History of Mumbai

The present day city was built on what was originally an archipelago of seven islands of Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's Island (also known as Little Colaba). The islands were coalesced into a single landmass by the Hornby Vellard engineering project in 1784.

Historical timeline of Bombay :

The City of Mumbai was actually a conglomerate of 7 separate islands : Isle of Bombay, Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Mahim, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli plus some other smaller islands.

The name Mumbai is derived from Mumbā or Mahā-Ambā—the name of the patron goddess (Kuladevi) Mumbadevi of the native Agri, Koli and Somvanshi Kshatriya communities.

Stone Age. Period exactly unknown : Islands occupied by Early stone age settlers, based on the evidence of Pleistocene sediments found along the coastal areas around Kandivali in northern Mumbai.

Around 2000 B.C : Islands came to be occupied by Koli Fishing Community.

Around 300 B.C : Part of Mauryan Empire under Ashoka of Magadha. It was known as Heptanesia by Greeks (A Cluster of Seven Islands) and was an important western Buddhist

Late 13th Century : King Bhimdev of Solanki alias Chalukya Clan founded a city called Mahikawati on the island of Mahim. This was the First city to be established.

Under his reign, Pathare Prabhu's became the first Hindu community settlers on the islands followed by Palshi, Pachkalshi, Bhandaris, Vadval, Bhois, Agri and Brahmins. The Bhandari's were originally toddy trappers and the Vadval's were gardeners.

This King introduced many fruit-bearing trees, including coconut palms to the island.

1347 AD to 1407 AD : Annexed by the Delhi Sultanate, and ruled by the Muslim governor's of Gujarat. First mosque's appeared. Haji Ali Dargah was built during this time.

1408 AD to 1534 AD : Bahamani Sultans had an eye on the 7 islands and fought frequently with the Gujarat Sultanate like the wars in 1429-1431. In 1493, a last ditch attempt by Bahamani sultan Bahadur Khan Gilani failed and so, they still stayed under Gujarat sultanate.

In 1508, Portuguese writer Gaspar Correia used the name Bombaim, in his Lendas da Índia ("Legends of India"). This name possibly originated as the Old Portuguese phrase bom baim, meaning "good little bay".

• 1526 AD : Babur now entered India and Mughals posed the greatest threat. Babur didn't attack but later Humayun proved tough.

23 December, 1534 : Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat was fighting with the Rajputs of Chittor and Mandu with additional threat from Mughals and the Portuguese.

So, He signed the Treaty of Bassein, handing over the Seven Islands along with Daman and Diu, Kalyan, Matunga, Salsette, Thane and Chaul to Portuguese to ward off the Threats from Rajputs for a while. This enabled the Portuguese to establish Trading Outposts here.