Mumbai is located on Salsette Island, which lies at the mouth of Ulhas River off the western coast of India in the coastal region known as the Konkan. Most of Mumbai is at sea level and the average elevation ranges from 33 to 49.5 feet (10 to 15 meters). The northern part of Mumbai is hilly and the highest point of the city is at 1,450 feet (450 meters). Three Lakes are within the metropolitan limits: the Tulsi Lake, Vihar Lake and the Powai Lake. The first two are present within the Borivali National Park and supply part of the city’s drinking water. Mumbai also has three small rivers within the city limits originating in the National Park. The coastline of the city is indented with numerous creeks and bays. On the eastern seaboard, large mangrove swamps rich in biodiversity occupy most of the region. Soil cover in the city region is predominantly sandy owing to its proximity to the sea. The underlying rock of the region is composed of black Deccan basalt flows and their acid and basic variants dating back to the late Cretaceous and early Eocene geological eras. Mumbai sits on a seismically active zone owing to the presence of three fault lines in the vicinity. The area is classified as a Zone III region, which means an earthquake of magnitude of up to 6.5 can be expected.
Early History of India
Stone Age rock shelters with paintings in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. It gradually developed into the Indus Valley civilization, dating back to 3300 BCE, followed by the Vedic civilization which laid the foundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian society. The empire built by the Maurya dynasty under Emperor Ashoka united most of modern South Asia except the kingdoms in the south. From the 3rd century CE, the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient India’s “Golden Age.” While the north had larger, fewer kingdoms, in the south there were several dynasties where science, engineering, art, literature, astronomy, and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings.
The Maharaja of India
The word Maharaja is Sanskrit for “great king” or “high king” (karmadharaya from mahānt “great” and rājan “king”). Due to Sanskrit’s major influence on the vocabulary of most languages in India, the term ‘Maharaja’ is common to many modern languages, such as Bengali, Hindi and Gujrati. Its use is primarily for Hindu potentates (ruler or sovereign). The female equivalent to Maharaja is Maharani, a title used either by the wife of a Maharaja or, in the few states where allowed, by a woman ruling in her own right. The term Maharaj denotes separate noble and religious offices, although the fact that in Hindi the suffix ‘a’ in Maharaja is silent makes the two titles homonyms.
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posted by Hills @ 4:58 AM
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