MAHÁBALESHWAR, a hill station in Satâra district, and the principal sanatarium in the Bombay presidency, India (17° 58' N. lat., 73° 42' E. long.), occupies the summit of a range of the Western Ghâts, with a general elevation of 4500 feet above sea-level. It was established by Sir John Malcolm, the governor in Bombay in 1828, who obtained the site from the râjâ of Satâra in exchange for another patch of territory. The superior elevation of Mahâbaleshwar renders it much cooler than Mâtherân (2460 feet), but its heavy rainfall (about 240 inches) makes it almost uninhabitable during the rainy season. It forms the retreat usually during spring, and occasionally in autumn, of the governor of Bombay, the commander-in-chief of the Bombay army, and the chief officers of their establishments, and has the usual public buildings of a first-class sanatarium. The population was returned in 1872 at 2759.