, long since pulled down, which 
^^as occupied by the Duke of Wellington in 1801-2. A correspondent of the Bomlay Times- 
wrote the following account of it in 1856 :— " It is a mere hut of a place, such as a subaltern of 
the Bombay Army would perhaps turn up his nose at, and think only fit for servants or for a 
stable. It is situated between the road and the sea at the curve of the Bay (Back Bay) towards- 
Malabar Hill, close to where the road from Byculla turns into the Breach road from the Fort. 
It is in the middle of a wood yard, and in fact cannot be mistaken. " This explanation will be 
clearer to modern minds by remembering that "the road from Byculla " corresponds to the- 
" Gamdevi Road " of the twentieth century. 



107 

The increase of population, which had taken place by the year 1814, was in great measure- 
due to the political and internal progress, which we have briefly delineated. But it is doubtful 
whether military achievements, protection of trade and good government, could by themselves 
have ensured an increase of 67,000. It is a recorded fact that in 1812 the population of Bom- 
bay was 235,000, and that of the whole number 20,000 at least were famine refugees, and we 
incline to the belief that in 1814 also, there were on the island a considerable number of persona 
who, originally driven hither by the great famine of 1803, had decided not to return to their 
homes in the Konkan or Deccan, but to seek such new means of subsistence, as were afforded by 
a thriving and well-governed settlement. Many no doubt returned to their villages, when the 
stress was over, as they do in these later days ; but many must have remained and contributed 
by their presence to the total of 180,000. Of that memorable famine one catches a glimpse in the 
*' Oriental Memoirs. " " What infinite advantage, " says the writer, " what incalculable benefits 
must accrue from a wise and liberal administration over those extensive realms which now 
form part of the British Empire, is not for me to discuss. What immense good was done by the 
wise policy of the Bombay Government alone during a late famine, wo learn from the address of 
Sir James Mackintosh to the Grand Jury of that Island in 1804. No other language than his 
own can be adopted on this interesting subject. It indirectly points out the object I have often 
mentioned, the amelioration of the natives of India by the introduction of religion, laws, art,, 
science and civilisation, in their best and most comprehensive sense. The upright and able- 
Magistrate, after descanting upon famine in general, enters into the particulars of that in the 
Konkan, occasioned by a partial failure of the periodical rains in 1802, and from a complete 
failure in 1803, from whence, he says, a famine has arisen in the adjoining provinces of India^ 
especially in the Maratha territories, which I shall not attempt to describe, and which, I believe, 
no man can truly represent to the European public without the hazard of being charged with 
extravao-ant and incredible fiction. Some of you have seen its ravages. All of you have heard 
accounts of them from accurate observers. I have only seen the fugitives who have fled before 
it and have found an asylum in this island. But even I have seen enough to be convinced that 
it is difficult to overcharge a picture of Indian desolation. I shall now state from authentia 
documents what has been done to save these territories from the miserable condition of the 
neighbouring country. From 1st September 1803 to the present time, October 1804, there 
have been imported or purchased by Government 414,000 bags of rice, and there remain 
ISO 000 bags contracted for, which are yet to arrive. * * * * The effects of this 
importation on the population of our territories, it is not very difl&cult to estimate. The 
population of Bombay, Salsette, Karanja and of the city of Surat I designedly under- 
estimate at 400,000. I am entitled to presume that if they had continued subject to native 
Governments, they would have shared the fate of the neighbouring provinces which still are 
so subject. I shall not be suspected of any tendency towards exaggeration, by any man who 
is acquainted with the state of the opposite continent, when I say that in such a case an eighth 
of that population must have perished. Fifty thousand human beings have, therefore, been 
saved from death in its most miserable form by the existence of a British Government in this 
'sland ***** The next particular which I have to state relates 

to those unhappy refugees, who have found their way into our territory. From the month 
of March to the present month of October, such of them as could labour, have been employed 
in useful public works and have been fed by Government. The monthly average of these 
persons since March is 9,125 in Bombay, 3,162 in Salsette, and in Surat a considerable number, 
though from that city I have seen no exact returns. * * * * * * 

Upon the whole I am sure that I considerably understate the fact in saymg that the British 
Government in this island has saved the lives of 100,000 persons, and what is more important 
that it has prevented the greater part of the misery through which they must have passed, 
before they found refuge in death; besides the misery of all those who loved them or who 
depended on their care. " One cannot help thinking that the beneficent attitude of our Govern- 
ment towards the starving immigrants of those years formed a direct inducement to the latter 
to remain upon the island, and that had there been no famine to drive them hither in the first 
instance, our population would not have increased to quite so great an extent. 



108 

The trading communities were steadily advancing in numbers during these years, and 
were settling in localities outside the fortifications, and as near the docks as possible. From 
1803 onwards, dwelling-houses, godowns, shops, and markets began to rise, the original nucleus 
of oiir Mandvi, Chakla and Oomerkharry sections. The present Secretary of the " Dassa 
Oswal Jain " Community informs us that by 1800 there were some six or eight families of 
that class, settled in what we now know as Dongri Street ; and that in immediately succeeding 
years, there were fresh arrivals from Cutch, tempted to the island by the prospect of fair 
trade, who bought land, built houses, and generally laid the foundations of one of the most 
prosperous of our modern commercial classes. The Parsis were in no wise behindhand : a 
oonsiderable list of names, which it would be but tedious to recall, has been handed down to 
us, proving that the ancestors of several families, well-known in these days, were in Bombay 
by the year 1814. Lavji's grandson, Jamshedji Wadia, was carefully guarding the reputation 
which his sire and grandsire had bequeathed, and earning the golden opinions of the ruling 
body by building first class frigates for the Indian Marine, and stout vessels for such friendly 
powers as the Imam of Muscat. The Jdn-i-Bamlai (i. e., the Soul of Bombay), a Persian 
pamphlet written in 1818 by an anonymous Mughal scribe, speaks of the Memons as sellers of 
fuel, and of one " Abba Fateh Muhammad " as the headman of that community. The Khojas 
are also mentioned as haw kers of parched rice. Notwithstanding that the Bohras and other 
Mabommedan communities were permitted to reside within the Fort, a considerable number of 
*' Moors " mast, by the close of this period, have gathered round the four main " bandars" or ports 
of the Island, namely, the Bori Bandar (now the Victoria Railway Terminus), the Koli Bandar 
or Gowli Bandar, the Masjid Bandar, and the Chinch Bandar. Tho two latter have given their 
names to well-known modern localities. The situation of those Mahommedan cemeteries and 
shrines also, which existed at the close of this period, point perliaps to the gradual dispersion 
of the community over the face of tho island. Our unknown Persian historian tells of burial- 
grounds at Sonapur, Oomerkhari, Khetwadi, Tarradi and Mahim ; and gives the following 
lengthy list of shrines upon the island : — 

(i) The shrine of the Saint Makhdum Fakih Ali. 

(ii) „ „ „ Sheikh Misri at Sewri. 

(iii) ,, „ „ Sayad Badruddin in the Bhendy Bazaar, 

(iv) „ ,, „ Sayads Nizamnddin and Muhiuddin in Oomerkhari. 

(v) „ ,, „ Sayad Aahik Shah in Dongri. 

(vi) ,, ,. ,, Sayad Hussein Idrua in Sat-Tar — (hodie Satar Street). 

(Vii) ,. „ „ Sayad Hisamuddin at Do-Tar — (». «., Don Tad, modern Dontar). 

(viii) ,, „ „ Sana Shah in Cowasji Patel's garden. 

(ix) ,, „ „ Pedro Shah (a Portuguese convert who on conversion to Islam obtained 
the honour of sacrosanctity), on the ' maidan ' (t. e., the Esplanade, 
north of the modern Gr. I. P. Railway Terminus). 

(s) „ ., „ Bismillah Shah, adjoining the Fort walls (i. e., to the east of modern 

Victoria Terminus), 

(xi) The " Chilla » of Shah Dawat in Kumbharwada. 

(xii) The two " Chillas " o£ Shah Madar, one in Sat Tar, and one near the Bhendy Bazaar, 

(xiii) The shrine of Shah Hasan Ghazati near the light-house, 
(xiv) „ „ „ Shah Hussein Ghazdti at Moba (?). 
(xt) „ „ I, Sheikh Momin Barkat near Barkat Bazaar. 

That the foundations of our modern city were laid in these years, will appear more clearly 
by reference to the numbers of persons actually resident within the Fort. A survey of the Fort 
population was made in 1813, whence it appeared that 10,801 persons were dwelling within the 
walls. Of these 250 were English, 5,464 were Parsis, 4,061 Hindus, 775 Moors, 146 Portuguese 
and 105 were Armenians. On deduction of these figures from the total population of the island, 
one may assume that the extra-mural population was roughly 170,000 ; and allowing twenty or 
thirty thousand persons to the Mahim district, it seems probable that there were about one 
hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty thousand resident between the Bazar Gate in the 
south and the Parel village and the Mahalakshmi temple in the north. 

A few remarks upon the commercial circumstances of the Island will form a suitable 
epilogue to the history of the period. Up till the year 1813, as we learn from Maclean and 
other writers, the Bast India Company retained exclusive possession of trade, private persons 



109 

being allowed to indulge in commerce only with the Company's license. " Private enterprise 
had little or no chance in Bombiy at a time when the Company and its servants had the pick of 
the trade ; and Milburn gives the following as a complete list of independent European firms : — 

Bruce, Fawcett •• ••■ ••• ••• ••• 

Native Christian and Goanese... 

Eurasian 

European 

Buddhist 


17,218 

35,428 

1,167 

9,417 

407,717 

49,122 

158,024 

689 

48,697 

3,321 

30,708 

1,168 

10,451 

169 


2-23 
4-58 

•15 

1-22 

52-73 

6-35 

20-44 

•09 
6-29 

■43 
3-97 

•15 
1-35 

•02 


Total... 


773,196 


100-00 



144 

Further statistics need find no place here for they are available in Colonel Weir's report 
to such as desire to delve deeper into the circumstances of the population during these years. But 
one fact, to which contemporary reports frequently refer, was the great poverty of the bulk 
of the population. Marathas, Musalmans, Native Christians, Kolis, Bhandaris and Mahars are 
characterised as the poorest classes in a city, wherein "the poverty of the great masses is 
incredible " ; wherein, also, the bulk of the people " lives upon a starvation diet " ; wherein, 
" a dozen families herd together in houses, only large enough to contain one." Nowroji Hill, 
for example, should have been one of the healthiest spots in Bombay ; yet its denizens, poor and 
ill-fed, were " almost choking one another in their miserable abodes." The Colaba Bazaar was 
filled with " a motley and improvident population." The squalor of Kamathipura and Khara 
Talao increased the diflficulties of Municipal officers in fighting phthisis and fevers. House and 
street-ventilation were almost unknown in the Northern portions of the Fort ; Chakla, Bhuleshwar 
and Oomerkhary were replete with ill-conditioned and reeking dwellings, upon which the 
reformer of these years would have instantly painted the damnatory letters U. H. H. The 
Municipality strove hard during these years to minimise in one way or another the dangers, to 
which such conditions gave rise • promulgated orders, confining "the storage of hides and shark- 
fins to Dharavi and Sewri Bunder " ; insisted upon " pigs being kept in properly-adapted places 
apart from dwellings " ; and, as we have before remarked, purged many a locality of pestilence- 
breeding cattle-stables. Considering the epidemics, which occurred during the period, we must 
admit that their campaign met with tolerable success. They could scarcely be expected within the 
space of 9 years to obviate all the dangers and disabilities which had arisen fi-om a very sudden 
colonisation of the city on a large scale, and which were intensifiied by constant immigration 
subsequent to that event. Much improvement yet remained to be effected in succeeding years. 

The general prosperity of the island continued unabated ; and Sir Richard Temple thus- 
sums up its condition during the years of his governorship. " The City of Bombay itself with 
its vast and varied interests, and its fast growing importance, claimed constant attention. The 
police, under the able management of Sir Frank Souter, was a really efficient body and popular 
withal. The public structures, begun or designed under Sir Bartle Frere's administration, were 
advanced towards completion ; and although these shewed a goodly array, still not a year passed 
without several new buildings being undertaken, as the demands of an advancing community in 
a great seaport are incessant. The stream of native munifi.Genee continued to flow, though 
somewhat diminished in comparison with former times by reason of agricultural and commercial 
depression consequent on the famine. A marble statue of the Queen had been erected by the 
Native community on the Esplanade. Sir Albert Sassoon presented to the city a bronze 
equestrian statue of the Prince of Wales, in memory of the visit of His Eoyal Highness. The 
New Sailors' Home, built partly through the munificence of Khande Rao, Gaekwar of Baroda,, 
in honour of the visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, had become a noble 
institution. The new wet dock, accommodating the largest ships, was named " the Prince's 
Dock," because the first stone of it was laid by the Prince of Wales." 

" The elective principle had been introduced into the Municipality of Bombay by Sir 
Seymour FitzGerald and established by Sir Philip Wodehouse ; and I found it to operate 
advantageously. The citizens and ratepayers exercised their franchise judiciously, electing good 
and able men, Europeans and Natives, to serve on the Municipal Corporation." 

"The resources of Bombay were tested when in 1878 au expeditionary force was des- 
patched to Malta. Within fourteen days after the receipt of orders from the Governor-General 
in Council (Lord Lytton), the Bombay Government, (of which Sir Charles Staveley, then 
Commander-in-Chief, was a member) engaged 48,000 tons of merchant shipping, then in the 
harbour, despatched 6,000 men and 2,000 horses, with two months' supplies of provisions and six 
weeks' supply of water. They all arrived at their destination in good condition, and after some 
months returned equally well ; still, the risks attending the navigation of the Red Sea, with 
sailing ships towed by steamers, caused us anxiety." The Marine Department has ever main- 
tained a high reputation for celerity in the despatch of expeditions or reinforcements. We heard 



145 

of them in 1801, when Sir David Baird started for Egypt. Sir Richard Temple complemented 
them upon the signal service rendered on the occasion of the Malta expedition ; and yet more 
modern residents of Bombay have viewed with something of surprise and certainly with pride, 
the dexterity and speed with which men, horses and stores, were sent forth from this port, to 
save a serious situation in South Africa. 



146 

Pbriqd a;HB Tenth. — 188110 1891. 

The decade pfecedltfg the census of 1891, during which the population of the island rose 
from 778,196 to 821,764, was mainly remarkable for an increase of the trade of the port, and 
i'oi the foundation of educational and other institutions by private liberality. Municipal Govern- 
ment, also, was subjected to improvements, calculated to reader it more capable and more re- 
presentative of an age of progress. Established originally, as we have remarked, on its modern 
basis in the year 1856, it had been modified or developed by the subsequent measures of 1865, 
1872, and 1878 ; until at the time when Lord Keay's Government undertook to legislate, the 
constitutional law of Bombay City was embodied in eleven separate enactments. " The first 
purpose of the new Bill, " remarks Sir William Hunter, " was to consolidate the law, but in doing 
so important alterations were introduced. Its provisions, drafted by Mr. J. E. Naylor, aided by 
Mr. (aow Sir Charles) Ollivant, the Municipal Commissioner, were divided into twenty-one 
chapters. At first received with strenuous opposition, it was carefully revised by a Select Com- 
mittee of the Legislative Council, with whose members Lord Reay discussed the alterations. 
It eventually passed with general approval. One of the chief modifications introduced during its 
passage was the regulation for handing over the primary schools to the Municipal Corporation." 
The new code could, indeed, claim to be the most complete that had yet been elaborated. Long- 
needed improvements were introduced into the regulations afiecting drainage, water works 
and other sanitary matters ; the procedure relating to the registration and assessment of 
properties was systematized ; exemptions from liability to taxes in respect of immoveable property 
were restricted • and better security was given for the recovery of arrears. 

The Municipality throughout the entire period was actively engaged in rendering the island 
better suited to the needs of a population, augmented by the immigration of labourers and artisans. 
Ground was from time to time purchased for the widening of streets ; the Fergusson Road from 
Worli to Parol was stated to be almost completed in 1884 ; the Ripon Road had been marked 
out ; the Girgaum Road had been widened. The Charni Road was carried as far as the Falkland 
Road in 1885 ; and several old houses at the corner of Gunbow Lane and Hornby Row were 
demolished, in order to open a new road into the crowded portion of the Fort. One reads of 
improvements to the Thakurdvar and Tardeo roads in the following year, and of the formation of 
a large circle on the Flats, formerly known as the Central Station, but henceforward to be called 
" Jacob's Circle, " in memory of General Le Grand Jacob, and to be adorned with an ornamental 
fountain, provided by public subscription. Sankli Street was opened in 1887; new com- 
munications were constructed between Sewri Cemetery and the Jackeria Bunder thoroughfare, 
between Lady Jamsetji Road and Matunga, between the El phinstone Bridge and Dongri Street 
via Nowroji Hill. Seventy-three thousand rupees were disbursed in the year 1889-90 alone, for 
the sole purpose of street-improvement, and are evidence of a protracted endeavour to benefit the 
localities, which had expanded by the constant influx of an industrial population. The Kamathi- 
pura region would suffice as an instance of what was effected by Municipal Government during 
this and the previous decade; and was pointed to with pride iu 1891 as a locality vastly improved 
by the provision of numerous roads and streets, and of drainage. 

The subject of drainage was as keenly followed as in the preceding period. In 1881 the 
Commissioner laid before the Corporation proposals for an expenditure of 33 lakhs for sewerage, 
of 9 lakhs for surface drainage, and of 10| lakhs for house-connections. Queen's Road was 
supplied with a great sewer, which the Executive Engineer, " working with exti-aordinary energy 
and favoured by a late monsoon, " was able to complete in 1884 ; extensions were laid down 
from the Crawford Markets to the Mint, along the Ripon Road, and across the Agripada district ; 
the Fort, in which drainage arrangements had become either obsolete or ruinous, was, in spite of 
di£Bculties with contractors, completely provided for by the year 1889 ; Khetwadi, Gilder Street, 
the DeLisle and Arthur Roads, the Marine Lines and other localities were subjected to similar 
improvements ; while on the 10th February 1882, the Corporation sanctioned an expenditure of 
Rs. 12,12,250 upon a comprehensive scheme for the disposal of storm- water and for surface 
drainage. The Commissioner, writing in 1886, speaks of the storm-water works as practically 



147 

Wiete, and adds that" the banefioial result of these works aad of raising the Klietwadi and 

matn.pura roads is incontestable, and has bean amply proved in the exceptionally heavy rains 

e monsoon, which is now terminating. Places, which formerly were knee-deep in water for 

inany hours after a comparatively moderate fall of rain, are now dry in a very short space of 

ime ; and the nuisance, which has always existed on the Flats during certain months, has now 

been much reduced by the new arrangements." 

At the outset of this period, the water-supply of the city stiU fell short of perfection. In 
consequence, we read of the Bandarwada water-works and of filter-beds at Malabar Hill being 
completed m 1884, of Mr. Tomlinson's scheme for works in the Pa wai Valley being- put into 
-• h^l^^ ^^ ^^^^ 1889-90. But these improvements were of minor importance in comparison 
w^th the Great Tansa Waterworks, which were commenced about the middle of the decade. Sir 
dham Hunter, characterising the project as the most important undertaking of the years 
1885 to 1890, observes that : « The city was and is, for the present, supplied with water from the 
Vehar and Tuisi Lakes. But the growth of the population has been so rapid that the supplies 
to)m these sources, though comparatively recently provided, soon proved inadequate. The 
Municipality, therefore, decided on the 19th November ISS.-i, to adopt a magnificent project 
that will provide the city with an inexhaustible water-supply. The scheme, when carried out, 
will afford another splendid proof of the public spirit of the citizens of Bombay, and the skill 
of English Engineers." The Tansa works were finally opened in the year 1891-92 by the 
Marquis of Lansdowne, who, referring to the magnitude and benefits of the achievement, con- 
gratulated Bombay upon the true measure of Municipal Self-Go vernment, which she had been 
the first amoi:g all cities in India to introduce. 

Of other matters, connected with the welfare of the people, in which the Municipality 

played a prominent part, we may note the extension of education and the provision of an Asylum 

for the homeless leper population. In 1872 the contributions by the Corporation towards 

primary education amounted only to Rs. 8,500 : in 1882 they had risen to Es. 22,500 ; in 

1886-87 to Rs. 31,374 ; and during the closing year of the decade they had been again increased 

to Rs. 39,500. Contemporaneous with the passing of the new Municipal Act was the institution 

of the Joint Schools Committee for the management of primary education in the city, which 

contained 32 Marathi and 30 Gujarathi schools in the year 1890. We hear of grants made to 

schools for deaf-mutes ; of a sum of Rs. 80,000 sanctioned in aid of the Victoria Jubilee 

Technical Institute, which was founded by Lord Reay's Government for practical instruction in 

the mechanical industries, and was destined to be the normal school for teachers of technical 

education throughout the Presidency. The period was indeed one of progress, in most matters 

connected with Municipal Administration. Tramway communications were greatly extended ; 

fresh roads wore lighted every year ; contracts were sanctioned for lighting the Crawford 

Markets and the Prince's Dock by Electricity ; special sums were set apart for the disposal of 

■the dead bodies of Hindu paupers, and for the erection of special and temporary cholera 

hospitals in 1883 : a small-pox hospital was built in 1887, and 39,000 rupees were voted for 

the erection of a similar building in the Arthur Road. Fire brigade stations were constructed ; 

taps and fountains were gradually substituted for the old and insanitary dipping wells ; and over 

87,000 rupees were spent in one year (1890-91) upon the improvement of various public gardens. 

Her late Majesty the Queen-Empress, in a reply to the address of congratulation forwarded by the 

Municipality on the occasion of her first Jubilee, described with what pleasure she had watched 

*' the progress of the great city of Bombay, and its advance not only in material prosperity, but 

also in education and in matters tending to the improved health and comfort of the people." 

The treatment of vagrant lepers had long been a vexed question between Government 
and the Murricipalitj • and was not finally settled till the year 1890, when Mr. Aeworth, the 
Municipal Commissioner, vigorously set about the collection of funds for a leper asylum. The 
public, following the lead of the late Sir Dinshaw Manekji Petit, who offered a lakh of rupees 
for the purpose, subscribed willingly ; a good site was chosen at Matunga ; and several build- 
ings were constructed. " Under an old Act of 1867, " remarked Mr. Forrest in a recent lecture, 



148 

" Mr. Acworth, with the assistance of the Pbh'ce Commissioner, collected all the vagrant lepers 
and put them in the Asylum, and obtained a grant from the Government and Municipality for 
their maintenance, organised the staff, and personally supervised all the arrangements for their 
food, sanitation, etc. He induced rich native gentlemen to add a hospital, a Hindu 
temple, a Mahommedan mosque, and even a Roman Catholic chapel. The place is enclosed 
with a weak fence, but the lepers are perfectly happy, and never attempt to leave. The streets 
of Bombay are absolutely cleared of lepers ; and though compulsion has been objected to, 
Mr. Acworth's procedure has been approved of by most practical men ; and the Government of 
Bengal in 1895, and the Government of India in 1896, have legislated entirely on his lines. 
About 350 lepers spend their lives in absolute contentment, in Mr. Acworth's Asylum, which is 
considered the best in India. The Government of Bombay should find satisfaction in the fact 
of one of their officers having thus practically settled the vagrant leper question for the whole 
of the Indian Empire." 

But the improvement of the city during these years was not allowed to devolve entirely 
npon the Municipality. The period was remarkable for great benefactions by private citizens. 
Both charitable and educational schemes in Bombay city, as Sir William Hunter has related, 
benefited by Sir Dinshaw Petit's liberality. " In January 1888 he offered Rs. 1,25,000 for the 
erection of a Lying-in-Hospital, which sum he afterwards allowed to be used for the construc- 
tion of a Hospital for Women and Children, as an extension of the Jamsetji Jejeebhai Hospital. In 
promotion of education Sir Dinshaw presented the property known as the Hydraulic Press, 
valued at three lakhs of rupees, in exchange for the Elphinstone College buildings which were 
converted into the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute. He likewise gave Rs. 16,419 for the 
construction of a Patho Bacteriological Laboratory in connection with the Veterinary College at 
Parel, and Rs. 6,000 towards the erection of Gymnastic Institution in Bombay. Coming to 
other benefactors, Bai Motlibai, widow of Mr. Nowroji Wadia, gave a lakh and-a-half of rupees 
and a valuable site of 20,954 square yards, adjoining the Jamsetji Jejeebhoy Hospital, for the 
building of an obstetric hospital. Mr, Harkissondas Narottamdas gave a lakh of rupees for a 
clinical hospital for women and children ; but the conditions made by Government wore not 
acceptable to the donor, and the amount was, therefore, refunded. Mr. Framji Dinshaw Petit 
gave Rs. 75,000 for the erection of a Laboratory, fitted with the most modern appliances, in 
connection with the Grant Medical College at Bombay. The Allbless family, namely, the trustees 
of the late Bomanji Edulji Allbless, the widow of Mr. Edulji Framji Allbless, and the sons of 
Mr. Dorabji Edulji Allbless, presented amongst them Rs. 72,000 for the establishment of an 
Obstetric Hospital on land adjoining the Cama Hospital, and of a mortuary for Parsis in connection 
with it, and also (with the assistance of Rs. 5,000 from the Countess of Dufferin's Fund) for the 
building of quarters for the lady doctors of the (^ama and Allbless Hospitals. Mr. Sorabji Cowasji 
Powalla gave Rs. 31,473 for a gratuitous charitable dispensary in the Fort ; Sir M. M. Bhownag- 
gree, Rs. 15,699 for a Home for Pupil Nurses, in connection with the Jamsetji Jejeebhoy Hospital ; 
Mr. Pestonji Hormasji Cama, Es, 15,000 for nurses' quarters at the Cama Hospital ; and 
Mr. Dwarkadas Lallubhai, Rs. 10,000 for a cholera ward at the Jamsetji Jejeebhoy Hospital, which 
was utilised instead for the establishment of an out-door dispensary for women and children. 
Lastly, mention must be made of the gift of the Parsi Panchayat Fund of Rs. 2,000 for the erection 
of a separate mortuary for Parsis, in connection with the hospital, which bears the name of the best 
known member of their body." A hospital for animals at Parel was founded by Bai Sakarbai 
and opened by the Earl of Dufferin in 1884 ; Mr. Byramji Jijibhoy, C.S.I., gave a handsome 
donation in 1890 towards the establishment of an Anglo-Vernacular School for poor Parsis ; aud to 
this period also belongs the handsome fountain and clock erected in Baz;ar Gate Street to the 
memory of Bomanji Hormasji Wadia. Among other landmarks of the island, completed during 
these years, and which do not owe their existence to private benevolence and philanthropy, one 
may reniarkin particular the Victoria Terminus of the G. I. P. Railway, situated on the original 
site of the old Mumbadevi temple, near the Phausi Talao or Gibbet Pond. The old temple was 
removed by Government in 1766, in order to allow space for fresh fortifications, a new shrine 
being erected by a Sonar, Pandurang Shivaji, on the present site near Paidhoni. The old gibbet, 



149 

however, was permitted to remain till 1805, when it was re-erected close to the Umarkhadi Jail. 
Government and the Port Trust were not behindhand in the work of improvement. The Euro- 
pean Hospital for the use of poor Europeans resident in the City and of sailors from ships in the 
port, and of railway officials and their families, had long proved insufficient • and it was therefore 
resolved by Government to erect a new European Hospital at a cost of Rs. 5,69,667 on the ruins 
of the old Fort George, to which Lord Reay, on laying the foundation stone in February 1889, 
gave the name of " St. George's Hospital." The Government Central Press, the new home of the 
Elphinstone College, and the Police Magistrates' Court were also commenced or completed during 
these years. The defences of the Harbour received attention. As the Press pointed out in 1884, 
they were in so unsatisfeetory a state as to be practically useless ; Colaba battery was untenable, 
the turret ships were not in working order, the Middle Island and Cross Batteries were inefficient, 
while the Malabar Hill and Breach Candy batteries were powerless to prevent the destruction of the 
place by any hostile squadron. But in the following year a new scheme of defence was sanctioned 
by the Government of India and carried into execution by the close of the period. 

The Port Trust, which in spite of yearly reductions of dues, showed a steady surplus of 
revenue over expenditure between 1880 and 1889, was responsible for the construction and opening 
in 1884 of a new Light-house at the entrance of the harbour and of the Victoria Dock. The Prince's 
Dock indeed proved too small for aU demands, and was, therefore, supplemented by the Victoria Dock 
of nearly the same size, and giving still greater facilities for shipping, the first sluice of which was 
opened by Lady Reay on the 21 st February 1888. "Some idea of the magnitude of the interests 
involved in the management o! the Bombay Port Trust may be formed from the statements, that its 
capital expenditure up to the close of the year 1889-90, deducting sales of land, etc., amounted 
to Es. 5,08,56,602, that its revenue for 1889-90 was Rs. 41,97,746, and its expenditure 
including interest on capital Rs. 42,83,282, and that 645 vessels entered the two docks during 
that year. " In 1891 yet another extension — ^the Merewether Graving Dock — was opened 
by H. E. the Governor. 

Other well-known buildings are the Municipal Offices, the foundation-stone of which 
was laid by Lord Ripon in December 1884 ; the Wilson College at Chowpatty, of which 
Sir James Fergusson laid the foundation in 1885 ; and the Jafar SuUman Charitable Dispensary, 
which was opened in March 1886. 

The activity in building to which private philanthropy or the progressive attitude of 
Goveri\ment and public bodies gave rise, may be considered to have indirectly affected the 
numbers of the population, by creating a demand for the labour of the poorer classes ; but its 
influence in this respect was not so superficially apparent as the eft'eot of increasing trade and 
of the growth of the cotton spinning and weaving industry. With the exception, perhaps, of 
the year 1889-90, the commercial prosperity of the island may be held to have steadily in- 
creased year by year. Taking a yearly average of three years, and excluding Government 
stores and treasure, the value of exports rose from 27 prores in 1880-82 to 33 crores in 1885-87, 
and attain to 39 crores in 1890-92 • and the value of imports from 17 crores to 22 crores 
and again to 27 crores during the same periods. The exports of wheat, linseed, rapeseed and 
oingelly also rose by an extraordinary figure ; in 1881-82 alone, the revenue of the Port Trust 
Slowed an increase of 10| lakhs above the estimated value, owing mainly to increased exports 
of grain and seeds ; the value of aU imports of cotton during the first 10 months of the year 1886 
was 240 lakhs of rupees ! Lord Reay, indeed, referred to the growth of commerce in his 
speech at the Jubilee demonstrations of 1887. « The prosperity of Bombay," said His Excellency, 
*' is certainly one of the most remarkable events of the Victorian reign. Its internal appearance 
is as much changed as its external condition. It is one of the most beautiful towns of the 
Empire— if not of the world; its sanitary condition is also vastly improved. Fifty years ago 
the exports amounted to nearly 60 millions of rupees, and the imports to little more than 47. 
In 1885-86 the exports amounted to more than 419 millions, and the imports to nearly 440 
miUioas. In 1885-86 the value of cotton exported amounted to more than 84 millions of 
rupees ; of puUeand grain to more than 43 millions. The Municipal income has risen from 



150 

18 to 42 lakhs. The Prince's Dock wcnld do credit to any port in the world." The effect 
of such trade-progress was evident in the city proper ; for, notwithstanding that numerous 
buildings were being erected in outlying localities, such as Tardeo, Byculla and Parel, for 
reasons which we shall subsequently take note of,' every available inch of land in Mandvi, 
Oomerkhari, Dongri, Chakla, the Market, Dhobi Talao, Phanaswadi, and similar sections was 
eagerly snatched up ; and where land was not available, the piling of storeys upon old houses, 
often incapable of supporting their weight, steadily continued. Hardly a year passed, hardly a 
a monsoon set in, without some of those overweighted houses collapsing, and dealing swift 
death or injury to the inmates; as, for example in Bengalpoora in 1890, when SO persons were 
killed by the fall of one four-storeyed dwelling-house. The extension of the docks and the «x- 
paosion of trade made, and at the same time marred, the city ; for they attracted into a com- 
paratively small portion of the island the whole of the huge population, which directly or indirectly 
earned a livelihood from the commerce of the port. Hence came it that such localities as 
Pathakwadi and the Mandvi Kolivadi entirely lost their original character of hut-settlements, 
became the merest labyrinths of narrow and pestilential lanes, of crowded and sunless houses, to 
which no ingress or egress existed, save, perhaps, through the ground floOr of some more recent 
dwelling. Successive Health Officers have cried woe over these pestilence-breeding regions; but 
their voices have been as the voices of those crying in the wilderness ; the old tortuous paths are 
not yet made straight ; the population still huddles round the poisonous tracks, sleeps amid the 
foulness of sewage, breathes the miasmata that no breeze ever comes to disperse. The density 
of population in the B Ward and some portions of adjoining wards was far greater in 1887 than 
in 1881. " There is room," wrote the Health Officer of that date, "for our whole . populktioQ 
and for the greater city of the future, if only the doors of communication are opened. The 
reality to be understood is that 37 per cent, of our population live on 3J per cent, of the surface 
of the Island, that in 1 2 sections the lowest number of persons to an acre is 254, afid 
that in 5 sections covering more than half of the Island there are only 8 persons to an 
acre." One community of merchants, the Jains, had expanded enormously by 1891 ; but 
was notorious for a very high death-rate, due mainly to the fact, that, in order to get as near to 
the business centre as possible, each fresh relay of immigrnnts settled in ill-built houses, already 
containing a full complement of residents, and -the ground floors of which were in perennial 
obscurity and were built over old and dangerous drains. Mandvi, and indeed the major portion 
of the city proper, was by the close of this period pre-eminently in a position to become the 
plague-centre of the Island ; it was choked with ' population ; it vjas notorious for itg 
insanitary condition. From the year 1803, when the Oompan}* moved the old Mandvi or 
Custom' House further north, this eastern portion of the city had gradually expanded till about 
1865, when its, dimensions began to increase with amazing rapidity. Houses sprang iip storey 
upon storey, stretched towards the docks, climbed tier by tier up the old portion of the Dongri 
Kolis, closed round the pristine settlements of fisher-folk in impenetrable array, spread away to 
Dhobi Talao, Bhuleshvar, Khara Talao, and northward, till they faced the new buildings, which a 
growing mill-industry had brought and was bringinjg during this period into existence. ' 

The growth of the mill-indiistry during the decade undet review was responsible for the 
further colonisation of the areas north of the city. ■ Sot only in cotton-spinning establishments 
was an advance made, but miscellaneous factories, such as flour-mills and workshops, sprang 
into existence and helped to provide for the industrial population, which flocked frotti th« 
Beccan and Konkan. In 1881 the total number of factories in the Island was 53 ; in 1886, ft 
'had increased to 66, and in 1890 to 83. Complaints in regard to the Smoke-nuisance are fifst 
brought forward during these years, and are mentioned in the Municipal reports of 1884-85 ; Ihe 
Mill-owners' Association are reported in'^tlhe Press of 1883 to be about to despatcb travelling 
agents to various trade centres in Europe and Africa, for the purpose of opening new mdiiels 
for the piece-goods of Bombay: by 1890 we are presented with the spectacle of a Facfcrf 
Commission, assembled in Bombay, which in December of that year publishes' proposals for 
the regulation of female and dhild-labdnr. As tlie steam industries increased, a marked chkttg& 
came over localities such as BycuUh, 'Parel, Tardeo^ I'artVadi and 'even 'teiiit)te"^i8Wi; " ^ Iti- 



151 

-«uir.erable chals sprang up north of the Bellaais Road, countte habitations for *ha immigr^nte 
.from Ratnagui, Poona, or Satdra. "There is growing up in our .pop^tion," wrote the 
Health Officerm 1887, "a class which can be distinguished from .theip own race, enga<.ed in 
other work, and from every other class, by a paUid look, which may be called a factory 
countenance." All- the open 4and in Tarden was being gradually buUt aver during these yeara • 
and as fest as the houses were built, there appeared, a population to inhabit them. Nacrpada 
«was densely peopled, with an aS^erage of 67 persons to each house : five new mills were being 
constructed in Sewn in 1889^ and were responsible in great measure for the increased population 
ofthat section in 1891. Byculla, Tarwadi and Mazagon, and all the districts north of them 
^were far more populous at the close of the decade than in 1881. Mr. Drew in his Census 
Report of 1891 notices the following curious phenomenon :—« In som-o ,of the most densely 
crowded parts of the Native Town-Umarkhadi, Dhobi Talao, Phanaswadi and Khara 
Talao— the total female population has decreased, while the number of those born in 
Bombay has mcreased. This may easily be explained, as the immigraui women are chiefly 
employed now in the parts of Bombay north of the Bellasis Road ; and wjth the extension 
of house-building there, they have moved , nearer their work, leaving more room for their 
Bombay-bred sisters in the more central portions of the island." The Press of 1890 records 
a strike of female operatives belonging to -the Jubilee Mill ; and a monster-meeting of mill- 
hands at Parol to protest against the closing of .mills for eight days in. every month. By 
the close of the decade, the Tardeo, Parel, Byculla, Tarwadi, Nugpada, and Chinchpooghly 
quarters had expanded through the forwavd march of industrial enterprise into, the populous 
dwelling places of an . immigrant labour-population— a character which they possess at the 
opening of this twentieth century. * 

The causes which led by the year 1891 to an increase of 48,568 were expansion of trad^ 
and of local steam' industries, and, to a minor extcut, the general measures taken for the public 
benefit, as exemplified in an increase of hospital accommodation, the initiation of technical educa- 
tion, the Tansa water supply scheme, and the cbmpletion of the defences of the harbour. 
Further, the period was characterised by no unusual wave of sickness, by no extraordinary form 
of disease. In some localities, it is true, , the ordinary death-rate was high ; but this was 
rendered inevitable firstly by^ the physical roharactaristics of the island, secondly by an 
unparalleled growth of population within a very short period ; for, within a space of roughly 
fifty years only, the number of inhabitants had risen by 600,000 ! The population of 1891 
was officially declared to number 821,764, the total being distributed as follows among different 

religions : — 

Hindu ... ... ... ... 543,276 

Musalman ... .,. ... ... ••. ... 15.5,247 

Christian ... ... ... ... •■• ... 45,310 

Jain 25,225 

Parsi ... ... ... ... ••• — 47,4.58 

flow ... ... ... ••• '•' '■• -OjU^i 

Others 227 

Total ... 8-21,764 



The chief points of interest were the rise in the numbers of Hindus and Jams, due 
presumably, to immigration for the purpose of factory-labour and trade, the increase of population 
in the northern and outlying sections of the island, the decrease of the indigenous population, 
both male and female, and the rise of 35,448 in the number of literates. The policy of Govern- 
ment, the labours of the Municipality, and the philanthropy of private persons had indeed borne 
fruit in the more universal education of the people ; and in point of female education alone, as 
Mr. Drew wrote, " the city ran an European country like Portugal very close." 

To one who visited Bombay after a long absence, the change in the appearance of the 
city must have been wholly extraordinary. " Bombay of to-day, " said Sir Edwin Arnold in 
1886, " is hardly recognisable to one who knew the place in the time of the Mutiny and in those 
years which followed it. Augustus said of Rome 'I found it mud ; I leave it marble ' ; and the 



152 

visitor to India, after so long an absence as mine, might justly exclaim ' I left Bombay a town of 
warehouses and offices ; I find her a city of parks and palaces.* " The movement of the people, 
too, was noteworthy ; all tribes in Western India seemed to have flocked to Bombay, like the 
Adriatic tribes who took refuge in the city of the Lagoons, and from traditional beliefs, social 
instincts and tribal affinities, sought certain definite areas within the island. The poorer Parsi 
sought the home of his ancestors in the North Fort or Dhobi Talap ; the Yogi, the Sanyasi 
found a resting-place near the Shrines of Lakshmi, Kali, or the God of the Sands ; the Goanese, 
the Native Christian were never absent from Cavel, the old home of early converts to Boman 
Catholicism ; the Jolaha, weaver of silk, sought Madanpura ; the grain merchants were a power 
in Mandvi • the Bene-Israel owned their Samuel Street and Israel Moholk ; the dancing girls 
drifted to Khetwadi, "the scarlet woman" to Kamathipura; in the Nail Bazaar lived the 
progeny of men who fought under Sidi Sambhal ; in Parel, Nagpada and BycuUa were mill-hands 
from the Konkan and labourers from the Deccan ; many a Koliwadi, from Colaba to Sion, gave 
shelter to the descendants of earliest settlers ; the Musulman was a power in B, Ward, the Arab 
haunted Byculla ; and in Girgaum the Brahmin had made his home. 

The above-mentioned communities formed but a fractional portion of the whole medley of 
tribes, castes, or races, which dwelt in contented allegiance to a Crown, enshrined in aiiother Island, 
washed by the grey north-seas. The words spoken by Lord Reay in reference to the British 
Empii-e on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1 887 were eminently applicable to that small portion 
thereof, which men proudly acknowledged to be the capital of Western India. " This great 
Empire, " said His Excellency, " was never more united than it is at this Jubilee, but the main- 
tenance of that union wiU require a continuous and united effort. It is a noble inheritance, and 
the utmost sagacity and wisdom will be required to keep it unimpaired. With God's blessing 
vouchsafed as in the past it is possible. In an epoch when those who are least able to answer the 
question, ask cui bono at every turn, it was reserved to the Queen-Empress to make of the Throne 
the institution, which forms the chief link between England and the colonies and India, where of 
all our institutions it is the one most revered and most loved by the mass of the people. Institu- 
tions lose vitality or gain it, not so much by their intrinsic merits or demerits, as by the character 
b£ the persons who work them. The Queeu not only leaves to her descendants a great Empire, 
but the invaluable example of the means by which the Throne can be endeared to subjects among 
whom we count every variety of creeds and races." 



153 
Period the Eleventh. — 1891 to 1901. 

The diaoTission of the causes which have effected a reduction of 45,758 in the population 
of the Island during the final period, with which this survey deals, rightly belongs to the Census 
Report proper of 1901. It wiU suffice, therefore, to remark that the deci'ease is in general due 
to the presence in the city for five years of an extraordinary and very virulent disease, which 
has so far defied all attempts to hold it in control. Any inducements to immigration or settle- 
ment, which, from the point of view of the public, may have been afforded by the improvement 
of communications, by the improvement of drainage, for which the Municipal Corporation 
sanctioned an outlay ofRs. 8,24,330 in 1894-95, by the promotion of philanthropic schemes, 
such as that of Mr. Framji Dinsha Petit, or that of the Memon gentleman who offered two lakhs 
of rupees for the establishment of an orphanage and asylum for poor Mahommedans, by the 
foundation of technical schools, such as that for sheet-metal working and enamelling in the 
Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute at Byculla, or by the numerical increase of mills and 
factories —any inducements of this nature have been more than counterbalanced by the extreme 
need for emigration, arising from the annual recurrence of a fatal malady. It is not our part to 
enter into the history or details of plague-attacks and plague-administration, upon which an 
almost incalculable quantity of mental energy, money and time have already been expended.; 
nor is there need in this portion of our report to trace the influence of the disease upon this or 
that area, or upon definite classes of our population. 

Speaking generally, it may be said that, since that fatal day in 1896, when, as the 
Press remarked, " what is supposed to be bubonic plague has made its appearance upon a 
portion of the Port Trust estate, inhabited by natives," the disease has operated adversely upon 
the numerical strength of the city and island in several distinct ways. Firstly, it has slain the 
people like sheep, raising the death-rate at some seasons, and notably in the opening months 
of 1897, to four times its normal figure ; secondly, it has led to a huge exodus of the population, 
especially in the opening months of each year ; thirdly, it has paralysed business and disorganized 
trade, which under ordinary circumstances must inevitably have attracted fresh arrivals j 
fourthly, it has swallowed huge sums of money, which would undoubtedly have been spent in 
fair years upon various improvements, tending to provide for and to attract fresh accretions 
of population. To take one example only, the expenditure incurred by the Bombay Municipality 
upon plague operations, from the commencement of the disease up to the 18th August 1899, 
totalled to 38,61,000 rupees ! Turning to the subject of trade, one discovers the average 
triennial value of exports and imports together fallen from 66 crores in 1890-92 to 63 crores in 
1895-97 ; the exports of wheat fallen from 424,000 tons in 1890-92 to 77,000 tons in 1895-97, 
and by 1900 to 30 tons, the latter decline being due in great measure to the prevalence of 
famine. The exports of other kinds of grain also show a considerable decrease. 

The mill-industry has suffered severely, both from plague and from improvident 
management. The year 1897 witnessed an universal flight of mill-operatives from the Island, 
open bidding for labour at the street-corners, and the shattering of the tie hitherto 
binding the employer and employed ; and no sooner had this trouble been minimised 
by the growing confidence of an industrial population, which felt that the chance of dying 
of plague in the city, while in receipt of a fair wage, was preferable to the prospect of starvation in 
up-country homes, than the agents of our local industry had to face the inevitable consequences 
of over-production. Between 1891 and 1898 the total number of factories in the island rose 
from 89 to 136, the increase being mainly due to the construction and opening of new mills j 
and this had taken place, despite the belief that a fall in silver had exercised an adverse 
influence upon the trade, despite the fact that the China market— the true outlet for Bombay's 
production— was being rapidly glutted. In 1899 the position of the industry was, in the words 
of Sir George Cotton,. " most critical ; " by the end of that year nearly all mills were closed 
for three days in the week and some were wholly idle. In 1901 the position of many a mill is 
precarious, and the salvation of the industry is still unconfirmed. 

S9 



154 

The year 1897 was one of sorrow, not for Bombay alone, but for the whole continent ; 
and Sir Allan Arthur, speaking at Calcutta of the plague, famine, earthquake, cyclone, rioting, 
sedition and frontier warfare, which had darkened the political and financial horizon, 
characterised that year as the blackest in the whole history of India. In one week only of that 
year 10,000 persons fled from the island of Bombay ; and the condition of the city seemed to ap- 
proximate to that of Constantinople in the sixth century, when, according to Procopius, thousands 
of persons died within three months at the seat of Government. In 1898 occurred plague-riots 
and a strike of Dock and Railway labourers and cartmen, which produced a week's paralysis of 
trade. The early months of 1899 were marked by a fresh exodus of inhabitants ; the death-rate 
of later months was augmented by an influx of famine-stricken and diseased paupers. Matters 
improved not a whit in 1900, and in the present Year of Grace ; for with the passing of the winter 
months, the epidemic again swept through the city, and the people fled from the unseen death. 
On the 1st March 1901, the census was taken of a population, thinned by five years' disease, and a 
■considerable portion of which was scattered over districts remote from the Island. 

That our population has not decreased to a larger extent, considering the anxieties and 

ravages which it has suffered, must strike every mind as astonishing. The result is, perhaps, due 

to the recuperative powers, which Bombay as a young city possesses, and to the extraordinary 

prestige and influence which she exercises over both the western presidency and other regions 

beyond her own sphere of administration. She is to India, as Dr. Gerson da Cunha has remarked, 

what Paris is to la belle patrie, what Alexandria is to Egypt ! Apart from those hopes for 

-the future, which are based solely upon her geographical position or commercial relations, her past 

history bids us take heart, and induces a belief that the chastisement of these years may yet prove a 

blessing in disguise. 

" There is some soul of goodness in things evil 

Would men observingly distil it out, " 

Once before, during the period of British occupation, the popuMion of the Island was seri- 
ously diminished. The closing years of the seventeenth century were as disastrous as the closing 
years of the nineteenth ; the public health has in our day been as seriously undermined as in the 
■days when Ovington buried his shipmates, and Sir Nicholas Waite appealed to the Company for 
succour. The Island was visited in 1896 by a storm, which did considerable damage to house- 
property, and brings to mind the hurricane of that early period of decline, which " destroyed not 
only the growing crops, but also wredced a large portion of the local marine." As the people 
•of those days succumbed to " putrid and malignant fevers " or '' the Chinese death ", so the native 
population of these latter years has succumbed to a pestilence, as grievous as that which swept 
through Florence in 1348 or through old London in the time of Defoe. And yet, as we have 
previously had occasion to remark, the troubles of the years prior to 1718 produced no lasting 
effect upon the Island or upon the size of its population : for, by the year 1744, Bombay had 
advanced in material prosperity, and the number of her inhabitants had swelled to 70,000. May 
we not hope that history will repeat itself, that the plague will be stayed, and that our population 
will not only regain lost ground, but rise to a higher figure than has yet been recorded ? Mean- 
while, we should bear in mind that the city cannot afford dwelling- room for many more than 
crowd together at present in her tenements, and that inducement should therefore be offered 
towards the colonisation of the northern regions of the Island. The people are in no wise un- 
willmg to go further afield ; the tendency to settle in localities like Mahim and Sion has of late 
years become more apparent. Corild one only be sure "that improved communications, that electric 
traction fhrough Sewri, Parel, Sion, Mahim and Matunga, would be carried into swift execution, 
then might one prophecy with greater determination regarding ^e great city of the future, and 
an increased popolation, worthy of the capital of Western India. Steady adherence to the 
doctrine of " Deeds, not words " will effect much, will help towards the further ooloniMtion of 
those portions of the island, which are by nature fitted to form part of the city, towards the wider 
and more wholesome distribution of a commercial and industrial community. 

That the plague may in after time prove to have been an indirect source of benefit to the 
public of Bombay, we deem in no wise impossible : and indeed there are even now discernible 



155 

signs that its attacks have not been an absolutely unmixed evil. The need for some systematic 
improvement of the city must have possessed the minds of men for many years ; but it seems 
doubtful whether the general desire for sanitary reformation and improvement would have been 
■carried without delay to a practical issue, unless epidemics in the crowded wards had emphasised 
the crying necessity for regeneration of the city. The terrible fate of Mandvi and similar 
localities must have sunk deep into the minds of those, in whose charge lies the welfare of the 
island, and have urged them towards the formulation of that elaborate scheme of improvement, 
of which we see to-day the outward manifestation in the City Improvement Trust. In a little 
time that " new Bombay, " which a late Governor so earnestly desired, will be perfected for the 
lasting benefit of posterity ! 

A second most fortunate legacy of the plague is the wider mutual acquaintance, now 
-existing, betwixt the official classes and the people, coupled with the presence in the city of a 
body of men, who are prepared to work gratuitously for Government, and to act in seasons of 
difficulty and distress as mediators between them and the uneducated masses. This condition 
of affairs has not been arrived at without trouble ; distrust and sullen obstinacy were at first rife, 
and culminated in the plague-riots of 1898. But the city is less impatient now of the actions 
of " the Sirkar," recognises more fully that the orders of the official, be he Military officer or 
doctor, are directed towards the common weal. In the diffusion of milder feelings, of under- 
standing in regard to the limitations which commend themselves to either party, the company 
•of gentlemen volunteers has played no unimportant part. Ever since the day when Lord 
Sandhurst convened a meeting of the Justices of the Peace, and asked them, as the modern 
representatives of a body which had worked so loyally for Government in old times, to aid in the 
campaign against sickness and death, the community of volunteers has steadily carried out its 
self-imposed duties ; and thus, when a Supreme Government ordered that the people should be 
numbered, there stood ready to support the Census Department a band of citizens, intimately 
acquainted with the dark corners of the city, and eager to work as heralds, as advisers, as 
mediators between the census staff and the populace. The spectacle of good citizenship and 
self-abnegation, which the census week presented, will not lightly be forgotten by him who 
witnessed it : — the spectacle of men, who might so easily have declined an arduous undertaking 
on the plea of commercial, professional, or private business, toiling through the worst portions 
of the city, cajoling and exhorting the people, utiliang their private dependents upon govern- 
ment work, keeping open house for the census staff, in order to lighten their labours, and provid- 
ing them with rooms for the revision of their schedules, guarding the threatened health of 
individual members of the staff by prescription and gratuitous supply of medicine, relegating, in a 
word their personal convenience and private wishes wholly and entirely to the background! 
So long as Bombay can count among her numbers men who maintain so worthy and so 
practical an idea of their duty towards her, she cannot, in spite of her adversities, be considered 
unfortunate ! 

And so here has the time come for us to close the tale. The Silahara chieftain, old 
Bimb Kaja of Devgiri, the Mussulman, the '' Portugal," Gerald Aungier, Mountstuart Elphin- 
stbne Bartle Frere, these and many another, ere passing out by '' the coulisses of time," left 
their'mark upon the land, and contributed, in greater or less degree, to the fame and beauty of a 
city, which justly claims to be called "a precious stone set in the silver sea." There is hope 
that she will grow more beautiful • that the shadows which now brood in the background will 
vanish ; and that, as the years pass, the Island of Bombay will be linked by still closer bonds of 
affection and obedience to that parent land, which, like herself, is encompassed by the Ocean 
inviolate.