Baglan
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Baglan
A tract of country north of the Satmala Hills in Nasik District, Bombay, which is now represented by the Baglan and Kalvan Talukas. Baglan is a region of hills and streams, and has long been noted for the excellence of its garden cultivation.
In the earliest times of which record remains, the tract appears to have been held by a family of Rathors, claiming kinship with the Rathors of Kanauj, and to have formed a prosperous principality by reason of the fact that through it ran the main line of traffic between the Deccan and Gujarat. Up to the commencement of the seven- teenth century the Rathors of Baglan, who adopted the honorific title of Baharji, and coined their own money, wielded considerable power; but they were from time to time reduced to the position of tributaries by the Sultans of Gujarat or the overlords of the Northern Deccan. The first authentic notice of Baglan is in 1298, when Rai Karan, the last king of Anhilvada, after his defeat by Ulugh Khan, fled thither and maintained himself as an independent chieftain with the aid of Ramdeo of Deogiri.
It is probable that at this date the Rathors of Baglan were tributaries of the Yadavas of Deogiri. After the overthrow of Ramdeo,, the country became an apanage of the Musalman rulers of Deogiri ; but in 1347, during the disturbances which resulted in the Deccan becoming independent of Delhi, it passed out of the possession of the Bahmani kings. Thus in 1366 the Baglan chief is mentioned as allying himself with the rebel Bairam Khan against Muhammad Shah Bahmani I ; while five years later, when Malik Raja, the founder of the Faruki dynasty, established himself in Khandesh, the chief was forced to become a tributary of Delhi. During the fifteenth century Baglan was subject to the Ahmadabad Sultans, and in 1429 was laid waste by Ahmad Shah Bahmani I ; and save for a short period commencing in 1499, when the Baglan chiefs were forced to recognize the overlord- ship of the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar, they remained vassals of Ahmadabad until Akbar's conquest of Gujarat in 1573. The country is described in the Aiti-i-Akbarl (1590) as a mountainous and populous region between Surat and Nandurbar, in which excellent fruit of various kinds was grown. The chief was a Rathor in command of 8,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry, and possessed seven fortresses, two of which, Mulher and Salher, were posts of exceptional strength.
On his conquest of Khandesh in 1599, Akbar attempted to take Baglan ; but after a seven years' siege was forced to compound with the chief, Pratap Shah, giving him several villages in return for an undertaking to protect all merchants passing through his territory, to send presents to the emperor, and to leave one of his sons as a hostage at Burhanpur.
Bairam Shah, who succeeded Pratap Shah, was attacked and reduced to the position of a vassal by Aurangzeb in 1637. A description of the country at that date is given in Elliot's History of India, vol. vii. A temperate climate, abundance of water, and the cultivation of excel- lent fruit combined to render it famous. It measured 200 miles in length by 160 in breadth, and contained 30 petty subdivisions and about 1,000 villages. It was bounded on the north by Sultanpur and Nandurbar; on the east by Chandor; on the south by Trimbak and Nasik ; and on the west by Surat and the territory of the Portuguese. Tavernier (1640-66) speaks of Baglan as containing a large variety of valuable trees, vast quantities of antelope, hare, and partridge, and wild cows (probably bison) in its more mountainous parts. Sugar-cane was largely grown and supplied many sugar-mills and furnaces ; and the country generally derived much profit from the continuous stream of traffic between Surat and Golconda, which passed along its well- protected highways.
Between 1670 and 1672 the Marathas appeared and succeeded in taking Salher fort, which, however, was eventually restored to the Muhammadans in 1684. Under the rule of the Nizam, who rose to independent power in the Deccan in 1724, a commandant was appointed to Mulher and a governor to Baglan ; and this system seems to have been followed till 1795, when Baglan was ceded by the Nizam to the Peshwa, who placed it, together with Khandesh, in charge of a Sarsubahdar. The fort of Salher is supposed to have been granted by the Peshwa to Rani Gahinabai, wife of Govind Rao Gaik- war, who, after the battle of Dhodap (1768), remained for some time at Poona as a state prisoner and afterwards ruled at Baroda from 1793 to 1800. On the overthrow of the Peshwa, Mulher fort was surrendered to the English on July 3, 181 8, and the territory of Baglan was incor- porated in Khandesh District. In 1869 Baglan was transferred to Nasik District; and in 1875 it was, with its petty subdivisions of Jai- khedan and Abhona, formed into two talukas — Baglan and Kalvan.
