PLACES

KUTASA

Kutasa, is a village to the south-cast of Akot, ten miles from Akot town situated in 20⁰ 55' north latitude and 77⁰05' east longitude. If had a large tank which was put in order in 1874 and is said to have been very useful for 20 years, nut now it has silted up; at one time it was used for boating purposes. It had, according to the Census of 1971, a population of 3962 souls. It has a post office, and a middle school. Wells, a tank and a nallah form the main sources of water supply. However, scarcity of water is often felt. Medical facilities are provided by an ayurvedic dispensary conducted by the Zilla Parishad. A weekly market is held in the village on every Sunday. If was formerly a taraf of Dahihanda pragana and had half the pragana under it; it is said to have had 40 salt-wells, each of which produced on an average salt of the value of Rs. 1,000 annually. People derive the name from Koteshvara Mahadeva whose temple stands in the middle of the village. It is a Hemadpanti temple and further foundations were discovered about sixty years ago when a great deal of new building was put up. The temple has a short inscription in Devanagri on one of the pillars, but it has not yet been deciphered. Beneath the letters is the form of a woman with her head turned back and holding a sword in her hand.

The temple has an inam of 32 acres of land. Two festivals, mostly of local intetest, one in honour of Koteshvara Mahadev and the other in honour of Making Shah Vali are held in the village the first on Chaitra Shuddha 7 (March-April) and the second in Jul;-August and are attended by about 200 and 100 persons, respectively.

The old Gazetteer states, 'An unusual story is told about the earlier fortunes of Kutasa. It contained a population of 5,000 when Shahbuddin Khan was appointed kamaishdar, with the unties of collecting land revenue and supervising the salt wells. He kept a Mang mistress and threatened to make the deshmukhs caress her children. While this quarrel was at its height the kamaishdar became the worse for liquor and attacked Raoji, son of vithuji Deshmukh, with a sword. The Deshmukh caused an illegitimate son of his, called Ghusha. to shoot the officer. In fear of the vengeance of the Government practically every soul left the village and went to live elsewhere, and it was long before any real recovery took place. The tomb of Malangshahmiya is situated on the bandh of the tank and is kept in good order, though it is; very plain tomb. He was one of the Chaudah San Palki, and in his time Kutasa contained 18,000 people, but suffered greatly from lack of water The avalya proposed to produce springs of good water in the tank but was opposed by Gangaji Khanduji Deshmukh on the ground that increased prosperity would involve increased suffering from Government in matters of sarbarai-details of administration thus shown to form a very old difficulty. Malangshahmiya went to Hyderabad and got an order against the Deshmukh, but the latter refused to heed it. The avalya became enraged and dashing his hands upon the ground laid on the Deshmukh the curse that for ever the senior representative of his family should be mad- an entail of insanity. People now give details of six generations, covering the whole period from that time to this, in four of which the curse has come true, while in another the heir to it died young. It is said also that Malangshahmiya used sometimes to plant the twigs with which he had cleaned his teeth, and they struck root and grew. He had a disciple called Budhsingh who was a Takankar by caste and who presently went to live at Panori four miles away. Malangshahmiya died there but was buried at Kutasa, and vows are often made at his tomb.

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