What is the Old Name of Maharashtra?

India’s first two colleges (still very much functional) – Wilson College and Elphinstone College are located in Mumbai, Maharashtra’s Capital City.

There are 350 forts in Maharashtra with most of them being hill forts. Most of these forts were built or re-built by the Great King Shivaji or his successors, the Peshwas.

There are several ancient cave temples and monasteries in Maharashtra including Ajanta, Ellora, Kanheri, Elephanta, Karla, Bhaja and many more.

The Festival of Ganeshotsav is Maharashtra’s biggest festival and is celebrated with great fervour all over the state.

Maharashtra is also the home to several major pilgrim places of Hindus including Pandharpur, Shirdi, Ashtavinayak, four of the Jyotirlingas, four of major Goddess temples, Shani Shingnapur and many others.

The Hindi film industry is world’s largest Film Industry and it is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Legendary singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle are both residents of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra has produced some of India’s finest cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar.

The State of Maharashtra was officially formed on May 1, 1960 with Mumbai as its Capital and Marathi as the State language.

Yashwantrao Chavan of the Indian National Congress was the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The current Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis belongs to the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

The name Maharashtra itself means Great (Maha) Nation (Rashtra) in Sanskrit!