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PLACES
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MANDAD
Mandad (T. Mangahv, 18° 35' N, 73° 50' E; p. 1238; RS.
Mumbra, 95 m.) a port in the Mangahv taluka, is situated on the bank of the Mandad river eight miles above its confluence with the Janjira creek, and five or six west of Tala. At Mandad the river meets the tide and is joined from the left by the Bamangad stream. Below Mandad it winds among high woody hills with many views of great beauty. Boats of thirty to seventy tons (120-280 khandis) can reach Mandad at spring tides and boats of 12½ tons (50 khandis) at ordinary high tides. At spring tides small boats of about 6¼ tons (25 khandis) can pass as far as Malati, four miles above Mandad. Mandad is believed as far as Burgess to be the Mandava mentioned in inscriptions of about A. D. 130 in the Kuda caves which lie about a mile and a half to the south. This identification seems probable and Mandad, not Mandla at the mouth of the Banakot creek, may then be the Mandagara of Ptolemy (A. D. 150) and the Mandagord of the Periplus (A. D. 247) [Compare Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency. Vol. X, p. 192.].
On the road from Mandad village to the Kuda caves is a burying-ground of the Mandad Marathas who generally do not burn
but bury their dead. Among the tomb stones and long grave
mounds of the ordinary type are a number of small circles from
five to eight feet in diameter and formed of stones weighing from
twenty to forty pounds. They are of all ages, one or two evidently new. The hewn stone monuments in both this and another
cemetery near the Mandad landing place are richly ornamented
with flower patterns. A number of these hewn stone monuments
have been set up beside the road from the creek to the Mandad
customs post [I Mr. W. F. Sinclair, C. S. As to the stone circles Mr. Sinclair's guide said
that many people made these circles round their relations' graves; that the use of
them as against long or rectangular enclosures was a mere matter of choice; and that
the use of either instead of solid hewn stones was merely dictated by poverty.].
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