Saturday, February 12, 2011

FIRST RESIDENT OF MALABAR HILL,BOMBAY WAS THE GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY ; Mountstuart Elphinstone ; TIGERS & WILD ANIMALS-OF MALABAR HILL




MALABAR HILL 19TH CENTURY




VIEW FROM MALABAR POINT OF THE HILL 1850'S
MALABAR POINT:-
Malabar Point, an astounding geographical location rises imperiously over land, the headland juts into the panoramic harbour like a cape in the cerulean sea.
In times past, the azure skies would forecast plunder as the sails of marauders appeared, the dreaded pirates of Malabar.

They would ascend the pinnacle to plan their pillage. This summit by the shores heralded a view of the emerging city. Prophesying their recurring piracy, the peak came to be known as Malabar Point.

PIRATES (REAL) AND INDIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS- NEAR BOMBAY:-
Kanhoji Angre :- AS HE RESISTED ENGLISH SOLDIERS AND RULERS ,HE WAS CALLED A PIRATE BY THE ENGLISH


v Battles
1702 - Seizes small vessel in Cochin with six Englishmen
1706 - Attacks and defeats the Siddhi of Janjira
1710 - Captures the Kennery (now Khanderi) islands near Bombay after fighting the English vessel, Godolphin for two days
1712 - Captured the yacht of the British President of Bombay, Mr. Aislabie, releasing it only after obtaining a hefty ransom of Rs. 30,000
1713 - Ten forts ceded to Angre by English
1717 - English ships bombard Kennery island and Angre signs treaty with Company paying Rs. 60,000
1718 - Blockaded Bombay port and extracted ransom
1720 - English attack Vijaydurg (Gheriah), unsuccessfully
1721 - English and Portuguese jointly attack Alibagh, but are defeated
1723 - Angre attacks two English vessels, Eagle and Hunter
The Western Naval command of the Indian Navy was named INS Angre on 15 September 1951 in honour of the valiant sea commander. A statue of him exists at the old Bombay Castle located within the enclave located at the Naval Dockyard, South Mumbai.

KUNJALI MARIKKAR - [WAS CALLED A PIRATE BY ENGLISH AND PORTUGUESE RULERS BECAUSE HE RESISTED THE FOREIGN RULERS ]




The four Kunjali Marakkars and their tenure:

  1. Kutti Ahmed Ali – Kunjali Marakkar I (1520 – 1531)
  2. Kutti Pokker Ali – Kunjali Marakkar II (1531 – 1571)
  3. Pattu Marakkar – Kunjali Marakkar III (1571 – 1595)
  4. Mohammed Ali – Kunjali Marakkar IV (1595 – 1600)
Kunjali Marakkar
Bust of Kunhali Marakkar III at Visakha Museum.jpg
Bust of Kunhali Marakkar III at Visakha Museum, Andhra Pradesh
Born
Kunjali Marakkar
NationalityIndian
Occupation

en.wikipedia.org › wiki

Kunhali_Marakkar


Kunjali Marakkar -

Wikipedi
a


Ancestral home of Kunjali Marakkar at Iringal, Kottakkal, near Calicut, now preserved as a Museum.

Origins of Marakkar

According to tradition, the Kunjali Marakkars were maritime merchants of Arab decent who supported the trade in the Indian ocean who settled in the coastal regions of Kayalpattinam, Kilakarai, Kulasekarapatnam, Nagore and Karaikal. They intermarried between Mukkuvas and Maravar tribes. But they shifted their trade to Kochi and then migrated to Ponnani in the Zamorin's dominion when the Portuguese fleets came to Kingdom of Cochin. They offered their men, ships and wealth against the Portuguese to the Zamorin of Calicut-the king took them into his service and eventually they became the Admirals of his fleet.

The Kunhali Marakkar or Kunjali Marakkar

was the title given to the (
Muslim naval chief) of the Samoothiri Raja, a Hindu king of Kozhikode (anglicized Calicut), in present day state of Kerala,
India during the 16th century.

They offered their men, ships and wealth in the defence of their motherland to the Samoothiri of Kozhikode-The Raja took them into his service and eventually they became the Admirals of his fleet.
  • 1586 - Marakkars defeat the Portuguese in a naval battle.
  • 1588 - The Portuguese settle again in Kozhikode with the Samoothiri's permission.
  • 1589 - Marakkars inflict a crushing defeat on the Portuguese.

    Mayimama Marakkar

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Mayimama Marakkar was an Indian ambassador of the Zamorin ruler of Calicut. In 1504, he went on an embassy to the Mamluk ruler in order to obtain an intervention against the Portuguese who were preying on India.[1][2]

    He returned to India in 1508 with a Mamluk fleet of 12 ships, which, in combination with the local forces of Gujarat defeated a Portuguese fleet in the Battle of Chaul (1508).[1]


    Battle of Chaul - Wikipedia



















    Battle of Chaul - Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org

    Battle of Chaul - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Battle_of_Chaul

    The Battle of Chaul was a naval battle between the Portuguese and an Egyptian Mamluk fleet in 1508 in the harbour of Chaul in India. The battle ended in a Mamluk victory. It followed the Siege of Cannanore in which a Portuguese garrison successfully resisted an attack by Southern Indian rulers.
    6 ships 140 men: 600-700
    3 ships and 5 caravels: 6 Egyptian carracks and ...

    Marakkar had initially been a Muslim merchant who had had a dispute with the Raja of Cananor, and following a complaint of the Raja had been gravely mishandled by the Portuguese Captain Vicente Sodré. He had held a desire for revenge since then.[3]

    He was killed in the 1508 naval encounter at Chaul.[3]

    my comment:-i have seen centuries old muslim settlements in Mumbai-one near worli sea face and one near juhu beach NEAR HOTEL SEA PRINCESS  .on enquiry they claimed they are from malabar and settled in Bombay/Mumbai since centuries.I dont know whether famous quawal singer Aziz Naznan who is also a Marakkar; settled in Mumbai; is related to original Marakkars from malabar or not.

    RELATED READING ON Google :-

    (1) PIRATES MALABAR(Blog/Maddy- MARCH 3 2011)-read on google

    Portuguese pirates--

    by John Biddulph   (1907)
    =========== 


    ==






  •  *Views of the Malabar Coast*




INS Kunjali (Music Training School) | Indian Navy










INS Kunjali-Indian Navy establishment at Mumbai
The Indian Navy shore-based naval air training center at Colaba, Mumbai is named Naval Maritime Academy INS Kunjali II in honour of the second Marakkar

The Kunjali Marakkar Memorial erected by the Indian navy at Kottakkal, Vatakara

Inscriptions on the Kunjali Marakkar Memorial at Kottakkal, Vatakara

.......................................................................................................................................................
CAPT KIDD, THE REAL PIRATE NEAR BOMBAY 1N 1700'S:-


'Byron' wrote
." Kidd's destination was Madagascar and the mouth of the Red Sea. Being unsuccessful in accomplishing the end he had been sent on, i.e., the destruction of the pirates and their settle- ments, or from whatever other reason, he made for the coast of India, Cochin and Calicut, and throwing off" all trammels, he attacked the ships he had come out to protect, and gave up the role of privateer ! He spared no nationality. All was fish that came to his net, and his appetite grew on what it fed, until gorged with the plunder, as he admits himself, of £100,000 (£250,000 nowadays).

In 1697, when Kidd was at Jinjheera,

itwas the stronghold of Sidi Kassim, the same man who eight years before

(1689) had landed at Mazagon 20,000 men, and a ghastly freight of human heads, driving the English, nolens volens, to the shelter of their castle walls, and leaving the marks of their bullets on its gates, which remain visible to the present day.
Was Kidd ever in Bombay ? asks the reader, I have no doubt he was in some of his former voyages, as he was a veteran sea- dog when Bellamont got hold of him, and though his " logs " have been lost, we are safe in saying that in 1697 he could have made his way to a Punch-house in Dongri Killa, or Moodi Khana, without difficulty.

The place where this exploit of He was born in Greenoc. Kidd's occurred is recorded " off Eajapore." Kajapore is on the mainland, and twenty-five miles south of Bombay, opposite "to whi(^, at about a mile distance, is the fortified Island of Jinjheera.
The East India Company wrote to Surat that they hoped he would be " hung, drawn and quartered."

Had he come into, and been caught in Bombay in 1697

he would have been hanged first and tried afterwards. I may add that he was not the pirate of whom 'Byron' wrote, " He was the mildest-mannered man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat."
Kidd was executed on May 23rd at ; by Lord Bellamont; who was Governor of 'New York and Massachusetts, and we need not remind the reader that New York then belonged to England.
[Prior to Kidd returning to New York City, he learned that he was a wanted pirate,Bellomont;lured Kidd into Boston with false promises of clemency, then ordered him arrested on July 6, 1699. Kidd was placed in Stone Prison, spending most of the time in solitary confinement.He was eventually (after over a year) sent to England;Kidd had two lawyers to assist in his defence, Dr. Oldish and Mr. Lemon. He was shocked to learn at his trial that he was charged with murder. He was found guilty on all charges (murder and five counts of piracy). He was hanged on May 23, 1701, at 'Execution Dock', Wapping, in London. During the execution, the hangman's rope broke and Kidd was hanged on the second attempt. His body was gibbeted—left to hang in an iron cage over the River Thames at Tilbury Point—as a warning to future would-be pirates for twenty years.---wikipedia]

Condition at Malabar Hill also found favour with the English and their love of hunting. ‘Coursing matches




were held here and Dr. Drove had the satisfaction of starting a hare, as large as an European one’.


The feathers and lace on the hunter’s hats were no match for the starting heat of the tropical sun. Soon a hunting lodge came up at Malabar Point.’



Other visitors came drawn by the arresting sights. Eddying elements had twisted an avenue of trees into obeisance, creating a path leading to the waters. A swivel heralded a survey of the city. It was a site, that breathed destiny.

Mountstuart Elphinstone (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay
Elphinstone assumed command of the military during an important crisis during the Battle of Khadki and managed to secure a victory despite his non-military background. As reparations, Peshwa territories were annexed by the British. Elphinstone became the Commissioner of the Deccan in 1818.

He was appointed as the Governor of Bombay the following year, 1819. His principal achievement was the compilation of the "Elphinstone Code." He virtually founded the system of state education in India, at a time when the opinion in Britain was against educating the "natives". Elphinstone held on to this post till 1827. His connection with the Bombay Presidency was appropriately commemorated in the endowment of the Elphinstone College
Photograph of Elphinstone College in Bombay (Mumbai), Maharashtra, taken by Bourne and Shepherd in 1870,
by local communities, and in the erection of a marble statue by the European inhabitants.
He built the first bungalow in Malabar Hill, during his tenure as the Governor of Bombay, 1819 to 1827, and following him, many prominent people took residence here, soon it became a posh locality, and remains so, to the present date.

Mountstuart Elphinstone---


A BUNGALOW ON MALABAR HILL -19 TH CENTURY
PHOTO OF BYCULLA CLUB BOMBAY 1850

Malabar Hill was named so in the early days of British rule as it housed a military battery to foil a fleet of pirates operating from Malabar who would lie in wait to attack commercial vessels.


BOMBAY-1850-MALABAR HILL -Photographer: Scott, Charles

MALABAR HILL FORESTS
A VIEW OF BOMBAY AND (CHOWPATY BEACH) from MALABAR HILLS 1850'S

Tower of Silence, (MALABAR HILL)Bombay--Artist: Stevenson, Colonel (c.1860)---


1850 Bombay fort with walls made against pirates and other enemies

http://oldphotosbombay.blogspot.com/2011/02/bombay-fort-mapsphotospaintingsnews1600.htmlhttp://oldphotosbombay.blogspot.com/2011/02/bombay-fort-mapsphotospaintingsnews1600.html




BOMBAY NEWS 1820-1850 (ON WILD ANIMALS)
1822, February 9th. — A tiger on Malabar Hill came down, quenched his thirst at Gowalla Tank, and ran off over the hill between the Hermitage and Prospect Lodge. Prints of its feet were distinctly visible this morning.

1830, January 13th. — A large hyena is prowling about Malabar Hill on the western side between Mr. Nicol's residence and Vaucluse, " as good sport as a Mazagon tiger." — Bombay Gazette.

========================================

1913

History behind Gateway of India
The monument was built in 1913 at a cost of 2.1 million INR. The monument was completed in 1924. The monument was built at the landing spot of Queen Mary and King George V who visited the country in 1911. The foundation for the monument was built in 1911.

1860
Gate way of India area -before Gate way was built














Jan 3, 2020 - ... area stands a miniature replica of the iconic Gateway of India. ... of an Indian, who actually built the Gateway of India and a number of ...

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