01Pandit Sanjibon
Most Mauritian Hindus descend from the indentured labourers who came after 1834 to work the sugar estates. Sanjibonlall Ramsoondur, remembered as Pandit Sanjibon, came from Calcutta on 4 April 1866, trading as a pedlar. In the late 19th century the estates began selling off land in small lots, and he bought a large part of what is now Triolet. In 1888 he founded the Shiva temple there and gave land for it. Around the main shrine of Maheswarnath stand temples of Ganesh, Murugan, Vishnu, Krishna, Rama and Durga, so that the whole compound is a gathering of the devas.
02The road to Ganga Talao
The temple is linked with the first pilgrimage to Grand Bassin, the crater lake in the island’s hills that Mauritian Hindus call Ganga Talao, at the end of the 19th century. Each year at Maha Shivaratri hundreds of thousands walk to the lake carrying kanwars, bamboo frames hung with mirrors and flowers, to bring back its water for the linga, and many set out from or pass by the Shivala of Triolet. On Shivaratri night the temple is lit and the courtyard stays full until dawn.
The life of this place
- 4 April 1866Pandit Sanjibonlall arrives in Mauritius from Calcutta.
- 1888He founds the Maheswarnath temple at Triolet.
Triolet, on the main road north of Port Louis towards Grand Baie. Maha Shivaratri (February–March) is the great festival.
