Role of Locational Factors in Rise of Bombay Meera Kosambi The rise of Bombay as the 'urbs prima in Indis' has been attributed to its natural location which facilitated both commerce and conquest The author, however, contends that Bombay's centrality is the result rather than the cause of its commercial and political success. The rise of Bombay in fact illustrates two distinctive features of colonial rule: the primacy of the colonial port city and the substitution of the indigenous urban network by a new colonial Urban hierarchy headed by the major colonial port city.