Malabar Hill: 2 temples, 1 sacred tank, 0 meat

Plus a gigantic old woman's shoe and animal-shaped shrubs. Mumbai's most expensive residential area has become all sorts of odd

By Deepika Sorabjee 7 June, 2011

Previous Pause Next

It’s typical to see Jains walking barefoot, dodging traffic along Ridge Road, as they make their ways to the Shri Babu Amichand Panalal Adishwarji Jain Temple in Walkeshwar. It's the most-visited temple by foreign tourists in the city. Busloads of them dismount, cross the busy road and then seem genuinely puzzled to see ritualistic, dhoti-clad, shoeless Jain devotees in the 21st century.

The Jains hold all living things sacred and so offer no flowers at their temples, only rice and fruit. In order to avoid even the accidental swallowing of minute insects, strict Jains cover their mouths upon entering the inner sanctum. Inside, the highlight is a gaudily frescoed dome depicting the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

The centerpiece of the Banganga temple complex is a rectangular water tank. Imagine a candle-lit stage floating on the water for three evenings and classical music performed for audiences seated on the surrounding steps. If you want to know how Mumbai is changing, Banganga is good example. With noise pollution laws in place, the temple's once-famed festival has shut down.

An ancient Shiva temple lies at the foot of Malabar Hill at Babulnath. A babul tree gives the site its name. The temple's five idols and a linga (the phallic symbol that represents Shiva) were buried centuries ago and rediscovered in the 1700s. The first temple was built in 1780. Monday is the popular prayer day. Eat a sabudana vada at Dave Farsan Mart afterward or, even better, cross the road to eat at Soam, for one of the best vegetarian thalis in Mumbai.

Speaking of vegetarianism, the landmark building Matru Ashish on Nepean Sea Road has a Jain temple within its compound and forbids any restaurant serving non-vegetarian food in the vicinity. At Mukesh Chowk, there’s a vegetarian pizza shop, a Naturals ice cream store (all vegetarian) and even Kirith's, a dessert shop that serves egg-less cakes.

It's odd that in a highly residential area such as Nepean Sea Road there is a gourmet vegetarian bakery but few restaurants or cafes. The lone restaurant, Sun, features -- you guessed it -- all vegetables.

The old shoe house on top of Malabar Hill in Kamala Nehru Park, is called the the old woman's shoe, after a popular English nursery rhyme. The park is named after the wife of India’s first Prime Minister and has a view of some of the prettiest parts of the city including Chowpatty beach and the Queen's Necklace along Marine Drive.

In late 2009, the Green Garden Group introduced ambient morning music, played from planted speakers, to Pherozeshah Mehta Garden, known to locals as the Hanging Gardens on Malabar Hill. The gardens are famous for animal shapes sculpted out of hedges, as well as a wide variety of plant and floral life.

1 of 1

In old pictures of Mumbai, Malabar Hill is seen as a forested tropical outpost with ancient temples and bungalows that served as weekend and holiday homes for the wealthy.

In addition to having some of the highest real estate prices in the country, the Malabar Hill neighborhood also once reflected posh Mumbai cosmopolitanism at its best.

Parsis, Bohris, Hindus and a small, but strong, Catholic community at St. Stephen’s Church lived on the hill.

Now, 125 years later, the forest has been laid over with concrete and skyscrapers, the new temples of wealth.

In the last decade, Hindu conservatism and cultural stagnation seem to be eroding the area's multi-faith vibrancy.

What remains is a strange mix: two ancient temples and one sacred water tank where Indian classical music was once played and is now home to squawking geese.

Look closer and you'll find an old children's park with a life-sized boot and a green hedge in the shape of a sacred cow.

And if you really strain your eyes you might even encounter vegetarian vigilantes.

Having studied medicine at Bombay's oldest medical college, Deepika focuses on passions she could not study.

Malabar Hill: 2 temples, 1 sacred tank, 0 meat

you may also like

MOST POPULAR

WEIRD WORLD