Kagal

Kagal is a town in Kolhapur district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. History During the rule of the Marathas and British raj, the town was the seat of a noble Ghatge Maratha family who were among the most important in princely state of Kolhapur. Sultan Mahmud Padshah, the Muslim ruler of Bijapur, rewarded in 1572 the Kagal dynasty founder Piraji Raje, the descendant of Kamraja Suryavanshi, the progenitor of Ghatge family known as Zunzar Rao (Valiant Fighter), with the title Sarjerao and the Kagal pargana, then consisting of 69 and a 1/2 villages, as a Jagir (vassal estate) within the princely state of Kolhapur (later a salute state). The name of his dynastic line came corrupted to Ghatge 'Jump ahead'. During incessant 19th century warfare and depredations, some of the villages were lost, reducing their number to 41, covering 298 km2, as guaranteed by article 3 of the Treaty entered into by the Maharaja of Kolhapur with the British Government in 1826.