Panaji or Panjim is the capital and largest city of Goa state in south-western India. It lies in the North Goa district on the bank of the Mandovi estuary and has a population of 60,000, or 100,000 including suburbs. During the day, its population swells due to the large number of government employees and others who visit the state capital.
The current official name is Panaji, though in the local language Konkani this gets pronounced as Ponnji, Ponnje, or Ponjhe. The Portuguese name was Pangim. Many mostly English-speaking people use the name Panjim.
Earlier a small village on the riverfront, in 1843 the city had been renamed Nova Goa (Portuguese for New Goa) when it officially replaced the city of Goa (now Old Goa) as the administrative seat of Portuguese India, though the viceroy had already moved there in 1759.
Incorporated into India in December 1961, Panaji became a state capital on Goa's elevation to statehood in May 1987. Between 1961 and 1987, it was the capital of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. A new Legislative Assembly complex was inaugurated in March 2000, across the Mandovi river, in the suburb of Porvorim. Goa's state secretariat, the seat of the bureaucracy, is also to shift to Porvorim in late 2004.
The heart of the city is the Church Square or Municipal Garden with the Portuguese BaroqueOur Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, originally built in 1541. Other tourist attractions include the Adilshahi Palace (or Idalcao palace), dating from the 16th century, the Menezes Braganza Institute and the central library, the Hindu Mahalaxmi Temple, the Jama Masjid mosque, the Chapel of St. Sebastian and the Fontainhas area in general which is considered to be the Old Latin Quarter, as well as the nearby beach Miramar. Tourists find the 18th June Road a destination for shopping, particularly during the evenings. As of 2004, Panjim is undergoing a major revamp, and is set to become the venue for the International Film Festival of India from the end of the year (2004). The Carnival celebrations in February include a colorful parade on the streets.
The ancient Hindu city of Goa, of which hardly a fragment survives, was built at the southernmost point of the island, and it was famous in early Hindu legend and history.
Goa fell to the Muslim Sultanate of Delhi for the first time in 1312, but they were forced to evacuate it in 1370 by Harihara I of the Vijayanagar empire whose capital was at Hampi in Karnataka state.
The social life of Goa's rulers befitted the headquarters of the viceregal court, the army and navy, and the church; luxury and ostentation becoming a byword before the end of the 16th century.
Goa, with a coastline of 65 miles, is hilly and includes a portion of the Western Ghats rising to nearly 4,000 feet.
Goa's 450 years under Portuguese domination produced a unique, syncretic blend of East and West that is at once exotic and strangely familiar: Christmas and Carnival are celebrated as enthusiastically by the 30-percent Christian minority as Diwali and Durga puja are by the mainly Konkani-speaking Hindus.
Goa is predominantly agricultural, with rice, fruits, coconuts, pulses (legumes), cashews, and betel (areca) nuts the leading crops.
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