Mumbai (Marathi: मुंबई Muṃbaī, IPA: ), formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, the most populous city of India, and by some measures the most populous city in the world with an estimated population of about 18 million (as of 2006). Mumbai is located on Salsette Island, off the west coast of Maharashtra. Along with its neighbouring suburbs, it forms the world's sixth most populous metropolitan area with a population of about 20 million. The metro population ranking is projected to rise to 4th in the world by 2015 due to an annual growth rate of 2.2%. The city has a deep natural harbour and the port handles over half of India's passenger traffic and a significant amount of cargo.

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment capital of India, and houses important financial institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies. Mumbai has attracted migrants from all over India because of the immense business opportunities, and the relatively high standard of living, making the city a potpourri of various communities and cultures. The city is home to India's Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood. Mumbai is also one of the rare cities to accommodate a national park, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, within its city limits.

Names

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The name Mumbai is an eponym, etymologically derived from Mumba or Maha-Amba— the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi, and Aai — mother in Marathi. The former name Bombay had its origins in the 16th century when the Portuguese arrived in the area and called the place with various names, which would finally take on the written form Bombaim, still common in current Portuguese use. After the British gained possession in the 17th century, it was anglicised to Bombay, although it was known as Mumbai or Mambai to Marathi and Gujarati-speakers, and as Bambai in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian. The name was officially changed to Mumbai in 1995, but the former name is still widely used by the city's inhabitants and a number of its famous institutions.

A widespread explanation of the origin of the traditional English name Bombay holds that it would be derived from a Portuguese name meaning good bay. This is based on the fact that bom is Portuguese for good whereas the English word bay is similar to the Portuguese baía (bahia in old spelling). However, the normal Portuguese rendering of good bay would have been bahia boa rather than the grammatically incorrect bom bahia.

Other sources have a different origin for the Portuguese toponym Bombaim. José Pedro Machado's Dicionário Onomástico Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa ("Portuguese Dictionary of Onomastics and Etymology") mentions what is probably the first Portuguese reference to the place, dated from 1516, as Benamajambu or Tena-Maiambu, pointing out that "maiambu"' seems to refer to Mumba-Devi, the Hindu goddess after which the place is named in Marathi (Mumbai). In that...