हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Mahalakshmi Temple, Mumbai

The temple of the three Devis of the Devi Mahatmya on a rock above the Arabian Sea at Breach Candy. Its katha is tied to the building of the Hornby Vellard, the causeway that joined Bombay’s islands.

Built: Murtis recovered from the sea during the Hornby Vellard works (c. 1784); present temple 1831, Dhakji DadajiWhere: Maharashtra (Mumbai)Deity: Mahalakshmi, with Mahakali and Mahasaraswati18.98° N, 72.81° E
  1. c. 1784
  2. 1831
Photo: Karthik Nadar · CC BY-SA 3.0

01The causeway that would not stand

In the 1780s the Company’s engineers set out to close the breach between Malabar Hill and Worli with a sea wall, the Hornby Vellard. The temple’s katha says the wall kept collapsing into the sea until the Devi came in a dream to the contractor, Ramji Shivaji Prabhu, and told him her murtis lay on the seabed nearby. Divers brought up three images; once they were set on the shore in a small shrine, the work held. The Vellard was finished around 1784, and with it much of today’s Mumbai rose out of the marsh.

02Three Devis in gold and pearl

The present temple was built in 1831 by Dhakji Dadaji, a Hindu merchant of the city. In the sanctum stand Mahalakshmi in the centre, Mahakali on one side and Mahasaraswati on the other, the three forms of the Devi Mahatmya, decked in nose-rings, bangles and pearl necklaces. Devotees reach them through a lane of flower and coconut stalls. Navaratri is the great time here, when the queue runs down to the road. A custom of the temple: press a coin to the back wall, and if it sticks, the wish will be granted.

The life of this place

  1. c. 1784The Hornby Vellard is completed; the temple’s katha places the finding of the murtis here.
  2. 1831Dhakji Dadaji builds the present temple.
Visiting

Mahalaxmi station on the Western Railway is a short taxi ride away; Haji Ali is a few minutes north along the shore.

Nearby

Babulnath Temple, MumbaiStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Babulnath Temple, Mumbai

A Shiva temple on the hillock above Girgaum Chowpatty, named for the babul tree under which the linga was found. Its tall spire was once among the highest points of the city.

Walkeshwar Temple and Banganga TankRebuilt
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Walkeshwar Temple and Banganga Tank

On the tip of Malabar Hill, a Shiva temple and a stepped tank tied to Shri Rama’s halt on the way to Lanka. Destroyed in the Portuguese period and rebuilt in 1715, it is the oldest continuously sacred spot in south Mumbai.

Mumba Devi Temple, BhuleshwarRebuilt
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Mumba Devi Temple, Bhuleshwar

The Devi of the Koli fishermen, from whose name Mumbai takes its own. Her shrine stood near Bori Bunder until the 18th century, when it was rebuilt at Bhuleshwar beside a tank.

Shri Siddhivinayak Temple, PrabhadeviRebuilt
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Shri Siddhivinayak Temple, Prabhadevi

Mumbai’s best-loved Ganesh temple, founded in 1801 by a childless woman who asked that Ganapati grant children to other barren women. The small black-stone murti draws lakhs of devotees on Tuesdays and on Angarki Chaturthi.