Thane - The Lake City

The city of Thane is situated on the western banks of Thane creek with Parsik hills on the east and Yeoor hills on the west. The city was then know as Shreesthanak. It was more popularly known as the Capital of the Shilahar dynasty. The history of Thane city can be broadly categorized into 5 eras.

‘Aparant’ is the ancient name of the geographical area hosting Thane city. During the Indian expedition of the Greek Emperor Alexander, a number of philosophers, historians and geographists visited India. Among them a Greek historian ‘Tolemi’ has mentioned about the city of Thane in his writings. A famous sailor named Marcopolo had also visited Thane in 1290 ‘A.D. and noted it to be one of the best cities in the world. A place called | ‘Ghodbunder was famous for horse trading thus deriving its name from the word ghoda i.e. horse and bunder meaning port.

During this period a fabric called ‘Tansi’ was exported from Thane. During the period from 13 A.D. to 17 A.D., the Muslims, Portuguese, Marathas, & the British dynasties ruled Thane. From 810A.D. to 1260A.D. the Shilahar Dynasty ruled over Thane. The Emperors of Shilahar dynasty were disciples of Lord Shiva and the Kopineshwar Temple has been built during their reign. During this period, At this time the Shilahars also divided the city into different sections and named them as ‘padas’. it is seen that these padas exist even today by names of Naupada, Patlipada, Agripada etc.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Morning walkers on top of Yeoor Hills

Yeoor hills is the best place for Thaneites for morning walk and exercise. At first it was not much known but nowadays many people come up for exercise in morning. This is the best thing as Mumbai downtown dosen't have. Its better to go early morning around 6:00 AM to 6:30 AM before sunrise. Always Keep Nature Clean.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Kolshet Creek, Thane Creek

Kolshet creek is a nice place for relaxing on the banks of Ulhas River.

Kolshet Creek

Ganesh Visarjan is also performed here.

Kolshet Creek is one of the view points of Thane Creek. This point is used for various idol immersions, mass puja festivals, etc making it a polluting source of Thane Creek. People just come and throw loads of bag full of various materials polluting it more. Also sand mining is done beside. Kolshet Creek is a nice place for watching sunrise and moonrise. One can either come from Brahmand colony or by maintenance road, Kasheli.

There is a small ground beside the creek as shown below for playing. In monsoon this becomes a lake.

Also there is Shamshan Bhoomi here.

Also Swimming is done in Thane Creek as shown below ...

Lunar Eclipse Moon (Blood Moon) as seen from Kolshet Creek, Thane West

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Maintenance Pipe Line Road, Kasheli

Maintenance Road or Pipeline Road near Kasheli is a long strech of 2.5 KM narrow road alongside of water pipeline. This road is good for jogging as it is straight and few vehicles come here. Being narrow two vehicle cannot pass side by side until you get some wide place as both the sides of road are way below the road level. Its like a jogging track. This ends up in Kolshet Creek.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Reti Bunder, Ghodbunder Road

A large scale sand mining and rock mining is going along side the Thane Creek.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Gaimukh Temple, Thane

Gaimukh Temple, also Jagnath Mahadev Mandir is located aside of Ghodbunder Road near Gaimukh Village. Its above the road which has a very steep climb but short one. You may miss it as there is no board down indicating the Temple name. So keep watching left for a steep slope. Its a big Shiv Temple overlooking the Thane Creek and mountains.

Some Facts about Thane City

Ptolemy, who, in his writings ( 135 - 150 AD) refers to a place called Chersonesus, which, according to researches, is the area around Thane creek.

Thane Fort in 1787, dated 1078 AD, is apparently a land grant from Arikesara Devaraja, sovereign of the city of Tagara, wherein he address the inhabitants of a city called Sri Sthanaka.

Portuguese came to Thane about 1530 and ruled for over 200 years till 1739. Thane was then known as Cacabe de Tana.

The Thane Municipal Council was formed in 1863 when the city had a population of 9000 souls.

The first train ran in India between Bombay and Thane, a stretch of 34 km. on April 16 1853

First Railroad Tunnel In India - Parsik Tunnel

First Railway Bridge: Dapoorie Viaduct on the Mumbai-Thane route

Kopineshwar Temple was built in 1760

Thane Central Jail is oldest fort of Thane built in 1730 by Portuguese