318 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [Novembeb, 1873. Satavalito Visalgadh is well under 30 miles, and, from the comparative levelness of the road over the greater part of the distance, there can be no doubt that when Visalgadh and Prabhanvali were held by the Mu¬ salmans, Satavali would have been the most convenient port for their inhabitants. The ghats of Visalgadh, Anuskura, and Baura are said by Graham to have been constructed by the Musalmans about 1600 a.d., and though no doubt this date is a mere guess, yet it cor¬ responds sufficiently with the flourishing days of the Bijapur kingdom. Visalgadh itself, as it was one of the strongest of the ghat fortresses, so it is also one of the most celebrated in history, and is said by Graham to have been in the 12th century the seat of government of the western portion of the country. From the Konkan it is by no means a prominent object, as the hill of Machal, connected with it only by a narrow ledge 200 feet or so below the brow of each hill, pro¬ jects further out into the Konkan. A similar narrow ledge and equally depressed connects Visalgadh with the main line of tho ghats, so that when fortified the approach wai equally difficult to invaders either from the Konkan or the Dekhan. The fort was dismantled about thirty years ago by our Government, the inner walls and works being entirely demolished, and even of the outer walls only a very small portion remains. Its present inhabitants are a few servants of the Pant Pritinidhi, to whom it belongs, and one old Musalman who looks after the two mosks. These are intact, and there are also two large gateways of Muhammadan architecture. In one of these mosks is hanging a gigantic pair of iron fetters, the tradition concerning which is that they would of themselves fall off the arms of an innocent person, so that any one accused of an offence might claim to be tried by this or¬ deal. Close to where they hang is a Persian inscription let into the wall. Graham, in his Report on the Principality of Kolhapoor, states that the earliest Persian inscriptions in the fort are of a.d. 1234 and 1247, the first commem¬ orating “ the capture of the fort by the Mu¬ hammadans under Malik Rahim, who, from an¬ other inscription dated sixty years later, appears to have enjoyed during life a high odour of sanctity and was canonized after death, miracles being wrought through invocation of his name at the shrine.” The tablet and fetters mention¬ ed above are therefore probably both connected with this saint. But there is a difficulty about the two inscriptions mentioned by Graham. Not only is the earliest date fully fifty years earlier than the first recorded expedition of the Musal- miin8 into the Dekhan, but Ferishtah distinctly states that Visalgadh (then called K h e 1 n a) was first taken by the Musalmans in 1469.* Nor is it likely that a place in so retired a situation should have been attacked by them in any of their very early expeditions, while the authority of Ferishtah is particularly reliable as to that part of the country, owing to his having resided for many years at B i j a p u r. The circumstances which preceded this cap¬ ture of Visalgadh are interesting. There had been expeditions into the Konkan by the troops of G u 1 b a r g a in 1429 and 1436 under Malik-ul- Tujar, and various of the Hindu Rajas had been subdued and made to pay tribute. In 1453 the same leader commanded another expedition, and after reducing several Rajas, one of the Sirk& family agreed to become a Musalman and a faith¬ ful servant of the king, on the condition that the general should first reduce his rival Shankar Rai, Raja of Khelna, and he undertook himself to guide the army through the difficult country that lay between his own fort and Khelna. This offer was accepted, and during the first two days of the march Raja Sirke led the troops along a broad road. But on the third day they entered a very different sort of country, and the fol¬ lowing literal translation, by Briggs, of Ferish- tah’s description is worth giving:—” The paths were so intricate that the male tiger from apprehension might change his sex, and the passes more tortuous than the curly locks of the fair, and more difficult to escape from than the mazes of love. Demons even might start at the precipices and caverns in those wilds, and ghosts might be panic-struck at the awful view of the mountains. Here the sun never en¬ livened with its splendour the valleys : nor had Providence designed that it should penetrate their depths. The very grass was tough and sharp as the tongues of serpents, and the air fetid as the breath of dragons. Death dwelt in the waters, and poison impregnated the
- See Briggs’s Translation, vol. II. pp. 437-8, 483-4.
