his conquests and organising their administration, instead of giving the Bijapur Government new provocation by fresh annexations.
§9. Conquest of Javli, 1655.
At the extreme north-western corner of the Satara district lies the village of Javli, which was then the centre of a fairly large principality including nearly the whole of that district. The subdivision of Javli is "throughout hilly and thickly wooded with evergreen trees... The narrow rugged and steep crest of the Sahyadris, rising 4,000 feet or more above sea-level, forms its western wall; and in the valleys the tree growth is luxuriant, forming high forests." (Bom. Gaz. xix, 3.) Within a length of 60 miles as many as 8 passes cross the range, two of them being fit for carts and now transporting a large traffic from the Deccan plateau to Mahad in Kolaba and Chiplun in Ratnagiri. There are, besides, countless gorges and foot-tracks leading from Javli to Konkan.
A Maratha family named More had received grant of the State of Javli from the first Sultan Bijapur early in the 16th century, and made the claim good by their sword. For eight generations they conquered the petty chieftains around and amassed a vast treasure by plunder. They kept 12,000 infantry, mostly sturdy hillmen of the same class as the Mavles, and succeeded in getting possession of the entire district of Satara and parts
