India's wealthiest state, as well as its second most populous and third largest in area, Maharashtra in the west of the country is home to major cities like Mumbai (Bombay) and Pune, and boasts thousands of historic landmarks, some dating back millennia, and many associated with Shivaji, first 17th-century emperor of the Maratha Empire, be it Raigad, the region of his birth, Lal Mahal where he spent his youth, or forts such as Lohgad, Pratapgad, Murud Janjira, Singhgad, and Sindhudurg.
