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Information
of Maharashtra
Welcome to Maharashtra. A land whose sheer
size and diversity will stun you. Enjoy her mountains that
stretch out into the mists as far as the eye can see. Her
innumerous forts that stand proud and strong. Her scores of
temples, sculpted into and out of basalt rock.
Her diverse and colourful cultures, woven
into one gigantic quilt. Her festivals that galvanise the sleepy
thousands into fervent motion. And her miles of silver, white
beaches, stretched taut and inviting over the entire coast.
Welcome aboard a travel package that gives you a glimpse into
this vibrant and beautiful land.
Welcome to Maharashtra. A land untouched,
unsullied, unlimited.
Maharashtra is the second-most populous
sub-national entity in the world, with over 110 million
inhabitants. Spread over 307,713 sq mi (796,970 sq. kms.), it is
bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Indian states of
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya
Pradesh and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The
state capital isMumbai which is also the financial capital of
the nation. Maharashtra is the wealthiest and most developed
state in India, contributing 15% of the country's industrial
output and 13.3% of its GDP.
In the 16th century, the Marathas rose
under the leadership of Shivaji against the Mughals, who ruled a
large part of India. By 1760, the Maratha Empire had reached its
zenith with a territory of over 250 million acres or one-third
of the Indian sub-continent. After the Third Anglo-Maratha War,
the empire ended and most of Maharashtra became part of Bombay
State under the British Raj. After Indian independence, Samyukta
Maharashtra Samiti demanded unification of all Marathi-speaking
regions under one state.
Babasaheb Ambedkar was of the opinion that
linguistic reorganisation of states should be done on a "One
state – One language" principle and not on a "One language – One
state" principle. He submitted a memorandum to the
reorganisation commission stating that a "single government can
not administer such a huge state as United Maharashtra". The
first state reorganisation committee created the current
Maharashtra state on 1 May 1960 (known as Maharashtra Day). The
Marathi-speaking areas of Bombay State, Deccan states and
Vidarbha (which was part of Central Provinces and Berar) united,
under the agreement known as Nagpur Pact, to form the current
state.
The modern Marathi language developed from
the Maharashtri Prakrit and the word Marhatta (later used for
the Marathas) is found in the JainMaharashtri literature. The
terms Maharashtra, Maharashtri, Marathi and Maratha may have
derived from the same root. However, their exact etymology is
uncertain.
The most widely accepted theory among the
scholars is that the words Maratha and Maharashtra ultimately
derive from a compound of Maha (Sanskrit for "great") and
rashtrika. The word rashtrika is a Sanskritised form of Ratta,
the name of a tribe or a dynasty of petty chiefs ruling in the
Deccan region. Another theory is that the term is derived from
Maha ("great") and rathi or ratha (great chariot driver), which
refers to a skillful northern fighting force that migrated
southward into the area.
An alternative theory states that the term
derives from the words Maha ("Great") and Rashtra
("nation/dominion"). However, this theory has not found
acceptance among modern scholars who believe it to be the
Sanskritised interpretation of later writers. Yet another
theory, popular among the Dalit activists and the
nineteenth-century British writers in India, was that the term
means "the nation of Mahars" (Mahar + Rashtra). This theory,
too, is not idely accepted: it is unlikely that the term derives
from the name of a Dalit (outcaste) community.
History of Maharashtra
The Nashik Gazetteer states that in 246 BC
Maharashtra is mentioned as one of the places to which Mauryan
emperor Asoka sent an embassy, and it is recorded in a Chalukyan
inscription of 580 CE as including three provinces and 99,000
villages. The name Maharashtra also appeared in a 7th-century
inscription and in the account of a Chinese traveller, Hiuen-Tsang.
In 90 AD Vedishri, son of the Satavahana king Satakarni, the
"Lord of Dakshinapatha, wielder of the unchecked wheel of
Sovereignty", made Junnar, thirty miles north of Pune, the
capital of his kingdom. It was also ruled by Kharavela,
Satavahana dynasty, Western Satraps, Gupta Empire, Vakataka,
Kadambas, Chalukya Empire, Gurjara, Rashtrakuta Dynasty, and
Western Chalukya before Yadava rule. Maharashtra was ruled by
the Maurya Empire in the 4th and 3rd century BC. Around 230 BCE
Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty which
ruled the region for 400 years. The greatest ruler of the
Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni. The Chalukya
dynasty ruled Maharashtra from the 6th century to the 8th
century and the two prominent rulers were Pulakesi II, who
defeated the north Indian Emperor Harsha and Vikramaditya II,
who defeated the Arab invaders in the 8th century. The
Rashtrakuta Dynasty ruled Maharashtra from the 8th to the 10th
century. The Arab traveler Sulaiman called the ruler of the
Rashtrakuta Dynasty (Amoghavarsha) as "one of the 4 great kings
of the world". From the early 11th century to the 12th century
the Deccan Plateau was dominated by the Western Chalukya Empire
and the Chola dynasty. Several battles were fought between the
Western Chalukya Empire and the Chola dynasty in the Deccan
Plateau during the reigns of Raja Raja Chola I, Rajendra Chola
I, Jayasimha II, Somesvara Iand Vikramaditya VI.
In the early 14th century the Yadava
dynasty, which ruled most of present-day Maharashtra, was
overthrown by the Delhi Sultanate ruler Ala-ud-din Khalji.
Later, Muhammad bin Tughluq conquered parts of the Deccan, and
temporarily shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad in
Maharashtra. After the collapse of the Tughlaqs in 1347, the
local Bahmani Sultanate of Gulbarga took over, governing the
region for the next 150 years. After the break-up of the
Bahamani sultanate, in 1518, Maharashtra split into and was
ruled by five Deccan Sultanates: namely Nizamshah of Ahmednagar,
Adilshah of Bijapur, Qutubshah of Golkonda, Bidarshah of Bidar
and Imadshah of Berar. These kingdoms often fought amongst each
other. United, they decisively defeated the Vijayanagara Empire
of the south in 1565. Also present area of Mumbai was ruled
bySultanate of Gujarat before capturing by Portugal in 1535 and
Faruqi dynasty ruled Khandesh region between 1382 and 1601
before Mughal annexation. Malik Ambar was the regent of the
Nizamshahi dynasty of Ahmednagar from 1607 to 1626. During this
period he increased the strength and power of Murtaza Nizam Shah
and raised a large army. Malik Ambar is said to be the one of
proponent of guerilla warfare in the Deccan region. Malik Ambar
assisted Shah Jahan wrestle power in Delhi from his stepmother,
Nur Jahan, who had ambitions of seating her son-in-law on the
throne.
By the early 17th century, Shahaji Bhosale,
an ambitious local general in the service of the Mughals and
Adil Shah of Bijapur, attempted to establish his independent
rule. His son Shivaji succeeded in establishing Maratha Empire
which was further expanded by Bhonsle of Nagpur, Gaekwad of
Baroda, Holkar of Indore, Scindia ofGwalior, Mahadik of Gwalior
and Peshwas (prime ministers). The Marathas defeated the Mughals,
and conquered large territories in Northern and Central parts of
the Indian subcontinent. After the defeat at the Third Battle of
Panipat in 1761, the Maratha restored their supremacy and ruled
central and north India including New Delhi till the end of the
eighteenth century. The Third Anglo-Maratha war (1817–1818) led
to the end of the Maratha Empire and East India Company ruled
the country in 1819.
The British governed the region as part of
the Bombay Presidency, which spanned an area from Karachi in
Pakistan to northern Deccan. A number of the Maratha states
persisted as princely states, retaining autonomy in return for
acknowledging British suzerainty. The largest princely states in
the territory of present-day Maharashtra were Nagpur, Satara and
Kolhapur; Satara was annexed to Bombay Presidency in 1848, and
Nagpur was annexed in 1853 to become Nagpur Province, later part
of the Central Provinces. Berar, which had been part of the
Nizam of Hyderabad's kingdom, was occupied by the British in
1853 and annexed to the Central Provinces in 1903. However, a
large part of present-day Maharashtra, calledMarathwada,
remained part of the Nizam's Hyderabad State throughout the
British period. The British rule was marked by social reforms
and an improvement in infrastructure as well as revolts due to
their discriminatory policies. At the beginning of the 20th
century, the struggle for independence took shape led by
extremists like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
and the moderates like Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopal
Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Dadabhai Naoroji. In
1942, the Quit India Movement was called by Gandhi which was
marked by a non-violent civil disobedience movement and strikes
in the region. The ultimatum to the British to "Quit India" was
given in Mumbai, and culminated in the transfer of power and the
independence of India in 1947. BG Kher was the first Chief
Minister of the tri-lingual Bombay Presidency.
After India's independence, the Deccan
States, including Kolhapur were integrated into Bombay State,
which was created from the former Bombay Presidency in 1950. In
1956, the States Reorganisation Act reorganised the Indian
states along linguistic lines, and Bombay Presidency State was
enlarged by the addition of the predominantly Marathi-speaking
regions of Marathwada (Aurangabad Division) from erstwhile
Hyderabad state and Vidarbha region from the Central Provinces
and Berar. Also, southernmost part of Bombay State was ceded to
Mysore one. From 1954–1955 the people of Maharashtra strongly
protested against bilingual Bombay state and Samyukta
Maharashtra Samiti under the leadership of Dr. Gopalrao Khedkar
was formed. Mahagujarat Movement was also started for separate
Gujarat state. Gopalrao Khedkar, S.M. Joshi, S.A. Dange, P.K.
Atre and other leaders fought for a separate state of
Maharashtra with Mumbai as its capital. On 1 May 1960, following
mass protests and sacrifice of 105 human lives the separate
Marathi-speaking state was formed by dividing earlier Bombay
state into new states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The demand of
the local people of merging some of the Marathi speaking areas
of Karnataka namely Belgaum, Karwar and Nipani is still pending.
Maharashtra Cuisine
Maharashtra cuisine covers a range from
being mild to very spicy dishes. Wheat, rice, jowar, bajri,
vegetables, lentils and fruit form Staples of Maharashtrian
diet. Some of the Popular dishes include puran poli, ukdiche
Modak, and batata wada. Meals (mainly lunch and dinner) are
served on a plate called thali. Each food item served on the
thali has a specific place. People of this state believe in
offering their food first to the lord as a thanksgiving for all
that he has given. Maharashtra's cuisine is divided into two,
viz. Konkani, and Varadi. Though quite different, both use a lot
of seafood and coconut. The bhaajis are vegetable dishes made
with a particular vegetable or a combination of vegetables and
requires the use of Goda masala, essentially consisting of some
combination of onion, garlic, ginger, red chilli powder, green
chillies and mustard. Depending on the caste or specific
religious tradition of a family, onion and garlic may not be
used in cooking. A particular variant of bhaaji is the rassa or
curry. Vegetarians prepare rassa or curry of potatoes and or
caulifower with tomatoes or fresh coconut kernel and plenty of
water to produce a soup like preparation than bhaaji. Varan is
nothing but plain dal, a common Indian lentil stew. Aamti is
variant of the curry, typically consisting of a lentil (tur)
stock, flavored with goda masala, tamarind or amshul, jaggery (gul)
and in some cases coconut as well. One of the masalas that gives
Maharashtrian cuisine its authentic flavor is the goda (sweet)
masala or kalaa (black) masala.
Among seafood, the most popular fish is
bombil or the Bombay duck, which is normally served batter fried
and crisp. All non-vegetarian and vegetarian dishes are eaten
with boiled rice or with bhakris, which are soft rotis made of
rice flour. Special rice puris called vada and amboli, which is
a pancake made of fermented rice, urad dal, and semolina, are
also eaten as a part of the main meal. |
