Thane

Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city located on the northwestern side of the state of Maharashtra in India. It is an immediate neighbour of Mumbai city proper, and a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven talukas of Thane district; also, it is the headquarters of the namesake district. With a population of 1,841,488 distributed over a land area of about , Thane city is the 15th most populous city in India with a population of 1,890,000 according to the 2011 census. Etymology and other names The ancient name of Thana was . It appears as in early medieval Arab sources. The name Thane has been variously Romanised as Tana, Thana, Thâṇâ, and Thame. Ibn Battuta and Abulfeda knew it as KukinTana; Duarte Barbosa as TanaMayambu. Before 1996, the city was called "Thana", the British spelling of the city, until it was replaced with the more-local name.