So right now I’m at the very south of
Mumbai which is the most historic part of the city arguably and I’m about to
start the day with a cup of tea or chai so one of the best things about living in the
subcontinent is that a cup of tea or chai costs like 10 rupees. Anyways let's talk about the
history of Mumbai. Originally Mumbai was not the city that we see today it was an archipelago
of about seven islands. people had really lived here since the stone age. around 1000 bc this
region was heavily involved with trade with the Egyptian and the Persian empires and then in the
third century bc this whole region came under the influence of the Mauryan empire and that's when it
really became a center of Hindu-Buddhist religion and culture and it stayed that way for more than
a thousand years after that and the best place to tell you the story of that time is not here but
10 kilometers off the coast of Mumbai that way okay so these ferry tickets are far
from cheap but I promise that's the most expensive thing that I’ll be doing today once you're on the ferry you can play an extra
ten rupees to get on top of it and chill with all these seagulls I guess. I’m seriously worried that
one of them is going to [ __ ] on me right now So I’m finally on Elephanta island which is
a UNESCO world heritage site and a historical place of worship that is 10 kilometers east
of Mumbai. I’m actually on the jetty that leads to the island right now and there are
these train tracks here for this toy train that goes to the island from the
place where they dock the boats there's all these animals on the island.
There's like cows roaming everywhere, there's a goat there's a puppy too and
now I’m on these steps that sort of lead up to the Elephanta caves themselves and in
front of me are all these freaking monkeys. So I hear these monkeys can get
really aggressive but this one seems really chill it's just enjoying
its biscuit. Just found a baby monkey the ticket here costs like 40 rupees and I’m at
the main entrance. This place used to actually be called Gharapuri which means literally the city
of caves because it's a bunch of temple caves, five if I remember right which is primarily
dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva who is one of the main deities of Hinduism. So inside the
temple there are a lot of sculptures that are carved out of rocks that show a lot of Hinduism
and Buddhism or Hinduist Buddhist iconography behind me is the main attraction of Elephanta
island which is the three-faced shiva. It's a 20-foot high statue and the three faces of
Shiva represent the three essential aspects of him which is creation on one side protection
in the middle and destruction on the other side So when you go into the main gate you see two
more statues on each side of shiva. On one side. you have the nataraj which shows them as the
lord of dance and on the other side you have one called the yogishvara which shows him as
the lord of yoga. Unfortunately a lot of these statues have been defaced and destroyed over
the years so there's not a lot left of them okay so I’m back in Mumbai and the moment you
get off the ferry you're going to see the statue behind me of this guy called Chachapathi Shivaji.
Shivaji was the founder and leader of the Maratha empire which was an empire that dominated
most of the Indian subcontinent back during the 18th century he was a very successful Hindu
ruler in an era when India was mostly dominated by Muslim Mughal emperors. It's not a surprise
that this guy is still very popular to this day among the Marathi speaking people of Maharashtra.
The name the airport of Mumbai after him. They even renamed the main train station that we're
going to see later after him as well. They're actually trying to make a 700 feet statue of
him right off the coast. Yep that's 700 feet which is supposed to be the biggest statue in
the world once it's completed and to put that into context 700 feet is like a 70-story building
it's that high. But interestingly Shivaji never lived here and Mumbai was far from being the
capital of the Maratha empire so you might ask how did Mumbai become such an important city and
the answer is because of colonization. That island we just came from called Elephanta island, that was
actually called Gharapuri if you remember right. In 16th century a bunch of European merchants
actually landed there and then they saw this huge elephant statue then they decided to call
that whole island Elephanta island because that's the first thing they saw. Colonizers
in India and you're probably thinking I’m talking about the Brits. I’m actually not.
I’m talking about the people who colonized Mumbai before the British. I’m talking about
the Portuguese and I think we should move to west Mumbai right now because that's
a better spot to continue the story so I just got a train ticket for going like
10 kilometers and it cost me 10 rupees right now I’m in an autorickshaw
which is the classic cheap private transport to get not just in Mumbai
but all across the subcontinent I want to say okay so I’m finally on the west side
I’m right next to this fort called Bandra fort that was built by the Portuguese
So the Portuguese like I said were the first Europeans to come here Portuguese explorer came
across this bay in 1508 and called it bom baim which literally means good bay in Portuguese and
then in 1535 they had this peace and commerce agreement with the sultan of Gujarat where they
were handed over all the seven islands of Mumbai and the surrounding areas. This fort that's closed
right now in front of me was built in 1640 by the Portuguese as a sort of outpost in the Arabian
sea and to watch over this bay and the island that they owned and if you're thinking why this is
called the Arabian sea I was surprised to find two that Mumbai is actually closer to some Arab
countries than it is to other parts of India which is crazy to me. So this fort is like 80
feet high and has several levels from the seaside all the way to the top but unfortunately I
can't go in right now because it's closed inside because of Covid so I can only show
it to you from the outside from the bottom now let's talk about how England come into this
picture. So in 1661 Catherine of Portugal from the royal family got married to Charles II of
England and the Portuguese decided to give away the seven islands and a lot of other things as
part of the dowry to England for that marriage and at the time they thought this was very
insignificant at least the seven islands part of the deal. But it turned out to be probably the most
important thing given away in a dowry ever because after this came under England this place was
basically put under the ownership of the British east India company which essentially became
a managing agency for the British government and just like other cities in India that came
under their ownership like Kolkata, they started investing heavily into infrastructures and other
things that they needed to make this an important seaport so in the mid 18th century there was the
Hornby Vellard project which reclaimed all the land or all the sea between these islands and
turned Bombay into the land mass that we see today. That project along with a lot of other
construction projects of roads and railways in the city transformed Mumbai into one of the
most important port cities on the Arabian sea British history is all fun and
great but I am starving right now and I feel like I need some street food from mike okay so this is panipuri which is very similar to fuchka in Bangladesh and six of
these together cost like 30 rupees it's delicious. it's definitely got a lot
less spices than I’m used to in Bangladesh so the amount of influence that the British
had in building Mumbai in the early stages of the city is very evident from the architecture
that you see in southern Mumbai. You can see it in the police station here which is one of the
fanciest police stations I’ve seen in my life. You can see it in the university of Mumbai. You
can see it in the Bombay court but most evidently you can see it in the Chattrapati Shivaji
terminus which is one of the busiest train stations in India and the headquarters of
the Indian central railway. This place was actually called Victoria terminus at first but
was renamed more recently to it’s current name and it's a UNESCO world heritage site and it's
definitely a gorgeous gorgeous train station i can't talk about British monuments in Mumbai
without mentioning the most famous British one in India, the gateway of India, which is kind
of where we started the vlog. Rising at 85 ft this thing was built in 1913 to commemorate the
visit of King George V who was the British emperor that came to India in 1911 becoming the first
ever British emperor to visit India which was a big deal at the time. This place was used as
sort of like a ceremonial entrance for a lot of important colonial people that came to India over
the years ironically after the British left and India gained independence the very last British
troops actually left through the gateway of India one last time and today this place is without a
doubt one of the most iconic spots in all of India okay for a bonus section in this video I’m going
to finish the vlog today in front of the residence of Shah Rukh Khan who's not a politician but
probably one of the most influential people in the world and definitely one of the
biggest actors of Bollywood. This guy is as famous as it gets in this country and
honestly I’m just here because I was a huge fan of this guy. I was idolizing him growing
up when I was a little kid I had cassettes not of his movies but of the songs in his movies
and me and my sister used to listen to them and have a damn good time when I was a kid. So
I just had to come and see this place. There's a lot more security here than I expected. All right
that's gonna be it for this video if you like the video don't forget to like it if you want to see
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probably from somewhere else in India in the north