Gheriah, Or Viziadroog, a town and fort of the province of Bombay, British India, in the collectorate of Rutnagherry, South Concan, 170 m. S. of Bombay. It has a safe harbor at the mouth of the river Kunvee, unobstructed by a bar and with a depth of three or four fathoms. The fort, built by the Mahratta chief Sevajee in 1662, stands on a bold promontory on the coast of the Indian ocean. It received the name of Gheriah from the Mohammedans, while by the Mahrattas it was commonly known as Viziadroog. During the maritime contests of the latter people with the Mogul emperors in the 17th century, one of their chieftains, named Conajee Angria, revolted against the Mahrattas with part of the fleet, and made himself master of the coast from Tanna to Ra-japoor. Under this adventurer and his successors, who all bore the family name of Angria, Gheriah became the centre of a vast system of piracy, which infested the adjacent seas for upward of 50 years. Several attempts were made to disperse the corsairs. The Portuguese and English attacked them in 1719, and the English again in 1722; the Dutch in 1724. In March, 1755, a British fleet, followed by some Mahratta vessels, attacked the Angria's fleet at Severndroog. The pirates escaped by fast sailing, but the town was bombarded and partly burned.

Toward the end of the same year reenforcements arrived from Eng-land, and the reduction of Gheriah was at once determined upon. On Feb. 11, 1756, Admiral Watson, with 800 Europeans and 1,000 sepoys commanded by Col. Clive, arrived off the promontory, while a Mahratta army approached on the land side. The pirate fleet was soon burned; a furious bombardment silenced the guns from the fort; the troops were landed, and on the 13th the place was taken. It was given up to the peishwa under a treaty concluded with the Mahrattas the same year, and passed with the rest of his dominions into the hands of the East India company in 1818.