Exploring Chaul — A Village Of Many Histories

From Alibag, there is a small two-lane district road that hugs the west coast and leads you south. If you keep driving through, winding around the jagged Konkan coast, you will, at some point of time, end up in Goa. Approximately midway between Alibag and Murud, you hit a small village called Chaul. It is a typical Konkan village — Konkan style village huts, a large temple with a tank and a community space, a bus stop, shops selling mangoes, kokum juices and pickles of various items and of course the local village bar. The village of Chaul is bracketed with an adjoining hamlet called Revdanda which is right on the tip of land where the Kundalika river meets the Arabian Sea.

A search on Google Books for Chaul and Revdanda reveals a list of extremely voluminous works of history, mostly written by Portuguese (from Goa) and British scholars. As one peruses these works and combines with conversations with the local folk, there is a complex picture that emerges that provides a new view of this “just-another-Indian-village” village.
In a nutshell, the area around Chaul has been like a theatre stage where different groups of actors have come at different times and have left behind artefacts of their lives and events.

For starters, there is the Rameshwar temple, right in the middle of the village. It has a small temple tank with steps on all sides. A large rectangular maidan on one side serves a s a community space for the village. It is also the local bus stop for state transport buses.

The history of the temple is unknown. There is one story which links it to the Pandavas. There are various artefacts inside the temple which date back to various eras. The local people sitting on the kutta of the temple say that, like most things in Hinduism, the origin of the Shivling (called Rameshwar) is now a subject of myths. There are many such temples in the Konkan like Harihareshwar, Ganpatiphule, Kanhateshwar, etc., many of them dedicated to Shiva, where a rock formation is likened to a shivlinga and triggers a small temple around it. Rameshwar was probably one of those. With no written records, as is the case with most things in India, one can only conjecture.

At the back of the temple, hidden in the cluster of trees, is a damaged stone platform. The locals say that this was a Samadhi of a famous chieftain. An Internet search says this might have been Kanhoji Angre or one of his descendents, the famous pirate turned naval commander of the Marathas.

But there are no signboards there except for a warning sign of the ASI telling people that it is a protected property. The locals don’t know much either. There are accounts of various members of the Angre family coming to Chaul as it was a prominent port. Again, nothing can be said for sure given the lack of any written documents or inscriptions.

Right at the foot of the structure is this small stone sculpture of Nandi. The style of architecture resembles that of the Chalukyas. Indeed, as the historical works say, this part of the world was part of the Chalukyan empire and there are inscriptions in Badami and Aihole which speak of Pulakesin II conquering the land by the seas. This stone Nandi sits by itself with nothing else around it appearing to be of similar style or design. Was this part of the Rameshwar temple itself? It is a Shiva temple and a Nandi bull makes sense. The Chalukyans were Shiva worshippers as the temples in Badami and Pattadakal testify. Again, lots of conjecture.

And then there is the fort. At least the ruins of the fort with the imposing walls. While driving on the same two-lane state road, one passes through a fort gate and after crossing the village, there is an exit gate as well. The walls of the fort go up to the beach. Here, we come to more accurate facts because they were written by Europeans.

The 1876 book Notes on the History and Antiquities of Chaul and Bassein by Joseph Gerson da Cunha shed further light on the subject. As the Portuguese moved north from Goa in the 16th century, they battled with various local chiefs and sultans for control of strategic ports and beach-heads. Along with Bombay, the Portuguese managed to get control of Daman, Diu, Dadra, Nagar and Chaul. The Morro de Chaul (Chaul Fort) was an important location for Portuguese trade as it allowed them access into interior Maharashtra, then ruled by a combination of the Bahmani sultanates and the Mughal governors. There was a profitable trade in horses, spices and precious stones which they managed to establish there. This fort bears evidence to that.

Across the Kundalika river is Korlai where the Portuguese built another fort to provide additional security to Chaul.

As you marvel the solid defences of the forts, you also marvel the people who have been living here for centuries. Irrespective of the regime involved, these people who occupy themselves with fishing, paddy cultivation, coconut plantation and various craftwork still maintain many of their unique lifestyle practices. The famed Konkani cuisine, which by the way has as many variations as there are villages in the Konkan, has its exponents here as well.

The temples in the area, and there are many in this small place, (da Cunha in his book mentions that the popular notion in the area is that there are 360 temples, 360 tanks and 360 shoals) have the stylized cylindrical column called deepstambha outside the temple, a feature that is common with many temples in the Konkan and Goa. The function of this deepstambha or lamp tower is to hold all the oil lamps to be lit on festive occasions.

In a single afternoon, a visit to a village that is smaller than a residential block in Mumbai brings one close to multiple eras and their legacies that remain today.