Maritime Significance Of Eksar Palavas 

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B. Arunachalam, Retd., Professor, Mumbai 
                          S. Kulkarni, TIFR, Mumbai 
                          V. Ganpule, TIFR, Mumbai 

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Abstract

The Palayas or hero stones of Eksar in Brhan-Mumbai have been known to
archaeologists for well over a century. These Palayas are different from
others in that they depict a naval battle scene and are not devoted to
individual martyrs. Eksar is lost today in oblivion and has been assimilated
in the urban mosaic of Borivli, a suburb in the outer fringes. 

The present paper has two main objectives: 

1) To examine the maritime environment of Eksar neighbourhood in the context
    of the period to which the Palayas belong; and, 

2) To evaluate the technical craft details of the boats depicted in the
    Palayas in comparison with the boats in the Mumbai area. 

An attempt is made to reconstruct the maritime environment making use of old
maps and local Marathi records. The maritime craft wisdom derived from an
in-depth scrutiny of the Palaya scenes throws much light on the sea-crafts
of the thirteenth century. A comparison is also made with other boat
sculptures of the same period noted elsewhere in the country.