Hidden stories of Mumbai’s most popular landmarks

Team Udayavani, Mar 25, 2022, 2:12 PM IST

The universe revolves around stories. And, in this post-digital era of ‘it-didn’t-happen-unless-you-can-share-it,’ Every day, every face, and every event is meaningless unless they can be turned into a good story. At least in terms of language, if not in terms of appearance.

Here are some fascinating stories about popular landmarks in Mumbai:

1. Churchgate: Bombay was a walled city for much of the 18th and 19th centuries, defended by a massive fort built by the East India Company to safeguard their possessions. The Apollo gate, the Bazaar gate, and the Church gate were the three principal entrances of the fort. The Church gate served as the main entrance of the St. Cathedral Church, which is still standing today. The fortified walls and gates were soon torn down, but the name remained. The neighbourhood is still known as “Churchgate” three centuries later.
2. The Bombay Stock Exchange: The Bombay Stock Exchange is Asia’s oldest stock exchange, with a history dating back nearly two centuries. It all began in 1855, when five stockbrokers, four Gujaratis and one Parsi, gathered in front of the Town Hall under a banyan tree to sell stocks. As additional brokers joined them, working under a banyan tree grew more challenging, so they moved around and changed locations frequently. They finally established down at Dalal Street in 1874, after two decades of temporary workstations, and became the formal organisation that we know today as the Bombay Stock Exchange.
3. Wankhade Stadium: The oldest cricket stadium in Bombay is not the Wankhade Stadium, as many people believe. The Bombay Gymkhana hosted India’s first test match on home soil, and after WWII, the matches were staged at the Brabourne stadium. However, there were persistent issues about ticket allocations between the ground’s proprietors, the CCI, and the Mumbai Cricket Association, which were getting worse. S.K. Wankhade, a cricket fan and politician, stepped up and urged the MCA to construct a brand new stadium for themselves. All cricketing links with Brabourne were severed nine months later, and the fancy new Wankhade stadium held its inaugural match in 1975.
4. Mahalaxmi Temple: The construction of the Hornby Vellard, a causeway that would connect all seven islands of Bombay while also protecting low-lying areas from high tide, is intimately tied to the construction of Mahalaxmi Temple. It was, however, in vain, since segments of the sea wall fell twice during construction, leaving everyone perplexed. When all appeared lost, Pathare Prabhu, the project’s head engineer, had a dream about a Devi statue lost at sea. He dispatched a search party, and the statue was miraculously retrieved. Prabhu then proceeded to construct a tiny temple for the Devi, which he completed without difficulty. Dhaki Dadaji, a Hindu trader, built a larger temple in 1831, which was then moved to its current location and is known as the Mahalaxmi temple.
5. Siddhivinayak Temple: The Siddhivinayak, one of Bombay’s largest temples, was built in 1801 as a 3.6 × 3.6 metre brick edifice. A temple, however, was built soon after at the request of Deubai Patil, a wealthy agriwoman who was childless. She built the temple to please the Lord so that he might be gracious enough to bless other barren mothers with children. Soon after, Saint Swami Samarth buried two divine statues and predicted that a tree would grow there with a Ganesha in its branches, which came true 21 years later. As a result, the temple gained in grandeur and popularity, and pilgrims began to gather from all over Bombay to pay their respects. The playground adjoining the Siddhivinayak complex was created by filling a 19th-century lake on the temple’s eastern and southern sides. The temple has become one of Bombay’s most well-known temples after independence.