6
They ought to be at once excavated, and their size, depth, and direction should be
carefully laid down on the map ; and though they, in all probability, would not be
safe to use as sewers, yet they could be utilized at all events as channels for the
storm-water.
21. There are also several objectionable tanks in the town which should
be drained or filled up, among which I may particularly mention the Kapila
Tirtha, which is a moderately sized tank, surrounded by houses on all sides, the
consequence being that the tank is nothing more or less than a cesspool of the
most dangerous description, for the filth from the privies of the houses in the
neighbourhood soaks into it and fouls the water which is used for drinking. This
practice should be at once stopped, and the tank should be filled in ; but the open
space now occupied by it should be still kept as a lung to the town, which is just
here thickly populated, and a drinking fountain might with advantage be erected
in the centre, around which a garden might be laid out. The Mahar Tank is also
very impure. It should be drained and cleaned out, and afterwards filled with
Káttyáyani water and all impurities should be rigidly excluded. I should, if it had
been possible, have recommended the same course for the Kapila Tank, as water
tanks in a hot dry climate are good and render the atmosphere moist ; but the
Kapila Tank is so situated that it must always be fouled, and I recommend the
adoption of the course suggested above.
22. The bodies of Hindus of caste are taken down to the river and burnt
at Brahmapuri, whilst those of Mussalmans are buried on the east near the bank
of the Jiti Nulah. The grave-yards for low caste Hindus are on the north of
the town. Near Maharwada the grave I saw at the Mussalman burying-place
was of sufficient and safe depth.
23. The principal water supply of the town is derived from springs in the
Káttyáyani Valley, which is situated about 3 miles to the south, below a range of
low hills, but at a considerable elevation above the town. Water has been brought
into it from this source for many years ; since a duct, fed from springs in the Kátty-
á y a n i V a l l e y , w a s , b e t w e e n t h e y e a r s1
7 8 9
a n d
1 7 9 2 ,
b u i l t a t a c o s t o f b e t w e e n t w o
and three lakhs of rupees, at the expense of one Baburao Keshav Pandit. This
was distributed in the town, by the usual native method, through porous earthen-
ware pipes, bound round with oiled cloth and lime, which conveyed the water to
32 dipping wells, 8 of which were situated in the Maharaja's palace. But this
scheme, good as it was, did not go high enough up the valley, and stopped below
the sources of the springs, the consequence being that the supply was inadequate
and was rendered, from faulty construction, sometimes impure. But the present
Executive Engineer of Kolhápur, Major Ducat, R.E., has, with great skill and
ingenuity, thought the matter out, and was able during the hot season just
past, although his scheme is still unfinished, to save the town from a water famine
from which it otherwise would undoubtedly have suffered, and has thus confer-
red, as many gentlemen told me, an unspeakable boon on the inhabitants.
24. From his able report on the works I have extracted the following in-
formation, although I had the advantage of having each item of the scheme explain-
ed to me on the spot by Major Ducat himself. From the commencement of the
old duct he has run an underground channel, 1,500 feet in length, further up
towards the hills and thus taps the springs themselves as they issue from the
hillside ; and, by a most ingenious arrangement, has built at the head works a dam
across the nullah above the water bearing stratum, with the view of intercepting
the water which ran to waste during the greater part of the year, and of thus
saturating the subsoil springs which feed the drainage tunnel. The old masonry
duct has been utilized for as long a length as possible, but it was found to enter
the town at an unnecessary low point, and consequently a new channel is in
course of erection, 1,938 yards in length ; this will cross two masonry aqueducts
over low-lying ground before it enters the service reservoir—a covered masonry