PLACES

TASGAoN

Tasganv, 17° 2' north latitude and 74° 40' east longitude, the headquarters of the taluka of the same name, is a municipal town of 16,649 inhabitants. It is 102.99 km (sixty-four miles) south-east of Satara by the Satara-Tasganv road. The route via Karhad though 3.21 km (two miles) distant is much more convenient. Now the place is generally approached by a visitor by getting down at Bhilavadi, a railway station on the Poena-Miraj route of the South-Central Railway, from where Tasganv is only 9.65 km (six miles) to the west.

The town is on a slightly elevated ground on the north bank of a stream flowing; into the Yerla about 6.43 km (four miles) to the south-west. The Satara- Tasganv road crosses the Yerla 4.82 km (three miles) west of Tasgahv. Except during monsoons its bed runs very dry and though the floods last for a very short time they are very sudden. This stream is the major source of water-supply and during summer pits are dug in its bed to get drinking water. To the northern side of the town there are seven draw wells which also hold a good quantity of water.

Tasganv is a commercial centre of some repute in the district and has a large community of traders, The great trade of the town is in cotton. The principal crops grown are cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, groundnuts and chillis. The traders locally purchase these commodities and send them to the markets of Satara, Solapur, Poona and Ciplun. In exchange commodities like salt, sugar, piece-goods. metals and spices are brought. At present a market committee is functioning in the town and there is a proposal to set up an industrial estate. There is a considerable population of weavers engaged in weaving handloom cloth: they have formed a co-operative society. In addition there are co-operative societies of the blacksmiths and carpenters.

The mamlatdar's office, the police station and the sub-registry are housed in one and the same building. The court which for a long time used to he housed in an old dilapidated building has now decent premises. There is a municipal civil dispensary and a maternity home. A veterinary centre is under the management of the Zilla Parisad. The town has a seed and seedlings growing centre, a post and telegraph office and a depot of the state transport corporation. Besides the primary schools there arc two high schools, two Training colleges, one each for males and females, and an Arts and Commerce college run by the Svami Vivekanand Education Society. For the first five years from its. inception, the college received an annual grant of Rs. 10,000 from the town municipality. The municipality also makes an annual grant of Rs. 900 to the general library of the town.

Municipality.

Constituton— municipality here was established in 1865. Its jurisdicton extends over an area of 43.41 km² (16.76 sq. miles). Administrative affairs are looked after by the president who is elected by the councillors from among themselves.

Finance—In 1961-62 the income of the municipality from all sources excluding extraordinary and debt heads amounted to Rs, 1,51,399. It comprised revenue derived from municipal rates and taxes Rs. 1,16,359. government grants Rs. 18,840 and miiscellaneous Rs. 16,220. Expenditure during the same year amounted to Rs. 1,51,118. It comprised general administration and collection charges Rs. 29,816, public safety Rs. 20,001, public health and convenience Rs. 60,769, public instruction Rs. 30,900 and miscellaneous Rs. 9,632.

Health and Sanitation.—The municipality runs a civil dispensary and a maternity home. The drains are pucca stone-lined gutters. Wells and a stream form the only source of water-supply.

Education.—Primary education is compulsory and is looked after by the Zilla Parisad. The rate of contribution paid by the municipality is 3.81 per cent of the capital value which generally comes to about Rs. 20,231 per annum.

Cremation and Burial Places,—Only two such places are maintained by the municipality viz., one for Hindus and the other for Muslims on the southern and eastern sides of the town respectively.

Objects.

Tasganv had defence fortifications but those now lie amidst ruins. There are four gates of which the Bhilavadi gate forms the entrance on the western side from the Tasganv-Bhilavadi-Atsa road. Pursuing this road at a turn on the right is the dispensary. Another 45.72 metres (fifty yards) to the left or north side of the road is the school. On the southern side is the large mansion of the Tasganv Patvardhan family. Close by the school a street crosses this road at right angles. This, is the Somvar Peth and here stands the Somvar gate similar to that of the Bhilavadi gate. Turning south through a winding continuation of the Somvar street is reached the sacred shrine of Ganapati. Here again the road turns east and passing through a large gateway crowned with the Nagarkhana or the kettle drum room, having on its north in a room the triumphal car of the god. After about 91,44 metres (hundred yards) east through a broad street lined with shops, comes another cross street the Guruvar Peth. It turns from north to south. The streets of Tasganv, more especially the Guruvar Peth, and the 91.44 metres (100 yards) east from Ganapati's. temple, are usually broad and the whole town is better off for space.

Ganapati Temple.

The chief buildings are the Patvardhan mansion and the temple of Ganapati also built by the Patvardhans. The mansion of the Patvardhan family is a set of buildings of the ordinary type, with front and back courts and the private dwelling house between with several verandahs. It is situated in an enclosure about 32.51 m² (360 feet square) surrounded by mud and stone walls from 6.70 (twenty-two) to 9.14 metres (thirty feet) high on the outside, 6.09 metres (twenty feet) on the inside, and 3.04 metres (ten feet) broad all round. There are three chief gates, a small one about 9.14 metres (thirty feet) from the north-west corner and two large ones at the centre of the north and east corners. There are lofty archways fortified on each side. The northern gate was built by the greatest of the Patvardhans, Parasuram Bhau, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century, and is often mentioned in his Indian Despatches by General Arthur Wellesely afterwards the Duke of Wellington. He left by this gate for his last battle (1799) where he was defeated and slain. In grief at his loss the gate was blocked up and remains so still. The stabling ran along the inside of the north wall. The most strongly fortified is the eastern gate which is flanked by thick walls and commanded by three towers on the southern side. The four corners of the enclosure and the centre of its southern side are surmounted by bastions. A small temple is near the north-west gate, and a well near the temple of Ganapati was begun in 1779 by Parasuram Bhau and finished in 1799 by his son Appa. It consists of an image-chamber and a hall of plain but finely worked stone. The image-chamber is 9.44 x 8.83 metres (thirty-one feet by twenty-nine feet) and the hall 13.71x 10.36 metres (forty-five by thirty-four feet). The image-chamber has a spire 10.36 metres (thirty-four feet) high from rhe ground, flanked by smaller ones 2.43 metres (eight feet) shorter. These are all brick and rather tastefully decorated stucco. The hall consists of a nave with two aisles made by two rows of pillars with a 3.04 metres (ten feet) space between them, are shrines of the bull nandi and the man-eagle Garud 6.40 metres (twenty-one feet) high including the pinnacles. They consist of open canopies 0.557 m² (six feet square) and crowned by pinnacles 2.43 metres (eight feet) high. The courtyard has a wall 3.04 metres (ten feet) high with a promenade on the top. The entrance to this courtyard contains the most striking object in the building, a gateway formed by a masonry arch surmounted by a tower of the form so frequent in Southern India and known as the Gopur [The Gopur is a large and lofty pinnacle. Gopur at Gadag in Mysore State can be compared with this.]. It is seven storeyed, gradually tapering till the top storey is a mere ridge. The outer ends curve towards one another like the hoods of the cobra; while at the centre is a pointed urn or kailas. The lowest storey measures 11.27 metres (thirty seven feet) from east to west. The whole is 29.08 metres (ninety-five feet and five inches) high, and the kalas and curved arms are 0.17 metres (seven inches) higher. The lowest storey is of stone and rhe rest of brick covered with coloured stucco carved into images of gods and goddesses. On each side are stairs or ascending the Gopiir with opening in the centre of each storey. The top storey gives a capital bird's eye view of the surrounding country and of Tasganv itself. East of the Gopur is another lower gateway and looking back the Gopur appeares to rise gradually behind the gateway, and looks much like a huge snake rearing its head above the entrance to the town. From top to the bottom images of various deities are laid on the Gopur. The Gopur is unrivalled in beauty and magnificence in this part of the country. Thousands of persons gather an the day of the Ganes Caturthi festival.

History.

In 1730, Tasganv is mentioned as one of the villages which were ceded by Sambhaji, Raja of Kolhapur to Sahu of Satara (1708) [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol.I., P.375.] About 1758 the French scholar Anquetil du Perron notices Tasganv as a great walled town protected by towers and a ditch. The country round was pretty and tilled [Zend Avesta, I ccxxv.]. In the reign of the fourth Pesva Madhavarav (1761-1772) Tasganv and its neighbourhood were taken from Kolhapur and added to the Pesva's territory as jagirs of the Patvardhans. In 1777 they were temporarily recovered by Kolhapur, but Mahadaji Sinde succeeded in preventing their permanent loss. Parasuram Bhau Patvaradhan built a palace for himself and embellished his town, Tasganv, with care and labour for years and made it the permament residence for his family. In June 1790 Major Price notices Tasganv as having recently risen to importance. The palace was a respectable if not a handsome structure and Parasuram was trying to beautify the town. Near the palace was a neat temple of Ganapati [Memoirs of a Field Officer, 193.]. In 1799 the Kolhapur forces attacked and pillaged Tasganv, then the capital of Paras'uram Bhau's jagir and burnt his palace [Grant Duff's Marathas, 547.]. Parasuram Bhau on his part led a campaign of revenge against the Chatrapatis of Kolhapur in which he was defeated and killed. In 1827 Captain Clunes notices Tasganv as belonging to the Patvardhans with 1,610 houses 266 shops and wells [Itinerary, 33.]. In 1848 the Tasganv territories lapsed to rhe British like so many other states during the period of Lord Dalhousie and hence Patvardhans of Tasganv became ordinaly landlords. During the 1857 war of independence to overcome the southern Maratha chiefs and to check the rising which it was thought might follow the annexation of the Patvardhan chief's territories on his decease without male issue, troops were stationed at Tasganv, No disturbance occurred and the troops returned at the beginning of the fair season of 1858.

TOP