Maharashtra. The Great Land. As the name itself suggests, Maharashtra has a great diversity of riches to offer to the tourist. Before you begin to sample these, however, first an invocation to Ganesh, the god of good beginnings and knowledge. The 11-day festival dedicated to this lovable, elephant-headed god in the lunar month of Bhadrapad, is one of the most popular cultural events in Maharashtra. Similarly, Krishna-Janmasthami with its potsmashing human pyramids is one the most colourful events of Maharashtra. So is the Mohurrum festival, with its colourful tabuts and horses.

Two of the meet well incave handicrafts of Maharashtra are Kolhapuri Chappals and the Paithani sari in silk, bordered with opulent zari. These have won aficionados from all over the world. To those who come to India, often it is Bombay, the New York of the East and "Gateway to India", that offers a pulsating introduction to the sub-continent. With its admixture of Gothic and skyscraper styles, its cosmopolitan "Bhelpur" of elements, Bombay prepares you for the more esoteric pleasures of the Maharashtra hinterland - treks in the rugged hill forts, so-journs along the 720-km-long coastline and forays among the cave temples. Eighty percent of India's cave temples are in Maharashtra. Seventy percent of these temples - more than a thousand monuments-were created in about sixty centres as early as 250 B.C. and 300 A.D.

On second thoughts these achievements seem some what inevitable. Since ancient times, Maharashtra has been known ……………. Rugged people. While geologists may refer to "the trappean formations in the Sahyadrian belt", poets like the Jnanpith award-winner, Kusumagraj use the image of hard, unyielding rock to evoke this land.

That is not to signify a lack of resilience, refinement or gentleness. On the contrary, as a 14th century Mahanubhavi poet says: "So special, so 'satvic', is this land of Maharashtra that even heavy things like stones there are imbued with a lightness". (Milan Kundera would call it the unbearable lightness of being). That blend of gravity and lightness, of earliness and transcendence explains why masterpieces like the Kailas temple at Ellora or the wall paintings at Ajanta or the Maheshamurti at Elephant-which Andre Malraux called the world's greatest stone sculpture-could be "made in Maharashtra".

It is not for nothing that Maharashtra has been revered as "Mahanta-Rashtra". Some of India's greatest movements-religious, reformist and ecumenical-were born here. Ranging from Sri Chakradhar and his Mahanubhavs, Sri Jnandev, Tukaram and their Warkaris to Mahatma Phule and his Satyashodhaks, these have immensely enriched the life, language and culture of the land.

Maharashtra has been equally well-known for its music. And I don't mean just its vibrant folk forms like lavnis, povadas, gondhals and bharuds, India's greatest treatise on classical music of medieval times - the Sangitratnakara - was written by Sharangdeva at the Devagiri court in the 13th century. And it was a Devagiri singer, Gopal Nayak, taken by Allauddin Khilji to Delhi, who taught and inspired Amir Khusro to create the Khayal style.

……………. Music continues unabashed. Many of India's greatest stalwarts of music reside and perform for audiences here, who rank among the country's most knowledgeable patrons. Maharashtra also has a flourishing theatre tradition. And of course, the film industry; a phenomenon which began haltingly with Dadasaheb Phalke and his altruistic Raja Harishchandra is now a 200-film-a-year-mega-million industry.

Perhaps it's better to equate the (Hindi) film industry with Bombay, rather than Maharashtra. Leaving aside for a moment the pioneering role played by Kolhapur and Pune in films, one must admit that Bombay has a vast microcosmic charm all its own. And this pertains not just to the movies but almost every other field including wildlife! Did you know that you can actually meet wild leopards in Bombay's Borivilli National Park as you search for the elusive Drongo cuckoo or the Malabar Trogon among the hills and ravines around the Tulsi and Vihar lakes ? Incidentally, the Buddhist Kanheri caves, carved around the 3rd century AD are also located here. You can still find some of the medicinal plants, originally grown here by the monks, now flourishing in the wild!.

However, there's the tendency to emphasize the megapolitan aspects of Bombay (and Maharashtra). Of course they represent some of India's most industrially and commercially advanced areas. But there's far more for you to enjoy. Even if you leave out the cities (you shouldn't) like Pune, Nagpur, Nasik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Bombay, you still have a spectacular set of options: superb beaches - Murud-Jan-jira, Malvan, Ganpatipule; cool hill stations - Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Panhala, Panchgani; hot spas - Akoli, Vajreshwari; …………….Bhimashankar, Jejuri, Shirdi, Pandharpur, the Ashta-Vinayakas; wildlife parks - Melghat, Tadoba, Karnala. One can go on and on. So pack up your bags and come…to Maha-Maharashtra.