The multicultural origins and history of Bombay’s seven islands

Up until the end of the 18th century, before being a single landmass, Mumbai was made of seven separate islands known as Mahim, Worli, Parel, Mazagaon, Bombay, Colaba, and Little Colaba.  Archeological evidence suggests that these islands were inhabited since the Stone Age, and that they were part of trade networks with Egypt and Persia around 1000 BC. The first known inhabitants of the islands were the Koli community, ethnic group dedicated to fishing, and whose villages can still be found around Mumbai today. The islands became part of the Mauryan Empire in the third century BC, and they were made a center of Buddhist patronage. Rock cut temples and monasteries were thus built in some of the islands. From the 9th to the 13th centuries, the Silhara dynasty took hold of the islands and added more temples and water tanks to their landscape.

In the middle of the 13th century, Raja Bhimdev II from the Solaki dynasty made the island Mahim the capital of his kingdom, which some consider to represent the foundation of Bombay. This would give rise to the first waves of immigration into the islands.  The newcomers not only changed the demographics by joining the Kolis, but also the landscape, with their addition of coconut trees, gardens, groves, houses, and plantations.

In 1348, the Muslim rulers of Gujarat annexed the islands, which remained under the rule of the Gujarat Sultanate until 1534, year in which they signed the Treaty of Bassein with the Portuguese Empire. The name Bombay allegedly comes from the Portuguese Bom Bahia (“good bay”). The Portuguese established a trading center there, including products such as silk, muslin, chintz, onyx, rice, cotton and tobacco. Under this new rule, the area grew fast, and its landscape changed yet again. By 1626 there was a great warehouse, a friary, a fort and a ship-building yard. There were also new houses for the general population, and even mansions for the wealthy.

The seven islands would then go to the hands of yet a new owner. In 1662, King Charles II of England married Catherine of Braganza, from the royal house of Portugal. The seven islands were offered to Charles II as part of the bride’s dowry. In 1668, the King of England started renting the islands to the British East India Company for 10 pounds of gold a year.

The seven islands of Bombay saw a long history of very diverse rulings, which turned its landscape into a combination of rock cut caves, temples, mosques, churches, water tanks, and forts. The rule of the British over the islands would also mark a drastic transformation to the area’s geography, setting the foundations of Bombay as a modern city.