AKLUJ.

Akluj, about six miles north-east of Malsiras, is a large market town on the Nira, with in 1872 a population of 4889 and in 1881 of 4769. The town was formerly very, flourishing with a large trade in cotton which has now almost disappeared. About £8500 (Rs. 85,000) worth of goods still change hands in the year. The town has a post office and a ruined fort. The weekly market is held on Monday. In 1689 Aurangzeb (1658-1707), driven north from his camp at Bijapur by an outbreak of the plague, came to Akluj where the epidemic subsided. [Grant Duffs Marathon, 158.] After his arrival at Akluj plundering parties of Marathas were frequently near and detachments were sent to Sambhaii's territories. One of these under Mukarrab Khan was sent to Kolhapur. Mukarrab Khan succeeded in capturing Sambhaji and twenty-six others at Sangameshvar in Ratnagiri and marched with the prisoners to the Moghal camp. When the news of Sambhaji's capture reached Aurangzeb's camp at Akluj there were great rejoicings. During the four or five days when Mukarrab Khan was known to be coming with the prisoners, all classes were so overjoyed that they could not sleep and went out four miles to meet the prisoners and give expression to their joy. In every town or village on or near the road, wherever the news reached, there was great delight; and wherever the prisoners passed the doors and roofs were full of men and women who looked on rejoicing. [Khan Khan in Elliot and Dowson, VII. 340.] In 1792 Captain Moor, the author of the Hindu Pantheon, described it as Akhloos a large respectable town with a well supplied market and with a fort and several handsome buildings and wells. [Moor's Operations of Captain Little's Detachment, 342.] In 1803 on his march from Seringapatam to Poona to reinstate Bajirav, General Wellesley halted at Akluj from the 13th to the 15th of April. [Wellington's Despatches (1799-1818), III. 69-71. Four of General Wellesley's Despatches are written from Aklooss. Ditto.]

ASHTA.

Ashta, fifteen miles south-west of Madha, with in 1881 a population of 2495, is interesting as the scene of the battle of the 20th of February 1818 between General Smith and Bajirav Peshwa's troops in which the Peshwa was defeated and his general Gokhale killed. The battle was entirely a cavalry action, Gokhale having eight to ten thousand horse and General Smith two regiments of cavalry, a squadron of the 22nd Dragoons, 1200 auxiliary horse, and 2500 infantry. The enemy lost about 200 killed including Gokhale, while the British loss was fourteen Europeans and five native cavalry killed and wounded. Twelve elephants fifty-seven camels and many palanquins fell into the hands of the British. The battle had the important result of freeing the Satara chief from Bajirav's power and of ending the enterprise of the Peshwa's horse. [Details are given above pp. 294-295.] Ashta has a large lake which, when full, has an area of about four square miles and a capacity of 1,499,470,085 cubic feet of water. The lake has been formed by throwing across the Ashta stream, a feeder of the Bhima, an earthen dam 12,709 feet long with a greatest height of 57.75 feet. Two canals are led from the dam, a left bank canal 11½ miles long, discharging thirty cubic feet a second and commanding 12,258 arable acres, and a right bank canal ten miles long, discharging ten cubic feet a second and commanding 5624 arable acres. The plans of the work were prepared in 1869 and the lake finished on the 31st of July 1881 at a cost of £33,499 (Rs. 3,34,990). Part of the work was done as famine relief till November 1877, the greatest number of famine labourers employed on any one day being 19,949. [Details are given above pp. 223-225.]