Mandaraja

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

---

Raigad district map

Mandaraja is the name of a viṣaya (province) mentioned in the “Prince of wales museum plates of Mummuṇirāja”. This viṣaya comprised the territory in the vicinity of Dive Āgar.

Location

Dive Agar is a village located in Shrivardhan Taluka, Raigad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra, approximately 170 km south of Mumbai.

Jat clans

• Manda

History

These copper plates (mentioning Kanakeśvara) were handed over to the Curator (Archaeological Section, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay) by one Hasan Razak. Its object is to record the grant, by Mammuṇirāja, of the village Ki-icchitā (Mandaraja-viṣaya) to twelve Brāhmaṇas residing in the agrahāra of Brahmapurī. The grant was made on the occasion of a lunar eclipse which occurred on the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada in the Śaka year 971 (=1049 AD), the cyclic year being Virodhin.

Dive Agar

Diveagar (Dive Agar) is a village located in Shrivardhan Taluka, Raigad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra, approximately 170 km south of Mumbai. The region includes a fishing settlement, a beach, a temple, local businesses engaged in coconut and beetle nut tree farming, and some tourism businesses such as restaurants, cottage rentals and hotels, and six villages (from north to south): Velas, Musalmāndi, Agar Panchaitan, Diveagar, Borli Panchatan, and Karle. The beach, facing the Arabian Sea, is approximately four kilometers long and undeveloped. At the north end of the beach where a small stream enters the ocean there is the fishing settlement, Velas Agar, and some paddy farming, while at the south end there is a sanctuary for migratory seabirds. Nearby, there is a small fishing village, where vendors sell fresh fish, which goes by name of Bharadkhol. The beach is accessible from the Mumbai-Goa highway via Kolad or Karnala.