Nala Sopara
—  city  —
Nala Sopara Location of Nala Sopara in Maharashtra and India
Coordinates	19°24′55″N 72°51′41″E / 19.4154°N 72.8613°E / 19.4154; 72.8613Coordinates: 19°24′55″N 72°51′41″E / 19.4154°N 72.8613°E / 19.4154; 72.8613
Country	India
State	Maharashtra
District(s)	Thane
Population	184,664 (2001[update])
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Codes • Pincode • 401 203 to 401 209 • Telephone • +91250 • Vehicle • MH04

Nala Sopara (Marathi: नालासोपारा) (officially, Nala Sopara) is one of the suburbs of Mumbai city. It is a town within the Mumbai Conurbation. The town lies in Thane district of Maharashtra state in India. The population of the city is 184,664 (2001 census). It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway (India) railway line. It is governed by the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation.

History

In ancient times, it was the largest township on India's west coast, trading with Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cochin, Arabia and Eastern Africa. Proof of Ashokan inscriptions have also been recovered from Sopara, Buddhist text gives details that is was a prominent Buddhist area. During excavation ruins of a Buddhist Stupa were found. From the center of the stupa (inside a brick built chamber) a large stone coffer was excavated which contained eight bronze images of Maitreya Buddha which belong to the 8th-9th century A.D. The coffer contained a relic caskets, numerous gold flowers and fragments of a begging bowl. A silver coin of Gautamiputra Satakarni was also found from the mound.

There were 14 major ashokan edicts, the fact that two of them were found at sopara indicates that it was an important centre of buddhist activity. the edicts can be found at the prince of wales museum in the ancient history section. the fragment of the ninth rock edict is a massive octagonal block of stone covered with mauryan brahmi writing, roughly the size of a large television screen. in many ways, the rock edict was the b.c. version of TV and mass media. if shah rukh khan plastered mumbai with hoardings of his film at every strategic street junction, emperor ashoka ensured that rock hoardings propagating his dhamma were installed at strategic points in his empire, including a bilingual Greek and aramic edict at kandahar. and although mr khan's telegenic empire surpasses the emperor's material one, his stones of empire have survived the vagaries of history's tumultuous box-office. Sopara, situated in the thane district of bombay, was the site of an ancient sea port and town. given the heavy human traffic of a port town, what better place to position one's message. According to historian sadashiv gorakshkar, "as a sequel to the third buddhist council in the eighteenth year of ashoka's reign in 256 b.c, it was decided to depute several theras (messengers) to various parts of the country. one of the areas so covered was aparanta where yona (yavana) dharmaraksita was sent to propagate the law. in spite of the various interpretations of aparanta, it is now accepted that the entire region of thekonkan, i.e. the area between the sahyadri and the sea was included in aparanta, and suparaka or sopara was an important tirtha in aparanta." maybe today's nalla sopara won't find its way to the columns of page three, but it has an eternal place in Ptolemy's periphus maris erythraci and in ancient Hindu, jain and buddhist literature. The purnavandana contains a legend about gautama's visit to sopara at the instance of the merchant purna. also, ashoka deliberately chose to send a yona dharmarakshita (Greek messenger) to sopara because of its international milieu and the presence of alexandrian Greeks, romans, parthians and Arabs. it was around sopara that a major centre of buddhist activity, in all probability a university centre, flourished at kanheri almost until the advent of the Portuguese in the 15th century. sopara slipped into historical obscurity until that historic Easter of 1882. in that landmark April, pandit indraji excavated the mound in sopara, locally called buruda rajacha killa or 'fort of the basket-making king'. he opened the centre of the stupa and 13 feet below discovered a stone coffer. this coffer (on display at the Asiatic society) had in the centre a copper casket containing, one within the other like Russian dolls, four other caskets of silver, stone, crystal and gold. the gold casket contained gold flowers and 13 bits of earthenware, which scholars feel could be shards from buddha's begging bowl. around the copper casket, keeping ancient watch were eight metal images of buddhas. although scholars place the date of the images and the casket between the 2nd and 8th century ad, the rock edicts are hard proof of the ashokan connection. the structure of the stupa is also traced to the ashokan era.

Demographics

As of 2001^[update] India census,^[1] Nala Sopara had a population of 1,84,664 and it is one of the well known suburb in Mumbai. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Nala Sopara has an average literacy rate of 79%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 77%, and female literacy is 82%. In Nala Sopara, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age. This place has witnessed very steep rise of population since 1998, due to cheapest property rates in Mumbai suburban railways area, steep rise of property rates in Mumbai and being well connected to Mumbai city by local train services.

Localities

Nalasopara has some of the historic location located in Vasai Taluka like one of the Buddhist stupa known to be built in the reign of Emperor Ashoka. This city was once an ancient port named Sopara or Surparaka It also has some temples located within it which are not only historical but also a part of ancient architecture with beautiful monuments carved in it.

The Nalasopara (West) area consist of Shakar Mohalla, Nawayat Nagar, Waza Mohallah, Baitul Nasar, Desai Wadi, Bazar Peth, Sopara, Umrale, Nala, Gaas, Nirmal, Wagholi, Sri Prastha, Laxmiben Chedda Nagar, Hanuman nagar, Panchal Nagar, Chakradhar Nagar,rasmi druvita park ' shiv krupa complex

The localities in Nallasopara (East) are Achole Road, Achole Village, Dawn Lane, Tulinj, Vijay Nagar, Taki Road, Ostwal Nagari, Central Park, Sanyukta Nagar, Moregaon, Santosh Bhavan, Hawai Pada, Nagindaspada, etc. The Achole talao is a place worth visiting with soft music, lights, benches play park .

Schools and Colleges

Schools:-

• MATA BHAGWATI YUG NIRMAN VIDYALAY, Gayatri Nagar, Harwate Pada, Dhaniv Baag, Nallasopara East. Leading Role Of Manju Yadav, Dr.A.G.Yadav,Shridev Yadav.Developed By Mata ramraji Trust & Family Members. School Offers Education For ENGLISH & HINDI Medium Both Up to Class X. For Location Click Here

• St Augasthi High School,Shanti Nagar,Tulinj(where the great Arun Poojary once studied)

• Z.B.Zakaria English School is one of the schools developed by the Shurparka Educational & Medical Trust. The Primary section of the school is named as Mohammad Amin Hawai Pre-Primary School while the Z.B.Zakaria is the secondary section. It is the finest and the oldest school at Nalasopara. It is under the Mr Sagir Dange the Vice Mayor of Nalasopara.

• Holy Cross High School in Nirmal established in 1946.

• Sopara English School, Sopara is one of the oldest school in nallasopara,established in 1947.

• Little Flower's English High School, situated in Samelpada locality is theoretically oldest school in this town offers education up to class X in Nalasopara West.

• The Anjuman Islam High School provides education in Urdu till class X.

• Rahul International School, Nalasopara West

• Sacred heart high school,Nalasopara west

• Holy Cross Convent School in munni

• St.Gonsalo Garcia High School,Gass

• Infant Jesus High School is located in Nalasopara it is located in Nalasopara East.

• Chandresh Lodha Memorial High School(CLMS) is one of the famous school in all field located in Nalasopara East.

• Evergreen high school near station Nalasopara East.

• New Orchid High School is located at Sopara Gaon near Dange Complex.It is now a well known School.

• St. Francis De Sales School offering education up to class X in Nalsopara West and Nalasopara East

• St. Anthony's High School located in the Eastern part, located in Moregaon.

• St. Aloysius High School, is one of the best schools run by Dr Pinto's Xaviers group in Nalasopara .

• Kapol Junior college of Arts, Science and Commerce.

• Krishna Moru Patil Deshmukh Patil Vidyalaya Marathi & English Medium (KMPD)

• Holy Cross Angel School, located in Nalasopara West.

• Mother Mary's High School, Nalasopara West

• St. Mary's High School, Nalasopara West

• Divine Providence Junior College

• St. Aloysius Junior College

• Adarsh Education Scociety Junior College

• St. Stanislaus Junior College

• Shishu Bharti Vidhyamandir (Near KMPD School)

• Lokman Hindi high school nalasopara east

• Chinde apt, Opp. mahatma phuley nagar, Samel pada.

Administration

Nalasopara municipal council (Nagar Parishad) has been combined with the Virar and Vasai Municipal Council (Nagar Parishad) to make it a Municipal corporation for better administration and amenities, though there were protests from people in the rural areas not to include the adjoining villages. It is now adminsitered by now what is called the Vasai Virar Municipal corporation. (Mahanagarpalika)

References