LANJE / LANJA

Lanje (16° 50 N, 73° 30 E; p. 3523), is the headquarters ofLanje Peta. It stands on an old highway between Satavli on the Muchkundi and Vishalgad fort, though now a place of no importance is said to have once been a large Musalman town. The village, standing on a level plain, is well supplied with water and considered healthy. Formerly it was joined by a cart road with Rajapur and Ratnagiri, 19 and 28 miles distant but now both the roads are metalled and the Lanje-Rajapur Road forms part of the Bombay-Konkan-Goa State Highway. From the time of the Peshva upto the 1st August 1879, when Vengurle was made a sub-division, Lanje was the head-quarters of a petty division of Rajapur.

In the village is the grave of a Muhammedan saint named Syed Chand Bukhari Ali Faqir, said to have lived about five hundred years ago. Yearly at the Magh (January-February) full moon an Urus is held, when the tomb is, with ceremonies and prayers, covered with a cloth and sprinkled with powdered sandalwood. The fair is still largely attended (1960), by people of different communities from Lanje and the neighbouring villages. Shopkeepers come from Rajapur and open temporary booths at which for about a month coarse country and imported cloth and miscellaneous articles are sold. There is also a domed tomb near the village with no more definite history than that it marks the grave of a princess who died on a journey. [Nairne in Ind. Ant. II. 317.]

There is a Village Panchayat at Lanje. Besides, there is a high school, a village library and a Government godown. There is also a maternity home which is financed through Kasturba Memorial Fund. Pottery and shoe-making are carried on as small scale industries catering to the needs of local customers. Tuesday is the bazar day when people from nearby villages come to purchase their domestic requirements and also bring cattle and fire-wood for sale.

The temple of Shiv lying on the west bank of a small river that runs on the outskirts of the village is built in red stones. A yearly fair is held in Magh Vadya 13thMahashivratri and is attended in large numbers by the people of the neighbouring villages.