PLACES

PANHALA

Panhala (Panhala Mahal; 16° 45' N; 74° 05' E; p. 2,573), is the head-quarters of the Panhala Mahal and is the best health resort in the Kolhapur district. It has two parts, Panhala fort or Killa Panhala, also called Huzur Bazar (head-quarters market) on the hill-top, and the suburbs of Ravivar, Mangalvar, Guruvar and Ibrahampur at the foot of the hill fort. The hill-top is pleasantly broken and adorned with cliffs, pools, and shady springs. Except during the rains the climate is delightful, the days cool, and the nights fresh. The fort is famous for its freedom from cholera chiefly because of its plentiful supply of pure iron-charged water. The best spring is the Nagajhari (Cobra Spring), but it dries up in the hot weather. The chief reservoirs which hold water throughout the year are the Sadoba tank with stone steps 221 feet long, 148 broad and thirty-five deep, and Somala tank also with stone steps 220 feet long, 190 broad and seventeen deep. Of the wells, the chief is the Sringar or Andhar bav which stands west of the fort close to the rampart. [In the Karvir Puran some of the ponds, springs, and wells are mentiioned as tirths or holy pools and bear old mythological names. Thus the Sadoba pool is called Parashar's pool, the Somala ponds Soma pool, the Nagihari spring Nag Pool, the ling well Vasanta pool, the Palang well Madan pond, the Kapur well Ashvalayan pool and the Mhar pond Stambha pool.] Near the old Dharmakothi building, every sunday a market is held attended by about 2,000 people. In this market rice, millet, vegetables, spices, and cloth are sold to the value of about Rs. 580. In the suburbs at the foot of the hill-top another small market is held every Wednesday.

Municipality.

The civic affairs of the town are managed by a municipality established in 1954 under the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901. The municipal area covers one and half sq. miles. The municipal council is composed of 12 members, all nominated by the Government. The Prant Officer, Northern Division, is the ex-officio president of the municipality and looks after the work of the administration of the Panhala municipality. The Superintendent of the hill station is directed to work as a Secretary of the municipality and looks after all the routine work of the municipality and supervises and controls the staff. The municipality functions mostly under a Government grant. The yearly income from municipal taxes and other sources does not exceed Rs. 7,000 (1957-58).

Municipal Services.

There is a Government dispensary in the heart of the town. There is a mobile Government veterinary dispensary for Panhala: the stockman comes to Panhala once a week (i.e., on Wednesdays). There are eight wells and four tanks which supply water to the villages. The Panhala municipality had in. January 1955 constructed a pipe-line viz., Sidbor Pipe Line, by which half of the population of the village is provided with water. There is no special drainage system. There are stone-lined gutters and the cesspools are emptied by the municipality. Compulsory primary education in the town is managed by the Kolhapur District School Board. The annual contribution of the municipality has been fixed at Rs. 3,380, but the municipality has not yet paid any contribution. There is no fire service maintained by the municipality. The approximate length of roads within the municipal area is 8 miles, 7 miles of which are metalled.

Burial places.

Cremation and burial places are not managed by the municipality. There is one place for burial and one for cremation granted for public use by the Government.

Gardens.

The municipality maintains a garden called the Lingbag where the municipality has undertaken to construct a children's park. There is a public library, called the Moropant Granthalaya, and the municipality is constructing a building to house it at a cost of Rs. 17,000. The municipality maintains a rest-house and runs a cafeteria.

Panhala is being developed into a hill station by the Government. The municipality has been trying its utmost to extend all kinds of amenities to the public within its means.

Panhala port.

Panhala Fort crowns one of the tops of the Panhala spur of the Sahyadris, about twelve miles to the north-west of the Kolhapur-Ratnagiri Road. The Panhala uplands are 2772 feet above the sea and about 1300 feet above the Kolhapur plain, and the hill top which the Panhala fort crowns rises about 275 feet above the uplands. The fort is about four and half miles in circumference. For about half the distance it is protected by a scarp thirty to fifty feet high which in places is strengthened by a loopholed parapet wall. For the remaining half the fort is surrounded by a strong stone wall fifteen to thirty feet thick at the top and with bastions at convenient distances for carrying guns. The fort was entered through three magnificent double gateways which were reached from the tableland by long flights of stone steps. Of these three gateways Car Darvaja has been destroyed and third Tin Darvaja and Wagh Darvaja are still entire and are finely built with much light tracery on the door posts and architrave. About forty-six yards from the third gateway a breach about forty yards long marks the spot where the British troops forced an entrance when the fort was held by insurgents in 1844. North of the fort with a gorge about ninety yards wide is a natural basin, whose entrance is guarded by two large raised platforms. Two unfailing reservoirs and many pure springs afford an ample water supply, and a large area of rich soil and abundant brushwood secured a garrison from scarcity of grain or firewood.

History.

Panhala is the traditional residence of the sage Parasr. The Karavir or Kolhapur Puran a compilation of A.D. 1730, mentions Panhala as Pannagalaya or the home of Serpents. In old inscriptions the name appears as Pranlak and Padmanal. A copper plate found in Satara shows that in A. D. 1191-92 Panhala was the seat of the Siahara Bhoja Raja II. (1178-1209) who is first mentioned as living at Valvad, apparently either Valva about fifteen miles south or Valivade about four and half miles north of Kolhapur; in 1187 as ruling at Kolhapur and about three years later (1191) as ruling in Panhala fort. Bhoja Raja is said to have built fifteen forts of which Bavada, Bhudargad, Panhala, Satara and Visalgad are the chief. About A.D. 1209-10 Bhoja Raja was defeated by Singhana (1209-1247) the most powerful of the Devagiri Yadavas. After Bhoja Raja's defeat Panhala seems to have fallen into the hands of petty Maratha chiefs. In 1376 inscriptions record the settlement of Nabhapur to the south-east of the fort. On the establishment of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur in 1489, Panhala came under Bijapur and was fortified with great care. To the Bijapur government are ascribed the strong ramparts and gateways of the fort which according to tradition took a hundred years to build. Numerous inscriptions in the fort refer to the reign of Ibrahim Adil Shah, probably Ibrahim I (1534-1557). In 1659, immediately after the discomfiture

of the Bijapur general Afzal Khan, Sivaji took Panhala from Bijapur. In May 1660, to win back the fort from Sivaji, Ali Adil Shah II (1656-1672) of Bijapur sent Sidi Johar who laid siege to Panhala in which Sivaji had shut himself. After four months siege Sivaji escaped to Rangana about fifty-five miles south-west of Kolhapur, and shortly after Panhala and Pavanagad were taken by Ali Adil Shah in person. In 1673, Sivaji again took Panhala. In 1674, the Bijapur generals made an unsuccessful attempt on the fort, and till his death in 1680 Panhala remained in the hands of Sivaji, who for a time kept his son Sambhajl under guard at Panhala. After Sivaji's death Sambhajl won over to his side the commandant of Panhala and marching on Raigad in the central Konkan overthrew Rajaram's faction and established himself as head of the Marathas. About nine years later in 1669 when Sambhaji was made prisoner by Aurangzeb's general Takribkhan at Sangamesvar in Ratnagiri, Panhala came under the Mughals. In 1692, Panhala was retaken by Parasuram Trimbak, the ancestor of the Kolhapur Pant Pratinidhi family of Visalgad. In 1701, the emperor Aurangzeb laid siege to and took Panhala in person. In this year at Panhala, on the 28th of April, Aurangzeb received the English ambassador Sir William Norris who spent 200 gold mohars (£ 300) in fruitless negotiation with the Moghal emperor. Shortly after, in 1701, Panhala was taken from the Moghals by Ramcandra Pant Amatya. In 1705 Tarabai, the widow of Rajaram (1689-1700) made Panhala her head-quarters. In Tarabai's war with Sahu of Satara in 1708, Sahu took Panhala and Tarabal fled to Malvan in Ratnagiri. Shortly after, in 1709, Tarabal again took Panhala. In 1782 the seat of the Kolhapur government was moved from Panhala to Kolhapur. In 1827 under Sahaji (1821-1837) Panhala and Pavanagad were for a time made over to the British Government. In 1844, during the minority of Sivaji IV (1837-1866), Panhala and Pavanagad were taken by rebels who seized Colonel Ovans, the Resident of Satara, when on tour and imprisoned him in Panhala. A British force was sent against the rebels and on the 1st of December, 1844 breached the fort wall, took it by storm, and dismantled the fortifications. A garrison of 1845 militia and a hundred pieces of ordnance were left to guard the fort.

Present stale of the fort.

Of the ruins on the hill top one of the oldest is the citadel in the centre of the fort, surrounded by high ruined walls enclosing a tangled growth of jack, mango, guava, and other trees and bushes. Nothing remains of, the old palace but stone foundations and plinths hid in shrubs and underwood. Of three enormous stone and cement granaries built with arched roofs and capable of holding provisions for a large army, the largest known as Ganga Kothi, a massive building with two entrances, is nearly choked with rubbish. On either side a staircase leads to a terrace where exist small holes through which large quantities of grain used to be passed. The building is 10,200 feet square and thirty-five feet high. Of the two other granaries, one is 152 feet long, forty feet broad, and eighteen feet high, and the other eighty-eight feet long, thirty-five broad, and thirty high. Besides these three large granaries the Dharma Kothi granary is also a stone building fifty-five feet by forty-eight and thirty-five feet high with an entrance and a staircase leading to a terrace. On the east of the fort close to the rampart stands the Kalavantin's Sajja or courtesans' terrace-room. It is nearly a complete wreck except that traces of fine ornament remain in the ceiling. It is sixty feet by thirty-six and fifty-eight feet high. To the north of the fort stands a palace of His Highness the Maharaja of Kolhapur, a stone and mud structure two storeyed and tile-roofed with room for a hundred to two hundred men. To the east of the palace close to the rampart is a massive stone and mortar building called the Sajjekothi. It is two-storeyed, thirty-six feet by thirty-one and forty-one feet high with one entrance and a staircase leading to the upper storey. On the south of the fort close to the rampart stands a small stone building called the Talimakhana or wrestling house with three domed rooms. The Redemahal to the south of the mamlatdar's office is 101' x 53' x 36' high. Close to the Mamlatdar's office stands Sambhaji Maharaja's temple, ninety feet by forty-six and including the spire fifty-five feet high. The temple is surrounded by an arch roofed building which is used as a rest-house. Opposite Sambhaji's temple is another dedicated to Jijibai Saheb the wife of Sambhaji Maharaja (1712-1760). Of Musalman buildings the most important is the shrine of Sadhoba a Musalman saint. It is surrounded by a stone and mud wall and is twenty-nine feet square and including the dome fifty feet high. Every year a fair or urus is held. This place is said to have been the seat of the sage Parasar whose name the Karavir Mahatmya associates with several objects of interest on Panhala hill. Among these objects to the south of the fort is a rock-cut cave of the sage Parasar.

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