T HANA or Tanna, chief town of Thane district, Bombay, and a station on the Great Indian Penin sula Railway, 20 miles north-east of Boutbay city ; lies in lat. 19° 11' 30" N., aud long. 73° l' 30" E., and contains (1872) a population of 14,299.
Thalia or 'farina district, lying betVeen lat. 18° 47' and 20° 23' N., and between long. 72° 39' and 73° 52' E. Area, 4243 square miles; popu lation (1881), 110,707 persons,-78,582 Hindus, 17,058 Musalman, 542 Jains, 1269 Parsecs, 12,689 Christians, and 572 others. The Christ ians of Salsette and Bassein (about 35,000) are tho descendants of the converts of St. Francis Xavier and his successors in the 16th century. The original converts were'not obliged to give up caste distinctions, and their descendants have retained many of them, and a Thana Christian can still tell to what caste his family belonged before conversion. Indeed, Christians of the
Bhandari, Kumbi, and Koli castes commonly call themselves Christian Bhandari, Kumbi, or Koli, as the ease may be ; and Christians belong ing to different castes do not, as a rule, internArry, though the restriction in this respect is not so rigid as among Hindus. All of them have Portu guese names, and show their attachment to the Christian religion by contributing very largely to their churches, and to the support of their priests. All Christian villages on the coast, and a good nutuber inland, have their churches; and where a congregation is not large enough to keep a resident prient, one priest serves two or three churches. They livo by cultivation, fishing, toddy drawing, and every other employment open to similar classes of Ilindus.—Intp. Gas.