Kalyan
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- This article is about a city in India. For other uses, see Kalyan (disambiguation).
Kalyan (Marathi: कल्याण) is a city in the part of the Konkan (or "Kokan") region included in Maharashtra state, and a major railway junction in the vicinity of Mumbai, India.
The city has been combined with its neighbor township of Dombivli to form the City Corporation of Kalyan-Dombivli.
It is considered a part of the Greater Mumbai metropolitan agglomeration, along with New Mumbai and the cities of Bhiwandi, Thane, Ulhasnagar and the Vasai-Virar region.
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[edit] Geography of Kalyan
Kalyan city is located on the lower course of the Ulhas River with access to the Arabian Sea, via its two estuaries or creeks, the Thane Creek and the Vasai Creek. Kalyan is 48 km (30 mi) north-east of Mumbai. Overcrowding in Mumbai and incentives from the government to develop areas outside of Mumbai have attracted industrial business as well as industrial employees to Kalyan.
Kalyan was also considered at one time as one of the best places to live in the neighborhood of Mumbai, as it is far away from the pollution of the main city.
Kalyan Junction is a very important railway station for suburban travel as well as for long distance trains. The suburban or metropolitan railway passenger transport line coming in from Mumbai splits into two at Kalyan Junction, one heads south-east for Karjat and Khopoli towards Lonavla, Mahabaleshwar and Pune, the other heads north-east for Kasara towards Nashik.
On the eastern side of the city is a large industrial complex where electrical equipment, rayon, and dyes and other chemicals are manufactured. There are also a large number of textile-based cottage industries.
The city has a beautiful township which goes by the name "GODREJ HILL" .The complex overlooks the kalyan creek and built atop a hill blanketed by greenery. Godrej Properties had undertaklen this project two decades ago and today it has created enormous real estate value in the neighbourhood. Among the new constructions in the housing complex, Angel Co-Operative Housing Soceity stands apart beacause of the magnamity and grandeur it excudes.
[edit] History
Kalyan was a port for more than two millennia until siltation and the rise of Mumbai eclipsed it and its sister ports, Sopara, Thane, Vasai, etc. The port was ruled by the Maurya and Gupta Empires of North India and later was part of a petty Konkan principality vassal to the Yadava Empire of Deogiri. Extensive ruins in Kalyan indicate the city's former magnificence.
After the Khilji sack of Deogiri, the Yadavas fled into the Konkan region and set up their base at Mahikawati, modern Mahim; Kalyan was a part of the brief Yadava state of Mahikawati. Mahikawati was conquered by the Muslims who set up petty coastal principalities.
As a major entrepot, Kalyan soon became, by 530-535 A.D. the seat of a Nestorian bishop ([1]). The Churches of South Asia which were ecclesiastically dependent on the Church of Assyria and Chaldea in Mesopotamia or modern Iraq, lands then subject to the Persian Empire (Sassanians), early fell with it into the Nestorian Schism and used Pahlavi as the liturgical language. The Konkan, Tulunad and Malabar Coasts of South Asia are marked by stone crosses with Pahlavi inscriptions.
During the Middle Ages, Pope John XX, headquartered at Avignon, sent a group of five missionaries to the Mongol Emperor at Khanbalik, modern Beijing in China, under the Dominican Fray Giordano or Jordanus. On their way, they picked up a novice, Demetrius, from West Asia and then travelled through South Asia, succoring the Nestorian Christians there, who were hard pressed by the Muslims. Giordano left his colleagues at Kalyan and travelled back north to Gujarat. During his absence, the Muslim governor and qazi of Thane summoned the missionaries and demanded submission to Islam; when they refused, they were murdered (1321). The local Nestorians collected their remains and buried them; Giordano, on his return, took them to Sopara and buried them there. The Muslim Arab sultan of Gujarat, when informed of this development, summoned his governor of Thane and the Qazi; the Qazi fled but the governor was executed for his actions that militated against international commerce. When a later missionary, Oderic of Pordenone ([2]), visited Thane in 1324-1325, he collected their remains and moved on to China.
The Martyrs of Thane were canonized by Pope Leo XIII and are Saints Thomas of Tolentino, James of Padua, Peter of Siena and Demetrius of Tiflis.
In the later Middle Ages, Kalyan was occupied by the Ahmednagar Sultanate, an indigenous dynasty founded by a man forcibly converted from a Hindu Brahmin family as a child, and then by the Bijapur Sultanate, an Indo-Turkish state in the Deccan in the 1500s, and later by the Mughals under the Emperor Shah Jahan, who fortified the city in the mid-1600s. It came under Portuguese sway for a brief time before being re-conquered by the Muslim allies of the Mughals, and was later conquered by the Marathas, who made it one of their strategic centers because it guarded the entrance to Mumbai and the western coast of India. Kashibai, wife of the Peshwa Bajirao was born in Kalyan. About eighty years after the Maratha conquest, the Maratha Empire was forced to cede it to the British and Kalyan became part of the Bombay Presidency, a British India province that became Bombay state after India's independence in 1947.
Durgadi Fort(किल्ले दुर्गाडी): It is not known as to when the Durgadi fort was constructed. The wall of the fort along the top of the inner bank of the ditch, and, near the north end, had a gateway known as the Delhi or Killyacha Darwaja, which was entered by a path along the top of the north side of the town wall. Inside the fort there was a low belt of ground, about the same level, asd the top of the ditch, with a shallow pond not far from the Delhi gate. The remains of the pond are still visible, in the north-west corner the fort rose in a small flat-topped mound about thrity feet high. On the top of the mound, on the west crest which overhangs and is about 100 feet above the river, is the prayer wall or idgah, sixty-four feet long, thirteen high and seven thick, which is now in a dilapidated condition. This doubtful wall is said to be of the old Durga temple wall and is thickly plastered. It is said that near the east crest of the mound there was a mosque, but no remains of it can be traced. About thirty to forty yards of the idgah was a round cut stone wall of great depth, eleven feet in diameter with a wall two feet eleven inches thick at the top, which has now completely, collapsed except the basement of the wall. Under the Marathas (1760-72), a new gate about 150 feet to the south of the Ganesh gate was opened near the mansion of Ramji Mahadeo Biwalkar, the Peshwa s Governor. In the citadel of the fort Marathas built a small wooden temple of Durgadevi behind the mosque, and called the fort Durgadi Killa in honour of the goddess, a name which it still bears. They also converted the mosque into Ramji s temple. The fort measures 220 feet in leagth and somewhat less in breadth. Under the English the fort wall was dismantled and stones carried to build the Kalyan and Thane piers and a dwelling for the customs inspector in the west of the Kalyan fort. The gate to the north-west is almost the only trace of the fort wall, which is of rough stone masonry. During 1876 the original idol of the goddess Durga was stolen. The other idol was placed during the last decade of the 19th century. The present fort as well as the present Durga temple was renovated (jitnoddhar), by the Kalyan municipality on 15 December 1974. A new idol of goddess Durga made if Panchadhatu (five sacred metals) was installed by Shri Gajanan Maharaj and Shri Annasaheb Pattekar of Thane on the same date. The idol is four-armed, three and half feet in height, with a lion resting at its back. To the right of idol is the old idol. The municipality has constructed a new gate 35 feet high and with four towers. There has also been laid a beautiful garden which surrounds the fort. The fort which has now more or less become a picnic spot gives an excellent view of Retibunder, the creek, the Bhiwandi bridge, the groves near and afar and the hills to the north of the fort.
In and before July 1946 there was a large military transit camp near Kalyan.
[edit] Housing Societies
Kalyan has large numbers of registered Co-op Hsg. Societies. Some of them are listed below.
- Ambika Prassana CHS Ltd; Karnik Road Extn, Behind Suresh Towers, Kalyan (West).
- Meghna CHS Ltd; Rambaugh Lane number 2 , Kalyan (West).
- Shree CHS Ltd; Karnik Road Extn, Behind Suresh Towers, Kalyan (West).
- Trimurti CHS Ltd; Karnik Road Extn, Kalyan (West).
- Ammu CHS Ltd;
- Seema CHS Ltd;
- Suresh Towers CHS Ltd;
- Padmalaya CHS Ltd;
- Geeta CHS Ltd;
Vishwamitri Lokgram CHS Ltd. Kalyan (E)
[edit] Best Schools of Kalyan
- St Judes School Kolsewadi Kalyan (E)
- Old Lourdes school kalyan (W)
- K.C Gandhi School Kalyan (W)
- Model English High School kalyan (E)
- Gurunanak School Kalyan (W)
- Vani Vidyalaya kalyan (W)
Lok Kalyan Public School Kalyan (E)
[edit] Best College of Kalyan
- Birla College of Science, Arts and Commerce, Kalyan(W)
- Hindi College of Science, Joshibaugh, Kalyan(W)
[edit] Current developments
Kalyan has been experiencing rapid growth as many people who work in Mumbai have opted to live here and commute to Mumbai. The housing is affordable compared to Mumbai. The travel time is approximately 45 minutes by fast trains and 1 hr 15 minutes by slow trains. There are many trains originating from Kalyan and going towards Mumbai CST.
Also many residents from the neighbouring crowded Ulhasnagar have opted to move out to Kalyan where a spate of new luxurious housing with facilities such as jogging tracks, gardens and swimming pools are coming up. Kalyan is also well connected to Thane by road which is 35 minutes away.
Kalyan has its own bus service, the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transport (KDMT) run by the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. This service serves the twin cities of Kalyan and Dombivli as well as the villages around. It also has routes which serve Vashi and CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai. Buses from the Navi Mumbai Muncipal Transport (NMMT) also operate till Dombivli.
Kalyan also has a vegetable market where farmers from the neighbouring villages and from Nashik and beyond sell their goods.
As you enter Kalyan from the Bhiwandi by road, you will see the ruins of the Durgadi Fort. Along the river banks are old brick lighthouses, which were used to guide vessels sailing up the river.
Part of Kalyan, including the railway station, Shivaji Chowk, Zunjarrao Nagar and Bail Bazar were submerged in more than 7 feet of water on July 26, 2005 when heavy rains caused the Barvi Dam to overflow and excess water was released to prevent a dam burst. Tilak Chowk and adjoining areas were spared from this.The eastern parts of Kalyan like Lok Gram, Lok Dhara, Netivali were the worse affected regions than western areas as they are low level areas.
Kalyan has had very little history of religious tensions since Independence although there is a significant presence of both the Hindus and Muslims. However, on April 9, 2002, there were riots at Rohidaswada sparked off by a tiff over autorickshaw fare between a Muslim rickshaw driver and a Hindu passenger ([3])
Mcdonald's mega mall (entertainment and amusement park) at Kalyan [4]
Westfield Retail Pvt. Ltd which is McDonald's West India Master Franchisee is currently developing a mammoth retail-cum-amusement mall at Kalyan, Maharashtra. The 10 lakh sq. ft. mall, called Metro Junction slated to become operational by end-2006, will compose of a 2 lakh sq. ft. Amusement Park and 5 lakh sq. ft. of dedicated retail space, such as Big Bazaar (the largest outlet on a single level anywhere in India) as the main anchor, with Fame Adlabs (4-screen multiplex), Timezone and McDonald's listed as the other major retailers.
