History

Belhe, twenty-one miles south-east of Junnar, is a large village with in 1881 a population of 12816 and a weekly market on Mondays. Belhe belongs to a Moghal family who held a high position in Junnar in the seventeenth century and who still enjoy the title of Nawabs of Belhe. They have married with the Nawabs of Surat and the present proprietor is the son-in-law of Jafar Ali the late Nawab of Surat. They have a large mansion in Junnar town which is entered by a fine gateway.[Details are given below under Junnar,] To the south-east of Belhe, near the Musalman burial-ground, is a Hemadpanti well. The well is about twenty yards square and is entered by two opposite flights of ten steps each. The walls have eighteen canopied niches four each on the sides with steps and five each on the other two sides. The niches (3' x 1' 6" x 1) are square headed with carved side pillars and a finial consisting of a canopy knobbed at the top. The south wall has a worn-out inscription. Close by the well is a Pir's tomb where a yearly fair or urus, attended by about 1000 people, is held on the second day of the bright half of Chaitra or March-April.