Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar (pronunciation (help·info)) is a small town and a municipal council in Satara district, Maharashtra, India. It is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus because Krishna river has its origin here.[1] The British colonial rulers developed the town as a hill station, and served as the summer capital of Bombay Presidency during the British Raj.

Geography

Mahabaleshwar is located on the mountainous Sahyadri range of the Western ghats that run North to south along western coast of India. The coordinates of the town are 17.9250°N 73.6575°E.[2] Mahabaleshwar is a vast plateau measuring 150 km2 (58 sq mi), bound by valleys on all sides. It reaches a height of 1,439 m (4,721 ft) at its highest peak above sea level, known as Wilson/Sunrise Point The town is about 122 km (76 mi) southwest of Pune and 285 km (177 mi) from Mumbai, .

Mahabaleshwar comprises three villages: Malcolm Peth, Old “Kshetra” Mahabaleshwar and part of the Shindola village.

Mahabaleshwar region is the source of the Krishna River that flows across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The legendary source of the river is a spout from the mouth of a statue of a cow in the ancient temple of Mahadev in Old Mahabaleshwar. Legend has it that Krishna is Lord Vishnu himself as a result of a curse on the trimurti by Savitri. Also, its tributaries Venna and Koyna are said to be Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma themselves. 3 other rivers come out from the cow’s mouth apart from Krishna and they all travel some distance before merging into Krishna which flows East towards the Bay of Bengal.[3] These rivers are the Koyna, Venna (Veni) and Gayatri. The Savitri river flows Westward via Mahad to the Arabian Sea.

Climate

Mahabaleshwar has a borderline tropical monsoon/humid subtropical climate (Köppen Am/Cwa). Very heavy rainfall is a normal occurrence during monsoons. During July, 10–12 days of continuous rains with 100 to 200 mm or 4 to 8 in each day occur each year. There were reports of ice and ground frost formation around Venna Lake in 2018 [9][10] On August 7, 2019 Mahabaleshwar recorded 330 mm or 12.99 in of rain in 24 hours causing landslides.[11] Mahabaleshwar has been described as the “New Candidate for the wettest place in the world”, the title currently held by Cherrapunji.[12]

History
On the outskirts of Mahabaleshwar, towards Panchgani.

Legend says that a Yadava ruler from 13th century built a small temple and water tank at the source of the river Krishna.[16] The area around Mahabaleshwar called the Vale of Jawali was ruled by the More (clan) who were vassals of the Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur. In 1656, the founder of Maratha empire, Chatrapati Shri Shivaji Maharaj on account of political circumstances, killed the then ruler of vale of Javali, Chandrarao More, and seized that area.[17][18] Around that time Shivaji also built a hill fort near Mahabaleshwar called Pratapgad fort.[19][20]