Article Written By EIH Researcher And Writer
Devanshi Panda
The jolly song “Bombai se aya mera dost, dost ko salaam karo” and the Catholic wedding favourite “Bombay meri hai” are not simply songs, they are emotions. The lyric “In the Mumbai, all over India, we are the bhai” from the song “Ganpath” refreshes memories of many adults for whom the 2000s are a significantly nostalgic era. The very mention of these songs may have induced unconscious humming on the part of the current reader of this article. Each of these songs contain a different variation of Mumbai’s name, yet they are perhaps equally nostalgic for different generations that inhabit India.
The naming and renaming of anything, be it sites, monuments, places, or even people, is an exercise laden with tensions and meanings that run deeper than the surface. It often reflects a change of identity, a possible surrender of the past, an acceptance of “progress” in the present, and a question of whether the process of naming will significantly alter in the future. Mumbai has had many name-tags throughout its existence, each one of which ascribes the city a different personality.
V.S Kamat in his “Some Aspects of the Early History of Bombay ” mentions that in the traditional history of the Puranas and the Mahabharata, the western coast of India, that included Bombay, was referred to as Aparanta. The Ceylonese chronicle of Mahavanso mentions that the Buddhist high-priest Mogalliputto, under the directions of King Asoka, sent preachers to Aparanta. The Elephanta Caves, now an area of popular tourist interest, once formed the seat of power. This island in the Mumbai Harbour was known as Puri, and was the capital of the Mauryas, Chalukyas, and the Silharas, who called it Shatanandapuri, or the “city of a hundred pleasures’ ‘. According to an article in the BBC, the earliest known names for the city of Mumbai itself were Galajunkja and Kakamuchee, while it was also known as Manbai and similar variations. These names were possibly used by the Koli community, an aboriginal tribe of fisherfolk who were the earliest-known inhabitants of the place in question. The documented name for it found in the 2nd century writings of the Egyptian astronomer, mathematician, and geographer of Greek descent, Ptolemy, was Heptanesia, meaning seven islands. These seven islands are Bombay, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli, Mahim, Little Colaba or the Old Woman’s Island, and Colaba.
The island of Mahim, before king Bhimdev’s arrival in the 13th century, was known as Mewale or Baradbet ( desert island) and it was sparsely peopled by families of Koli fishermen and other low castes, overgrown with babul trees, and had a temple of Walkeshwar and a shrine of the ancient goddess Mumbadevi. Here, Bhimdev stayed and built a city of temples (the Babulnath temple in Mumbai is accredited to him) and palaces, which he called ‘Mahikavati’. In fact, scholars like Puroshottam Balakrishna Joshi allege that“ it is from the date of the advent of Bhimdev, that the real history of the colonisation and growth of Bombay begins”. Writing in 1508, Portuguese historian Gaspar Correia in his Lendas da Índia (Legendary India) referred to Mumbai as “Bom Baim”. Many consider Bombaim to mean “good little bay”, but Joshi considers this claim false since it does not match up to the rules of euphony, according to which the name should have been Boa-Bahia. When the set of islands passed on from the Portuguese to the British as part of princess Catherine Braganza’s dowry, the entirety of it came to be known as Bombay, an anglicized version of “Bom Baim”. However, while this may be the notion in popular discourse, what seems more likely to some historians is that the name of Mumbai directly derives from the goddess Mumba Devi. Mumbadevi Mahatmya, a Sthala Purana written in late 16th -17th C.E mentions the story of how a rakshasa named Mumb created havoc on earth after acquiring a boon from Brahma. To stop his menacing, the gods got together and created the goddess Ambadevi, who descended on earth to fight the demon. The demon, almost defeated, promised the goddess that he would retreat to Patal if she changed her name from Ambadevi to Mumbadevi (Mumb+ Ambadevi) to signify the taming of the demon, and if she stayed on the island itself. The goddess consented, and remains the local-deity of Mumbai till date, and is also the patron goddess of specifically the Koli community.
The renaming of the city from Bombay to Mumbai by the Shiv Sena who formed a coalition with BJP in 1995 attempted to hark back to the glory of Mumbadevi’s story itself, while also shedding the colonial baggage that India carried with her way-past Independence and still does in various ways. It was an attempt to establish Maratha pride through the simple action of changing the way we refer to a place. Yet, it has often been observed that the renaming of places in theory seldom trickles down into practice. Be it the approved renaming of Osmanabad as Dharashiv by the centre, the recent renaming of the Mughal Gardens to Amrit Udyan, the renaming of Gurgaon to Gurugram, or the ever-ongoing debate of Calcutta v/s Kolkata, it is impossible to force down the throats of people what they wish to call a certain place. The Bombay v/s Mumbai debate has raged since long, too. For those who wish to call the place Bombay, it is not necessarily an act in liaison with our Colonial heritage. It is more so an act in memory, an act that is sometimes unconscious, an act in clinging to a time when “Bombay” seemed more accommodative of different identities than “Mumbai” now does to them. Those who prefer to call it Mumbai might do so because it represents a more young, fresh crowd that is not afraid of embracing its local heritage. Whatever the case may be, coupled together with the confusing and scant sources on the various names Mumbai has had, perhaps the question of what to call a place should simply rest on one thing, that is, if all the persons in conversation understand which place is being referred to. For at the end of the day, the city beats with the hearts of its people, not due to a set of letters assigned to it.
References:
1.Kamat, V. S. (1979). SOME ASPECTS OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF BOMBAY. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 40, 695–696. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44142011
2.Maharashtra State gazetteers greater bombay district. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.cultural.maharashtra.gov.in/english/gazetteer/greater_bombay/history.html
3.Edwardes, S. M. (1902). The rise of bombay: A retrospect. Times of India Press.
4.Mehta, S., & Mehta, S. (2010). Bombay = Maximum City. Süddt. Zeitung GmbH.
5.TNN / Updated: Feb 16, 2023. (2023). ‘centre okayed renaming of Osmanabad’: Mumbai News – Times of India. The Times of India. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/centre-okayed-renaming-of-osmanabad/articleshow/97965498.cms?from=mdr
6.BBC. (2021, April 14). Five places that changed their name. BBC Bitesize. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsb62v4
