The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.79

v1.c15.79

The island of Bombay is about twelve miles long from north to south. At its southern end it projects into the southward Colāba Point and the south-westward Malabar Point, between which, facing the open sea, is Back Bay. The harbour, set with hilly islets, lies between Bombay and the mainland, the entry being from the south round Colāba Point. Bombay is now a very fine city, but like the other great seaports of India, it is new—as time goes in the immemorial East. Calcutta was already great when Bombay was but a small place, for a riverway extends through densely peopled plains for a thousand miles inland from Calcutta, whereas the horizon of Bombay is barred beyond the harbour by the mountain face of the Western Ghāts. The real greatness of Bombay came only with the opening of the Suez Canal, and of the railway lines up the Borghāt and the Thalghāt.