PLACES

KARNALA OR FUNNEL HILL

Karnala Fort (T. Panvel; 18°50' N. 73°05' E.) stands on a hill 1.560 feet high, a few miles north-west of the Patalganga river and eight miles south of Panvel. Its command of the high road between the Bor pass and the Panvel and Apta rivers must, from the earliest times, have made Karnala a place of importance. The hill has an upper and a lower fort. In the centre of the upper fort is the funnel, an almost inaccessible basalt pillar from 100 to 150 feet high. The scarp that forms the outer fort is crested by a masonry wall, entered through a gate in the north-west corner. Through the gate a path leads, across the plateau of the lower fort, to the scarp that forms the inner or upper fort, which, like the underscarp, is crested by a wall. Two gateways, one at the foot and the other at the top of a flight of rock-cut steps, lead to a double gateway with a chamber between. Between these gates and the funnel rock are some ruined buildings, and, at the north base of the funnel, is a series of excavations some for store-houses, others for water. The funnel is locally known as the Pandu's tower, but there is nothing in the excavations that suggests a religious origin. The funnel is full of bees and the natives sometimes climb it to get their honey. One or two Europeans are said to have reached the top with the help of ropes and ladders. The south-west of the hill is better wooded than the north, and commands a beautiful view of the island-studded harbour of Bombay and of the sea beyond. There are two inscriptions in the fort, one Marathi, the other Persian. The Marathi inscription is on the inner side of the lower gate. It has no date and the words are so contracted that all attempts to read it have failed. [For details see Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XIV. Appendix A.] The Persian writing outside the upper gate runs: Syed Nuruddin Muhammad Khan, Hijri, 1147 (A.D. 1735).' [For details see Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XIV. Appendix A.]

According to Major Jervis, under the Devagiri Yadavs (1248- 1318) and under the Musalman (1318-1347} rulers of Daulatabad, Karnala was the headquarters of one of the districts of the north-Konkan. In 1540 it was taken from its Gujarat garrison by a body of Ahmadnagar troops. The Gujarat commanders came to Bassein and asked the Portuguese to help them in gaining it back. The Portuguese sent 300 Europeans, took the place, and restored it to Gujarat. Shortly after, the Ahmadnagar troops again advanced against Karnala, and the Gujarat commander retired to Bassein and made over the right to the fort to the Portuguese on condition that they should undertake its defence. Menezes, the Captain of Bassein, came to the rescue of the fort, and put the besieging army to flight. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 40-41; Faria in Kerr. VI., 368.] Afterwards the Portuguese Viceroy, to gain the friendship of Ahmadnagar king Burhan Nizam Shfih, handed him the fort on his agreeing to pay a yearly sum of 5,000 gold pardaos. [Felner's Subsidios, II. 117-120, quoted in Da Cunha's Bassein, 41; De Couto, IV., 201; Col. de Mon. Ined, VII., 118; Da Cunha's Bassein, 42.] In 1666, Jayasing placed garrison in the fort on behalf of the Moghals. [Grant Duff, Vol.1, 170.] In 1670 Sivaji captured it: from them. [Grant Duff, Vol.1, 191. The Bombay Records in mentioning this siege say 'The Marathas advanced by throwing up breastworks of earth and boards which they carried before them.] On Sivaji's death it was recovered by Aurangzeb, and the Persian writing- given above seems to show that it was kept by the Moghals at least till 1735. It must have shortly after passed to the Marathas, as by 1740 the Pesva's power was established all over the district. In May 1803 a party of the 13th Regiment, N. I., in the interest of the Pesva Bajirav, attacked and carried the fort by forcing the gate. In January 1818 Colonel Prother took it from the Marathas. [Blue Book 1819 War in Nairne's Konkan, 1 14.] The fort is in a state of bad repair. Many of its walls and pillars have come down. The water cisterns are in good condition and afford good drinking water throughout the year. The fort is easily visible from the Bombay-Konkan-Goa State Highway from where a rough path leads to the hill top.

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