§4. The Mavals occupied.
learning, therefore, did not leave his mind a dull and sterile soil, nor impair his efficiency as a man of action in a world that was mediaeval.
The western belt of the Puna district, running along the Western Ghats for a length of 90 miles and a breadth of 12 to 24 miles, is known as Maval or the Sunset Land. "It is extremely rugged, a series of table- lands cut on every side by deep winding valleys From the valleys,.... hills of various heights and forms rise, terrace above terrace, with steep sides often strewn with black basalt boulders .... Where the trees have been spared, they clothe the hill-sides with a dense growth mixed with almost impassable brush- wood. Here and there are patches of ancient evergreen forests .... The people in the northern valleys are Kolis and in the southern valleys Marathas. They have a strong s train of hill-blood and are dark, wiry and sallow... The climate is dry and invigorating, the air is lighter, and the heat less oppressive than in most parts of Western or Southern India." (Bom. Gaz. xviii. pt. l, pp. 2, 13, 15.)
In popular speech, the valleys into which this western belt is divided are collectively known as the twelve Mavals, though their names end with the words net and khore as well as maval, and their number exceeds twelve. A Marathi ballad speaks of 12 Mavals under Junnar and twelve others under Puna.
