Place · Shiva temple · India
Walkeshwar Shiva, Mumbai
Also known as Mumbai, Walkeshwar & Banganga, Walkeshwar Shiva
The Walkeshwar Shiva temple at Malabar Hill in Mumbai, Maharashtra — the oldest surviving temple on Mumbai's seven islands. The temple's foundation legend holds that Rama, en route to Lanka during his exile, made a sand (walu) Shiva linga at this spot — hence Walkeshwar ('sand linga lord'). The current structure is 1715 Peshwa-era rebuild after Portuguese destruction of the original 1127 Silahara-dynasty temple. The adjoining Banganga Tank (built in 1127 by the Silahara king) is said to have been struck from the earth by Rama's arrow to provide water for his Lanka march. The temple is one of three principal Shiva pilgrimage sites in Mumbai (with Babulnath and Mumbadevi). The annual Shivaratri festival each February draws over 100,000 pilgrims. The temple's heritage listing by INTACH makes it a protected monument.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 18.944, 72.797
Connections (1)
- Site withinMumbai
Walkeshwar Shiva, 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, “List of Hindu temples in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
Open Walkeshwar Shiva, Mumbai in the repository →