Mumbai, Goa & the West

Gujarat was part of the Indus Valley world: Lothal, with its brick dock, and Dholavira in Kutch were Harappan towns more than four thousand years ago. On the Deccan, Buddhist monks cut the Ajanta caves from about the 2nd century BC, and from the 6th century Hindu, Buddhist and Jain patrons carved Ellora, where the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I had the Kailasa temple hewn from a single cliff in the 8th century. The Solanki kings of Gujarat left the stepwell of Rani ki Vav at Patan, and in 1411 Sultan Ahmed Shah founded Ahmedabad as the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate.

The Portuguese seized Goa in 1510 under Afonso de Albuquerque, and later Daman and Diu, making Goa the centre of their Asian empire; the Jesuit Francis Xavier arrived in 1542. The seven islands of Bombay came to Britain in 1661 as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry and grew into the East India Company's western base. Inland, Shivaji built a Maratha kingdom from hill forts and was crowned at Raigad in 1674; his successors, ruled in practice by the Peshwas at Pune, dominated much of India until the British defeated them in 1818.

Gujarat produced Mahatma Gandhi, who set out from his Ahmedabad ashram on the Salt March in 1930, and Bombay hosted the launch of the Quit India movement in 1942. Bombay State was split along language lines into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960, India took Goa, Daman and Diu in 1961, and Goa became a state in 1987. Bhuj was flattened by the 2001 earthquake, Gujarat saw deadly religious riots in 2002, and Mumbai — renamed in 1995 — was struck by terrorist attacks in 2008.

Three languages define the region: Marathi in Maharashtra, Gujarati in Gujarat and Konkani in Goa, with Hindi as the street language of cosmopolitan Mumbai. Marathi identity is bound up with Shivaji, the hill forts and the devotional poet-saints whose followers still walk for weeks to the temple town of Pandharpur. Ganesh Chaturthi is the great Maharashtrian festival, when Mumbai and Pune carry huge clay idols through the streets to be immersed in the sea and rivers. Lavani, a fast, drum-driven folk song and dance, and the Paithani silk sari are regional emblems.

Gujarat is a society of traders and entrepreneurs with a strong vegetarian and Jain influence, and alcohol has been prohibited there since the state was created. Navratri brings nine nights of garba and dandiya dancing in every city square. Kutch is known for its embroidery, mirror-work and ajrakh block printing, and Patan for its double-ikat patola silk.

Goa's Catholic heritage sets it apart: whitewashed churches, Portuguese surnames, village feasts, the pre-Lent Carnival and the feast of St Francis Xavier each December, alongside Hindu temples and the spring festival of Shigmo. Mumbai adds the Parsis, Zoroastrians who settled in Gujarat centuries ago and shaped the city's business life, and Bollywood, the Hindi film industry.

Mumbai's metropolitan region holds over 20 million people, among the largest urban areas in the world. It is India's financial capital, home to the Reserve Bank of India and the stock exchanges, and its suburban railway carries millions of commuters a day, while the dabbawalas deliver home-cooked lunches to offices by train and bicycle. Wealth sits beside Dharavi and other informal settlements, and housing costs are the city's constant issue. Pune, a few hours inland, is a fast-growing hub of education, IT and car manufacturing; Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad are the other large Maharashtrian cities.

Gujarat's main cities are Ahmedabad, with about 6 million people in its urban area in 2011, Surat, where most of the world's diamonds are cut and polished, Vadodara and Rajkot. The state is an industrial powerhouse of textiles, chemicals, ports and refining; the Reliance complex at Jamnagar is among the largest oil refineries in the world. Goa, India's smallest state, has about 1.5 million people and lives on tourism, remittances and iron-ore mining. Farming — sugar cane, cotton, onions, grapes and mangoes — remains the living of much of the countryside, and water shortage in the Marathwada interior is a recurring worry.

Mumbai's street food is famous across India: vada pav, a spiced potato fritter in a bread roll; pav bhaji, a buttery mashed vegetable curry with toasted buns; bhel puri, puffed rice tossed with chutneys on Chowpatty beach; and misal pav, a fiery sprouted-bean curry from Pune and Kolhapur. Coastal Konkani and Malvani cooking uses coconut and kokum, a sour fruit also made into sol kadhi, a pink coconut-milk drink, with fried bombil, the fish known as Bombay duck. Maharashtrian sweets include puran poli, a flatbread stuffed with sweet lentils and jaggery, and the steamed modak offered to Ganesh. Mumbai's Irani cafés serve bun maska and chai, and Parsi homes cook dhansak, mutton stewed with lentils.

Gujarati food is largely vegetarian and slightly sweet: steamed dhokla and rolled khandvi made from gram flour, thepla flatbreads, winter undhiyu of mixed vegetables slow-cooked with spices, and the Sunday breakfast of fafda and jalebi, all best in a many-bowled thali.

Goan cooking marries Portuguese and Konkani: pork vindaloo, sharp with vinegar and chilli; sorpotel; chicken xacuti with roasted coconut; spicy chouriço sausage; fish curry and rice; and bebinca, a layered coconut and egg cake. Feni, a spirit distilled from cashew fruit or coconut sap, is Goa's drink. Ratnagiri's Alphonso mangoes and Nashik's vineyards are regional pride.

Mumbai's centre has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco buildings around the Oval Maidan and along Marine Drive. The Gateway of India stands beside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. A ferry crosses the harbour to the rock-cut Shiva temples of Elephanta, and the city also has the Haji Ali mosque on its causeway and the Banganga tank. Inland, Pune has the Peshwas' Shaniwar Wada fort and the Aga Khan Palace, where Gandhi was interned, while Matheran and Mahabaleshwar are old hill stations in the Ghats.

Near Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) lie the caves of Ajanta, with Buddhist murals, and Ellora, with its Kailasa temple — both UNESCO World Heritage Sites — plus Daulatabad fort. Tadoba in the east of the state is a tiger reserve.

Goa's beaches run from Arambol, Anjuna, Baga and Calangute in the north to Colva, Agonda and Palolem in the south. Old Goa's churches include the Basilica of Bom Jesus, which holds the relics of Francis Xavier, and Se Cathedral; Panaji has the Latin Quarter of Fontainhas, and Dudhsagar Falls plunges down the Ghats.

Gujarat offers Ahmedabad's old city, Sabarmati Ashram and the Adalaj stepwell; Rani ki Vav at Patan, Champaner-Pavagadh and Dholavira, all UNESCO sites; the Great Rann of Kutch's white salt flats and the Little Rann's wild asses; Gir's lions; the Jain temples of Palitana; Somnath and Dwarka; and the fort and Portuguese churches of Diu.