Place · Ganesha temple · India
Siddhivinayak, Mumbai
Also known as Mumbai, Prabhadevi, Siddhivinayak, Siddhivinayak (Prabhadevi), Siddhivinayak — Prabhadevi
The Siddhivinayak Ganesha temple at Prabhadevi in Mumbai, Maharashtra — Bombay's central Ganesha shrine and one of the most-visited religious sites in India (daily footfall around 25,000, rising to 300,000 on Tuesdays, the Ganesha-day). The temple was founded in 1801 by Deubai Patil, a childless Agri widow who commissioned the shrine as a prayer for children of other women in her community. The deity Siddhivinayak is a trunk-right (dakshinmukhi) Ganesha with distinctive red idol painting. The temple's wealth from Mumbai-based industrial endowments has made it India's second-wealthiest Hindu temple after Tirupati. The current structure is 1991 modernised with major additions for pilgrim management. The temple's distinctive feature is the Tuesday queue (sometimes 4-5 hours long) of Mumbai devotees. Managed by the Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 19.017, 72.830
Connections (3)
- Mumbai templesMumbadevi, Mumbai
Mumbadevi in the old Bhuleshwar bazaar is the Koli fisherfolk goddess the city is named after, and Siddhivinayak at Prabhadevi, endowed by Deubai Patil in 1801, is now the most thronged shrine in Mumbai — queues of several hours, and a well-known clientele from the film industry and politics. The oldest and the busiest, and the traffic between them is a fair sample of what the city has become.
- TransmissionHōzan-ji, Mount Ikoma
Gaṇeśa in Mumbai is carried through the streets by hundreds of thousands every autumn and the queue at Siddhivinayak runs for hours. Gaṇeśa on Mount Ikoma is Kangiten, usually a pair of embracing elephant-headed figures, kept as a concealed image and approached by Osaka merchants for commercial success. The function survived — obstacles removed, prosperity granted — and the visibility inverted completely.
- Site withinMumbai
Siddhivinayak, Mumbai sits inside Mumbai and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Siddhivinayak temple”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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