Agashi Bay

Agashi Bay served a port north of Bassein on the Konkan coast. A reef constricted its entrance and shoals limited navigation, favouring small craft rather than deep-draught ships within the bay. Nevertheless, Agashi had a substantial timber trade and shipbuilding industry by 1530. Portuguese chroniclers described ships capable of reaching Europe, and recorded the burning of the town and many boats during the Portuguese assault that year.

The port recovered within the Portuguese possessions around Bassein. Sixteenth-century customs accounts reveal continuing commercial activity, and Agashi traded with Gujarat. Portuguese authority later gave way to Maratha rule. When Anquetil du Perron visited in 1760, he found Christians going openly to church, evidence that the change of rulers had not ended local worship. In 1837 Agashi still traded briskly with Gujarat and Bombay in grain, garden produce and salt, while its builders produced fishing boats and coastal vessels. Its maritime importance rested on coastal exchange as well as the earlier construction of ocean-going ships.