REPORT ON THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE TOWN
OF SATARA.
Inspected in July 1876.
Satara, the principal town of the Collectorate of that name, is situated in
latitude 17° 31' N. and longitude 74° 3' 45" E., at an elevation of 2,320
feet above mean sea level and at a distance of about 60 miles from the coast.
The town lies 68 miles to the south of Poona, and 76 miles to the north of
Kolhápur, and has been built on the slope below a range of hills which form the
termination of a spur running down from the Western Gháts near the hill
station of Mahableshwar, which is 29 miles distant to the north-west.
2. Table-land extends along the summit of these hills as far as Maha
-bleshwar, but it varies very much in width; at Satara it terminates in a rock
the highest peak of which is about 1,500 feet above the town, and below this
there is the sacred temple of Yawateshwar, which gives the name to the hill from
which a bold, bluff, flat-topped rock projects immediately on the north-west
of the town, and from this the cliff recedes somewhat in the form of a horse-shoe,
and rapidly slopes down to a point on the south-west, where it has been tun
-nelled to form a roadway.
3. On the south the trap-rock has again been elevated to a height of
about 900 feet, and forms a steep-sided, flat-topped cliff known as Manglai Devi,
or the Fort, which extends for about 1,100 yards in length from west to east.
Its summit is in the shape of a triangle, the base of which is about 660 yards
broad, and is surrounded by a wall along the edge of the rock, which has been
scarped for a height of about 40 feet all round. It is memorable for its defence
in 1699 under Pryagji Parbhu, Havildar, when it was besieged by the Em
-peror Aurungzib, and traces of the siege are to this day visible. On the top
are seven tanks, which are stated to hold water all the year round; and there is
one large building erected by the late Rajah, which is occasionally used as a
barrack. The other buildings are in a state of decay and are falling down.
4. From the parapet wall a magnificent view of the surrounding country
is obtained. Immediately below the Fort, the town attracts attention, and is seen
to be well wooded, and partly sheltered on the north-west by the Yawateshwar
range, and completely so on the west and south by the connecting saddle-backed
ridge and the fort. The different spurs running from the Western Gháts in a
south-easterly direction stand out like giant buttresses, enclosing between them
fertile valleys, along the centre of which rivers, fed by the springs along the high
land, and by the rain falling on the adjacent hills, run a rapid course, and are dis
-charged into the river Krishna, which intercepts the water derived from the
eastern slopes of the Western Gháts, and after draining an area of 94,500 square
miles, at length discharges itself, after a course of 800 miles, into the Bay of
Bengal. The immediate district near Satara is thus watered by the river Vena,
which runs along the valley to the north-west, and joins the Krishna at Máhuli, a
village belonging to the Pant Pratinidhi, and situated about 3 miles to the east
of the town. On the south-western side of the Yawateshwar range is the valley
of the Urmori River, which is also a tributary of the Krishna.
B 273—a