POSITION AND AREA.

THE State of Kolhapur [The ancient name of Kolhapur appears to have been Karvir, and though to a great extent superseded by the more modern and better known name, Karvir survives. Sarkar Karvir is the name by which the Kolhapur State is known in the vernacular, and the mamlatdar's district, in which the capital is situated is the Karvir sub-division. The present name has given rise to the legend of Kola an asur or demon whom the goddess Mahalakshmi slew on a hill near the city. The most likely origin is kolih the Kanarese name for the lotus.] lies between 17° 10' 45" and 15° 50' 20' north latitude and 74° 44' 11" and 73° 43' 16" east longitude. Including the. outlying districts of Raybag and Katkol in the east and south-east, the state has an area of 2493 square miles and in 1881 had 800,000 people or 320 to the square mile and a yearly revenue of about £308,834 (Rs. 30,88,340).

SUB-DIVISIONS.

For administrative purposes the territory of Kolhapur is distributed over ten sub-divisions with an average of 249 square miles, 108 villages, 80,000 people, and a revenue of £30,883 (Rs. 3,08,830). The following statement gives the details:

Kolhapur Administrative Details, 1880-81.

The sub-divisions marked (a) have petty divisions, Shirol has Baybag, Gadinglaj has Katkol, and Ichalkaranji has Ajra.

Of these ten sub-divisions four, Vishalgad in the north-west, Bavda in the west, Kagal in the centre, and Ichalkaranji in the south are subordinate states whose chiefs exercise independent jurisdiction.

BOUNDARIES.

Kolhapur is bounded on the north by the Varna river, which, for about sixty-six miles from Prachitgad to its meeting with the Krishna two miles south of Sangli, separates Kolhapur from the Valva sub-division of Satara; on the east it is bounded by the rivers Krishna and Dudhganga, the Patvardhan states of Miraj and Sangli, and the Chikodi sub-division of Belgaum; on the south by Belgaum; and on the west by the Sahyadris which separate it from Savantvadi and Ratnagiri.

ASPECT.

Kolhapur is an irregular belt of the Deccan plateau lying along the east of the Sahyadri crest, about sixty-five miles from north to south and eight to fifty miles from west to east. In the north a point of land, eight to twelve miles broad, runs about sixteen miles along the Sahyadris. It then spreads east till it has a breadth of about fifty miles, and again about sixteen miles to the south narrows to about thirty miles and keeps thirty to forty miles broad to within ten miles of the extreme south, where it runs to a point about sixteen miles east of the Sahyadris. Besides this main irregular belt, there are three isolated groups of villages, two to the east and one to the west. The western group lies within Ratnagiri limits, to the west of Bavda, which is about the middle of the Kolhapur section of the Sahyadris. Of the two isolated blocks to the east Raybag is a little to the north of east, about sixteen miles north and south by ten east and west, from eight to twenty miles distant from the east of Kolhapur. About twenty miles south-east of Raybag are Katkol and Torgal an irregular belt lying nearly north and south, about sixteen miles long and six to sixteen broad.

Outlying Belts.

The block of Kolhapur below the Sahyadris includes the lands of forty-three villages and forms a belt about thirty miles from north to south and ten to fifteen broad. Except a few rugged villages at the foot of the Bavda pass, about twenty-four miles south-west of Kolhapur, most of the Kolhapur-Konkan is composed of level tablelands. These uplands were formerly thickly wooded with teak and other useful trees, but all the valuable timber has long been cut leaving bare or scrub-clad hill-sides. The village sites as a rule are well wooded and the village homesteads are surrounded by groves of mango, jack, and undi trees, and in Pomburle, Kokisre, Khambale, and Nanivde by cocoa and betel palms. The climate is healthy, though in April and May the heat is oppressive. The two outlying blocks in the east, Raybag and Torgal, lie far within the limits of the Deccan plain. The country is tame and level with a few ranges of low hills, the whole very bare of trees except some clusters of mangoes and babhuls near village sites and on the banks of streams. The rainfall is scanty, but the ground is fertile and yields good crops. The villages are flat-roofed and are surrounded with mud walls. Apart from these outlying blocks to the west and to the east, the main body of Kolhapur, in the plateau immediately to the east of the Sahyadri crest, varies from thirty to fifty miles in breadth and from 2000 to 1800 "feet above the sea.

 Hill-top Konkan.

The line of the Poona-Belgaum road, which passes nearly north and south through Kolhapur, Kagal, and Nipani thirty to forty miles east of the Sahyadri crest, divides Kolhapur into two unequal parts a rugged tract of hills and valleys to the west known as the Hill-top Konkan or Konkan Ghat Matha, a wet and cool region, and a more open block to the north-east stretching about thirty miles east from the western belt and from north to south varying in breadth from fifteen to twenty miles. This is known as the plain or desh and passes into the hot and dry region of the Central Deccan. The western or hilly belt consists of the Sahyadri range and a series of six valleys separated by lines of hills which run north-east and east. In the west among and close to the Sahyadris, the scenery is wild and picturesque. The hills are said to have been once thickly covered with trees, and though most of the timber has disappeared, there are still fine groves and stretches of hill-side closely covered with brushwood. The people of the hilly west are chiefly Dhangars, Bhandaris, and Mhars. Their hamlets consist of a few thatched huts generally in thickly shaded sites, and their tillage is confined to the growth of rice and hill grains along the banks of streams. Beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the Sahyadris, the country, still within the wet and cool region, stretches east about thirty miles in the six main valleys of the Varna, Panchganga, Dudhganga, Vedganga, Hiranyakeshi, and Ghatprabha. These valleys are rolling plains several miles broad, their surface seamed by streams which drain into the bed of the central river. For twenty or thirty miles from the Sahyadris the valleys are flanked by ranges of hills which rise about 1000 feet with bare sides ending in broad level tablelands, or broken into cones and quaint peaks many of them fortified. The people, though generally poor, are hardworking and skilful husbandmen, chiefly Kunbis and Marathas. Their villages are small, often close together on the banks of streams, and near springs on the lower hill slopes. They are generally open without walls or towers and surrounded by groves of tamarind mango and jack trees. Near the village and on the banks of streams where they can be watered by lifts, are patches of rich sugarcane and other garden crops. Beyond the patches of garden land stretch grain fields many of them yielding excellent crops, and towards the edges the valleys gradually pass into poor soils growing only the coarser grains. Besides the trees which shade the village sites, most villages have their clumps or groves of mangoes tamarinds or pipals, and the lands of the different villages are generally separated by a strip of wood or bushland. The hill-sides are bare but in many places are built in a succession of small terraces carefully tilled and yielding good crops especially of rice. Over the whole belt the rainfall is certain and sufficient the supply varying from as much as 250 inches in some of the highest most exposed bluffs of the Sahyadris to fifty or sixty inches towards the east of the belt. There are no large water works, but except in March April and May there is no want of water.

The Plain.

The plain or desh section of Kolhapur, which passes into the hot and dry region of the Central Deccan, stretches east from the line of the Poona-Belgaum road between the Varna on the north and the Dudhganga on the south, a block of land about thirty miles from east to west and ten to twenty miles from north to south. It includes the mouths of the valleys of the Varna, the Panchganga, the Dudhganga and the Vedganga, and beyond the mouths of the valleys part of the broad Deccan plain broken by low ridges of hills and single peaks. In the west of this plain or open country the banks of the chief rivers are fringed with babhul trees and the valleys are dotted with rich village groves and lines of shady lanes and patches of watered garden lands. Further to the east, though it yields rich crops of millet and wheat and has garden lands with sugarcane and tobacco, the plain is bare of trees except a few mangoes and babhuls, and is broken. by low lines of hills some lying east and west and others lying north and south. The whole south of Kolhapur lies within the wet and cool region to the west of the Poona-Belgaum road. Just beyond the road to the east the country passes into the dry and hot Deccan region. The rainfall suddenly dwindles, the plants change, and flat-roofed villages take the place of cottages with tiles and deep eaves. In the eastern block of Kolhapur the rainfall is lighter and less certain; the air though healthy is hotter; and the people though less hardworking are better off than in the west. Where water is near the surface much land is watered from wells, and a large area is under sugarcane, turmeric, chillies, and other profitable crops. The villages of flat-roofed and tiled houses are built on bare rising ground generally some distance from rivers to be free from the risk of floods. They were formerly guarded by walls, which, as they are no longer needed, have been allowed to fall into decay.