ALIBAUG

Alibag was developed in 17th Century by Sarkhel Kanhoji Aangre the naval chief of King Shivaji's Kingdom. Alibag is a costal town and municipal council in Raigad district in Kokan region of Maharashtra, India. It is the headquarter of the Raigad district. Raigad's first name was "Kulaba". Today's Ramnath was the main village at that time. Bene Israelite Ali was a rich man in the city based on Ali's gardens was named as "Alibagh". Ali owned many plantations of mangoes, coconuts in his gardens. So the local people called the place Alichi bagh(Gardens of Ali).

Just 3 kilometers away from Alibag on Alibag-Mumbai highway you will find one small village Khandale having population of around 5000 people,which is also heading Gram Panchayats. Khandale is surrounded by wonderful Shiva temples such as Sidheshwar, Kankeshwar. During Shrawan month the beauty on these hillocks is breathtaking and on each Shrawani Somwars thousands of Alibagkars visit this place for worship and enjoying nature beauty. Also on the same highway goddess Patrudevi Mandir is located in small Ghat calles Karle Khind. Khandale is also very famous for white onions, which are sold all over Maharashtra as "Khandale Kande". This unique breed of onions are having very rich contributions in Ayurvedik medicines and very useful during summer heat which is having unique sweeter taste. Rewdanda, Chaul, Nagon, Akshi, Varsoli,Thal, Kihim and Aawas villages were known as "Ashtagare" at that time. During those times there were some naval battles out of which one was fought at Varsoli between Kanhoji Aangre and Siddi of Janjira in the year 1706. In 1722 English and Portuguese jointly attacked on Kulaba fort and they lost this war. At Chaul there was a battle between the English and Sakhoji in 1730. Sakhoji won this war and brought down the losing party along with their captain at Kulaba. Kanhoji even issued his own currency in the form of a silver coin called the Alibagi rupaiya.

Courtesy : Wikipedia