Dabhol

Dabhol (also known as Dabul) is a small seaport town in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in India. •17°35′12.62″N 73°10′30.76″E / 17.5868389°N 73.1752111°E / 17.5868389; 73.1752111Coordinates: 17°35′12.62″N 73°10′30.76″E / 17.5868389°N 73.1752111°E / 17.5868389; 73.1752111

History

Hardly a trace remains of the once-flourishing port of Dabhol (known as Dábul in Portuguese, Dabul in English), on the north bank of the mouth of the Vashishti River in the Konkan region of India.

In the 15th and 16th C., Dabul was an opulent Muslim trade center, first under the Bahmani, later under the Adilshahi sultans of Bijapur. As the port with most convenient access to the Bahmani sultanate's capital at Bidar, Dabul's fortunes ascended quickly with that dynasty. At its height, it was arguably the most important port between Chaul and Goa. ^[1]

It was exactly the prominence of Dabul as a Muslim trade center and port that led it to be bombarded, sacked and razed by a Portuguese expeditionary force under Francisco de Almeida in December, 1508, in a prelude to the famous Battle of Diu. Although the city's fort was not taken, it was only the first of several times, in the course of the next few decades, that the Portuguese tried to destroy Dabul. By the time of the last recorded attack, in 1571, there was little left to sack.

The break-up of the Bahmani state into several smaller Deccan sultanates had accelerated Dabul's decline. As new capitals for these statelets were erected, Dabul's geographic position was no longer as fortuitous as it had been before, and alternative, more convenient ports were cultivated. In the course of the 16th C., a lot of commerce was redirected away from Dabul and towards the rising new port of Rajapur further south.

Dabul was conquered by Shivaji around 1660 and annexed to the new Maratha kingdom. The erection of the Maratha fort of Anjavel right across the river eclipsed whatever role remained for Dabul, and the once-great port city simply evaporated and disappeared from the maps.

Attempts to locate the historic port have sometimes led historians to mistakenly identify historic Dabul with modern Dapoli, an interior town several miles north of Dabhol.

Sadly, Dabhol's name was revived in the 1990s in association with the notorious Dabhol Power Station erected near the site by the Enron company.

Notes

1. ^ For a brief discussion of the decline of the port of Dabul, see Dames (1918: p.164) and Nairne (1873).

Sources

• Dames, M.L. (1918) "Introduction" in An Account Of The Countries Bordering On The Indian Ocean And Their Inhabitants, Vol. 1 (Engl. transl. of Livro de Duarte de Barbosa), 2005 reprint, New Delhi: Asian Education Services.

• Nairne, A.K. (1873), "Musalman Remains in the South Konkan", The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 2, p.278-83 article