KARANJA.

Karanja or Uran Island, north latitude 18° 51' and east longitude 73° 2', about eight
miles long and four broad, lies, in the south-east of Bombay harbour, about six miles
south-east of the Carnac pier in Bombay. On the east it is cut off from the mainland by
the Bendkhal creek, which at high tides is filled through its whole length. The island
rises in two bare rocky hills, the smaller in the north and the larger in the south, between
which lies a stretch of grass and rice lands wooded with mango trees and brab palms. On
the east the salt pans have broken the creek into several small branches, but one arm,
running from Mora Bandar in the north to Uran, is large enough to allow boats to pass to
Uran at high tide.
The rock of the island is trap crossed by dykes of black basalt. The trap beds, which are
greenish and bluish and more or less amygdaloid, vary in structure and density. The
water-supply is good. There are three built reservoirs, one along the roadside about half
way between Mora Bandar and Uran, a second between Uran and Karanja, and the third
and largest, called Bhinala, in Uran, is about a quarter of a mile round. Besides these
three built reservoirs, many ponds and wells hold water for several months after the
rains. The drinking water comes from springs of which the best, on a little hill not far
from the Collector's house, runs with a full and constant stream into a reservoir built by
the late Mr. Richard Spooner, Commissioner of Customs. In a narrow ravine in the
larger hill, is a small square rock-cut room with a narrow entrance formerly protected by
masonry. From the roof of this chamber a constant dropping of clear wholesome water
forms a pool three or four feet deep. On the same hill, close by a ruined church, is a
closed Portuguese well or reservoir of excellent water.
Besides its rice crop, which is of considerable value, the island has two special exports,
salt worth about £469,185 and moha liquor worth about £165,900 a year. The chief other
industry is fishing. The salt pans, which cover about 3000 acres, lie in the great tidal
marsh to the east of the island. The marsh is crossed by a long winding creek with
numerous arms. The great area of the works, the shining white pans with their regular
boundaries and rows of salt heaps, in spite of monotony and barrenness, have a curious
impressive effect. The Karanja salt pans are probably very old. But the only reference
that has been traced is Mandelslo's (1638) notice of the salt of Oranu-Bammara,
apparently Uran-Mumbai. [Mandelslo's Voyages, 222.] In 1820 about 20,000 tons of salt
were made every year. The trade was said to give high profits to the merchants and
yielded a revenue of about £1100 (Rs. 11,000). Uran salt was thought better than any salt
made further south. [ Description of Hindustan, II, 175.] During the last five years the
export of salt has been estimated at 51,125 tons, and the yearly revenue at £271,934 (Rs.
27,19,340). The other great manufacture, the distilling of spirits, yields a yearly revenue
of from £105,000 to £115,000. There are nineteen brick and tiled distilleries at the Mora
pier, all owned and managed by Parsis. Almost all the spirit is made from moha flowers,
brought chiefly through Bombay from the Panch Mahals and Jabalpur. The sea trade
returns show, for the five years ending 1878-79, average exports worth £400,615 and
imports worth £56,406. Exports varied from £263,275 in 1878-79 to £503,285 in 1877-
78, and imports from £46,115 in 1874-75 to £61,013 in 1878-79. [Karanja has two
landing places, Mora and Karanja. The details are: Mora, Exports 1874-75 £272,192,
1875-76 £272,557, 1876-77 £314,597, 1877-78 £365,363, and 1878-79 £198,680;
Imports 1874-75 £40,902, 1875-76 £50,068, 1876-77 £44,344, 1877-78 £47,818, 1878-
79 £49,095. Karanja, Exports 1874-75 £65,455, 1875-76 £201,537, 1876-77 £110,777,
1877-78 £137,922, 1878-79 £64,694; Imports 1874-75 £5213, 1875-76 £13,225, 1876-
77 £9126, 1877-78 £10,322, 1878-79 £11,917.]
A metalled road runs along the whole east side of the island, and a road, 14½ miles long,
is being made between Uran and Panvel. A steam ferry boat runs daily between Bombay
and Uran or Mora, calling at Hog Island and Ulva near Panvel and returning the same
day. The fares from Bombay to Uran and Karanja, which are distant six and twelve miles
respectively, are 4s. (Rs. 2) first class, 1s. and 1s. 6d. (8 and 12 as.) second class, and 6d.
and 9d. (4 and 6 as.) for a deck passage.
History.
The only early remains as yet found in Karanja are, on the east face of the Kharavli or
Kharpuse hill, about twenty feet above distillery number five, a small plain rock-cut
chapel, cell, and cistern apparently Buddhist, and some plain cells in Dronagiri hill.
Three land-grant stones have also been found, showing, that in the twelfth century, under
the Silharas, the island had gardens and villages. [Details of the Kharavli or Kharpuse
caves and of the three grant-stones are given under Objects of Interest.] Under the
Portuguese (1530-1740) Karanja was the extreme south of the Bassein province. In the
sixteenth century it was a populous island with two forts, one on the east, in the present
town of Uran, and the other on the top of the southern peak. The fort on the southern
peak was built in the form of a square, with an armed bastion at three of the corners.
Close to it were the garrison barracks. [The strength of the garrison was a captain, six
soldiers, one bombardier, and five peons, the cost was £24 8s. (30,000 reis to the captain
and 480 pardaos for the rest). Da Cunha's Bassein, 202.] A hundred armed men were
maintained for the defence of the island. In 1535 Fr. Antonio do Porto built the church of
Sam Francisco and two other churches, Nossa Senhora de Salvacao and N. S. de Penha.
All these are now in ruins. There was also the church of N. S. do Rozario and a
Dominican hermitage built by Father Gen. T. Jeronimo da Paixao. A long winding flight
of stone steps ran up the south hill, and, on the top, besides the fort, were garrison
barracks and the ruins of the church of N. S. da Penha. It is said that when the
foundations of this church were dug a blue stone was found with an image of the Virgin.
[Da Cunha's Bassein, 202. Bishop Osorio (1504-1580) states that the Portuguese found a
majestic Christian temple in Karanja. This is probably incorrect. The figure of the Virgin
Mary may have been one of the mothers or matrikas suckling the infant Kartikeya the
Hindu god of war, like the figure lately found in Elephants island. The blue stone may
have been covered with the blue enamel which has also been found in Elephants. See
above, pp. 91, 96,] In 1538 the island is described as two hills and a plain between, very
rich with orchards and rice fields. [Prim Rot. da Ind. 64.] In 1550 it is mentioned as
having a tower and bastion and other houses. [Col. de Mon. Ined. V-2, 216.] In 1571 it
was attacked by a party of Ahmadnagar troops from Chaul, but the garrison put them to
flight leaving the island covered with dead bodies. [Da Cunha's Chaul, 50.] In 1585 the
Franciscans are mentioned as having got charge of Karanja. [Archivo V. 1083 in
Nairne's Konkan, 53.] In 1613 Karanja was the scene of a great riot which was quelled
by the courage of Captain Fernao de Sampayo da Cunha. [Da Cunha's Bassein, 203.] In
1634 Karanja is described as a walled village, a gunshot from the fort, with thirty
Portuguese families and slaves. In the same year it is mentioned as bounded by six
Ahmadnagar townships, Karnala, Drago?, Pen, Sabayo (Shahabaj), Abeta (Apta?), and
Panvel. From there the Moors could easily pass to the island, and the river between
could be crossed dryshod at low tide and at high tide was not more than knee deep. The
soil was fruitful and there was a good manufacture of a cloth Called teadas. [O Chron.
de Tis. III. 261. In 1634, besides a balance to the state, Karanja paid £187 (5000
pardaos) a year to the bishop of Cranganor and £30 (800 pardaos) to the Japan Jesuits.]
In 1670 Karanja and several other towns were plundered by Partabrao Gujar, a leader of
Maratha cavalry. [Grant Duff, 111. The Surat factors particularly notice this incursion
which they supposed Shiva'ji headed in person. They mention that he very severely
plundered Karanja and carried away all the chief men except such as escaped in womens
clothes.] In 1682, it was taken from the Portuguese by Sambhaji, apparently without
resistance, and held by him for nearly a year, when it was recovered by the Portuguese.
[Orme's Hist. Frag. 126. Mendonca's Topography of Karanja, 9; Da Cunha's Chaul and
Bassein, 67.] In 1720 Captain Hamilton notices it as a Portuguese island, with no trade
but furnishing eatables for Bombay. [New Account 242.] In 1728 the fort had six pieces
of ordnance varying from one to six pounders. The defences were out of repair. [O
Chron. de Tis. I. 32.] In 1737, when the Marathas attacked Thana, the commandant fled
to Karanja. But Karanja was soon after taken. In 1774, after the fall of Versova, Colonel
Keating marched to Karanja and took possession. [Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, I. 453.] In
the following March the conquest was confirmed by the treaty of Surat, the confirmation
was repeated in March 1776 by the treaty of Purandhar, and it was finally ratified by the
treaty of Salbai in 1782. [Aitchison's Treaties, V. 21, 33, 41.] In 1775 the town was
described as lying between two lofty mountains on the west side, in size nothing more
than a large Maratha village, with low straggling houses near a pond covered with wild
duck and waterfowl. On its banks were a small fort, a Portuguese church, and a Hindu
temple. [Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, I. 453-454.] In 1781 a resident was appointed.
[Nairne's Konkan, 103. In 1781 the revenue of Karanja, chiefly from rice, was estimated
at £6000 (Rs. 60,000). Bombay in 1781, 3.] In 1788 Hove, the Polish traveller, found it
poorly inhabited. The soil was fertile, but the people spent their time either in fishing or
in palm-juice drawing for which they found a good market in Bombay. On one of the
hills were the ruins of a fort. [Hove's Tours, 189. Hove also mentions, but apparently
incorrectly, several marks of a former volcano, and, in the chasm, pieces of iron ore both
solid and in the form of ashes, and two species of zeolite.] The revenue for 1813,
including £3336 of land revenue, £1651 of excise, and £4091 of customs, was £9078
and the expenditure £1566. In 1820 Hamilton noticed that convicts were sent from
Bombay and employed in cleaning ponds, repairing banks, and keeping the roads in
order. [Desc. of Hind. II. 174.]
The island, which is now generally called Uran, forms a petty division of twenty-two
villages under Panvel. At high tide the Bendkhal creek surrounds it and cuts it off from
the mainland. Mora, in the north, lies at the foot of a range of low hills. The beach is
rocky and muddy, and most of the people are fishers living in low ill-built huts. Mora is
the chief port of the island where passengers land and embark for Bombay. Most of the
large buildings are connected with the distilleries. There is also a custom house, and, on
a plateau about 100 feet above the village, a residence for the excise officer. Karanja in
the south is a small fishing village with little trade and only a few good houses. The
details of the town of Uran, which is a place of some consequence, are given separately.
The Christian population of 413 has a church dedicated to Our Lady of Purification. It
was rebuilt in 1852 by Manuel DeSouza, mamlatdar of Salsette, and measures 65 feet
long by 27 broad and 30 high. The priest has a house and is paid £3 (Rs. 30) a month by
the Goa government. There are three ruined churches, St. Francis, 124 feet long 58 wide
and 30 high, has the nave unroofed but the sanctuary still arched and in good order; Our
Lady of Salvation, 70 feet long by 26 broad and 20 high; and, on the top of Dronagiri
hill, Our Lady of Penha, well preserved, and measuring 50 feet long by 15 broad and 14
high. There are also two chapels, St. John the Baptist's, the Buddhist rock-cut chapel in
the east face of Kharavli hill, and, at the foot of the hill, Our Lady of Help, on the site of
which a Hindu temple now stands. In the village of Sheweh is a ruined church of which
the broken walls of the graveyard are the only trace.
Objects of Interest.
The chief objects of interest are the ruins on the top of Dronagiri the southern hill. They
include the Portuguese fort, the guard house, and the church of Notre Senhora de Penha,
and are approached by a long and winding flight of steps. On the slope of the hill are
some plain cells now generally filled with water. [For details see Appendix A.] On the
east face of the north hill, which is called either Kharavli or Kharpuse, about twenty feet
above distillery number five, is a small rock-cut cave (25' x 24' x 10') apparently
Buddhist. The front of the cave is supported on two square pillars with pot capitals.
Opposite the middle of the entrance, in a rectangular recess in the back wall, nine inches
deep, is carved in the rock what looks like a Christian altar, but may be a small relic
shrine or daghoba. The cave has signs of whitewash. To the north is a small room about
eight feet square with a water cistern about two feet deep.
Three of the inscribed stones in the Collector's garden at Thana were brought from
Karanja, two from Chanjeh three miles to the south, and one from Ranvad about a mile
to the north-west of Uran. The earliest is a Chanjeh stone (3' 6" x 1' 3" x 6"). The
inscription of sixteen lines is well preserved. The characters are Devanagari and the
language is Sanskrit. It is dated Shak 1060 Magh Shuddh 1 (January-February, A.D.
1138) and records the grant of a field named Ambe in Nagum, [Nagum is probably
Nagaon three miles north-west of Chanjeh.] and of a garden belonging to one Joiak, by
the Silhara king Aparaditya, to Shridhar, learned in the kramas, [Krama is a peculiar
method of reading and writing Vedic texts, ' going step by step ' so called because the
reading proceeds from the first number (word or title) to the second, then the second is
repeated and connected with the third, the third repeated and connected with the fourth
and so on.] for the spiritual benefit of Aparaditya's mother Liladevi. The inscription
records, on the occasion of an eclipse of the sun, another grant by Aparaditya of a garden
in the Chedija (Chanjeh?) village to worshippers of Mahadev, batus or badvas and to
Vishtikas (?). The next in order of date is the Ranvad stone (3' 8"x 1' 6"x 9"). Above are
the sun and moon with an urn-shaped water pot between them. The letters are well
preserved Devanagari, and the language is Sanskrit mixed with Marathi. The inscription
records a grant of land in Padivas in Uran, on Shak 1171 Chaitra Vadya 1 (April-May,
A.D. 1249), the day of a solar eclipse, by the Silhara king Someshvara. The king's
ministers were Jhampada Prabhu the great councillor, Deva (?) Prabhu the great minister
of war and peace, and Dada Prabhu the chief justice. The last in order of date is the other
Chanjeh stone. It records the grant of 162 paruttha drammas, [The paruttha dramma
was probably a Kshatrapa coin current in the Silhara territory. Its value was about 6d. (4
as.). But 6d. (4 as.) had then probably as much purchasing power as 2s. (Re. 1) has now.
Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji.] the fixed revenue of some garden land of Kothalsthan in
Chadiche (Chanjeh?) in Uran, to Uttareshvar of Shristhanak (Thana). The grant was
made in the reign of Someshvara, on Monday Chaitra Vadya 14th Shak 1182 (A.D.
1260). Someshvara's ministers were Jhampada Prabhu the great councillor, Maina (Ku?)
Bebala Prabhu and Peramde Pandit ministers of peace and war, and Padhi Goven (Ku?)
the minister of justice and of finance.
On a small hill about two miles to the south of the village of Mora are two Government
houses, one for the use of the Collector of Thana, the other of the resident officer of the
customs department.