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Salsette Island

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Salsette Island

Salsette Island (Portuguese: Salsete, Konkani: साष्टी, romanized: sāṣṭī, Sashti) is an island in Konkan division of the state of Maharashtra, along India's west coast. The cities of Mumbai (Mumbai City district and Mumbai Suburban district), Thane and Mira-Bhayandar (both part of Thane district) lie on it, making it very populous and one of the most densely populated islands in the world.[citation needed] The island forms the central part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and has a population of more than 20 million inhabitants living on an area of about 619 square kilometres (239 sq mi).[citation needed]

Salsette is bounded on the north by Vasai Creek, on the northeast by the Ulhas River, on the east by Thane Creek and Mumbai Harbour, and on the south and west by the Arabian Sea. The original seven islands of Bombay, which were merged by land reclamation during the 19th and early 20th centuries to form the city of Mumbai, are now practically a southward protruding peninsula of the much larger Salsette Island.

The island of Trombay that was to the southeast of Salsette is today part of Salsette as much of the intervening swamps have been reclaimed. It contains Sanjay Gandhi National Park, also known as Borivali National Park. The city of Thane is at the northeastern corner, on Thane Creek, while the western suburbs of Mumbai which stretches from Bhayandar in the northwest corner to Bandra which lies just before the Mumbai City district, lies on its western side while the eastern suburbs of Mumbai that stretch from Thane to Kurla lie on the eastern half of the island. Both suburbs are separated by the Sanjay Gandhi National Park till the neighbourhood of Powai in Andheri. Politically, the Mumbai City district covers the peninsula south of Mahim and Sion while most of the original island constitutes the Mumbai Suburban district. The northern portion lies within Thane district, which extends across Thane creeks onto the mainland.

The word Sasashti (also shortened to Sashti) is Maharashtri Konkani term for "sixty-six", referring to the original "sixty-six villages" on the island. It was inhabited by (Aagri, Kunbi) farmers, agriculturists, (Bhandaris) toddy tappers, (Sutar, Malis) artisans and (Kolis) fisherfolk who trace their conversion to Christianity back to 55 AD with the arrival of Christ's disciple, Bartholomew the Apostle, in north Konkan region. They were later converted to the Latin Church in India by four religious orders—the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians & Jesuits— who arrived in the 15th century with the Portuguese. These original inhabitants of Salsette are the Bombay East Indian Catholics, the Aagris & Kolis.

109 Buddhist caves, including those at Kanheri, can be found on the island, and date from the end of the 2nd century. Salsette was ruled by a succession of Hindu kingdoms, the last of which were the Silharas and later the Marathas. In 1343, the islands were annexed by the Sultan of Guzerat.

In 1534, the Portuguese empire seized the islands from Sultan Bahadur Shah. Sashti became part of the northern province of Portuguese India, which was governed from Vasai (Bassein) on the north shore of Bassein Creek. It was leased to the explorer Diogo Rodrigues from 25 October, 1535 to 1548. In 1554, the islands were handed over to Garcia de Orta, a renowned physician and botanist and the author of Colloquies on the Simples Drugs and Medical Matter of India, a seminal work on Indian Eastern medicine of its time.

Nine churches were built on Salsette island by the Portuguese; Nirmal (1557), Nossa Senhora dos Remédios (1557), Sandor (1566), Agashi (1568), Nandakal (1573), Papdy (1574), Pale (1595), Manickpur (1606), and Nossa Senhora das Mercês (1606). The St Andrews Church and the Mount St Mary's Church in Bandra, the Cross at Cross Maidan, Gloria Church (1632) in Mazagaon and the remnants of a church in Santa Cruz are the sole places of worship that have survived to the 21st century.

In 1661, the seven Bombay (Mumbai) islets were ceded to Britain as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza to Charles II of England; while Salsette remained in Portuguese hands. Charles II in turn, leased the Bombay islets to the English East India Company in 1668 for £10 per year. The company found the deep harbour at Mumbai (Bombay) eminently apposite, and the population rose from 10,000 in 1661 to 60,000 by 1675. In 1687, the East India Company transferred their headquarters there from Surat. In 1737, the island was captured by Mahratta violence, all of the Portuguese northern province in India, except Damaon, Diu & Silvassa, as it was frequently invaded by the Mahratta forces until 1739. Marquis de Pombal formally ceded what would become Greater Bombay, to Peshwa Balaji Bajirao of the Mahratta Confederacy in the 1750s.

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