Maharashtra GK: Districts, Rivers, Forts and Exam Facts

Maharashtra sits on the western edge of the Deccan plateau, with the Arabian Sea on one side and the black soil plains of Vidarbha and Marathwada on the other. It came into being on 1 May 1960, when the bilingual Bombay State was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960, after the long Samyukta Maharashtra movement. That day is observed as Maharashtra Day. The state is the third largest in India by area, after Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and by the Census of 2011 it was the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh.

Administration at a glance

Land, hills and rivers

The Western Ghats, called the Sahyadri here, run down the western side and were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2012. Kalsubai in the Ahmednagar district is the highest peak of the state, at about one thousand six hundred and forty six metres. Between the Ghats and the sea lies the narrow Konkan coast; east of them the Deccan trap basalt gives the black cotton soil, known as regur, on which cotton and jowar are grown.

The Godavari is the longest river of the state and rises at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik. The Krishna rises at Mahabaleshwar in the Satara district. The Bhima, a tributary of the Krishna, flows past Pandharpur; the Tapi flows westward through Khandesh; and the Wardha, Wainganga and Painganga drain Vidarbha. Lonar Lake in the Buldhana district is a crater lake formed by a meteorite striking the basalt, and it is a Ramsar site. The Koyna project on the Koyna river in Satara is the state's main hydroelectric scheme.

Heritage and places of worship

• Ajanta Caves, on a horseshoe bend of the Waghora river, are Buddhist and famous for their paintings; Ellora Caves hold Buddhist, Hindu and Jain groups, with the rock-cut Kailasa temple built under the Rashtrakutas. Both were inscribed by UNESCO in 1983.
• Elephanta Caves, on Gharapuri island off Mumbai, are known for the Trimurti sculpture and were inscribed in 1987.
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Victorian Gothic railway station in Mumbai, was inscribed in 2004, and the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles of Mumbai in 2018.
• Karla, Bhaja and Bedse are early rock-cut Buddhist sites on the old trade route through the Ghats.
• Five of the twelve Jyotirlingas are in Maharashtra: Bhimashankar, Trimbakeshwar, Grishneshwar, Aundha Nagnath and Parli Vaijnath, more than in any other state.
• Pandharpur is the seat of Vithoba and the goal of the Ashadhi wari pilgrimage; Shirdi is associated with Sai Baba; Deekshabhoomi at Nagpur marks the conversion of B. R. Ambedkar.

History, forts and reformers

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was born at the Shivneri fort and was crowned at Raigad, which became his capital. Torna was the first fort he took, Pratapgad is remembered for the encounter with Afzal Khan, Sinhagad for Tanaji Malusare, and Sindhudurg and Vijaydurg were his sea forts. After him the Peshwas ruled from Pune, where the Shaniwar Wada stands, until the Marathas lost to the British in the third Anglo-Maratha war.

Maharashtra was also a centre of reform. Jyotirao Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873, and with Savitribai Phule opened schools for girls. Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society and Bal Gangadhar Tilak ran Kesari from Pune. Dhondo Keshav Karve worked for widow remarriage, Vinoba Bhave began the Bhoodan movement from Paunar in Wardha, and Gandhi's Sevagram ashram was in the same district. The bhakti tradition of the state runs through Sant Dnyaneshwar of Alandi, Sant Namdev, Sant Eknath of Paithan, Sant Tukaram of Dehu and Samarth Ramdas.

Arts, crafts and economy

Lavani is the best known folk dance of the state, performed in the Tamasha folk theatre, while Powada is the ballad form that sings of Shivaji; Dhangari Gaja belongs to the shepherds and the Koli dance to the fishing community. Warli painting is the tribal art of the Palghar and Thane belt. Paithani sarees come from Paithan, Himroo weaving from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Kolhapuri chappals from Kolhapur. Nagpur oranges and the Alphonso mango of the Ratnagiri and Devgad coast carry geographical indication tags. Mumbai is the financial centre of the country and the seat of the Reserve Bank of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva is a major container port, Nashik has the currency press of the India Security Press, and Tarapur in Palghar has India's first atomic power station, commissioned in 1969.