Mumbai has lots of surprises in store for everyone. Its people, its biological diversity, the places etc keep-on making me wonder. Like any other city it has seen lots of changes - some rapid, some slow. I really wonder how this city was looking like about 60-50 years back?? In the name of "progress" we (citizens) have managed to "Kill' its natural beauty and ultimately its natural resources. The forests are converted rapidly into urban landscapes or some human-made landscapes, all our rivers and streams are now almost converted into
nallahs. Yes, I do agree that things will change and they have been changing from past. But what really matter are the impacts of that change, isn't it so? In ancient time as well human tried to make use of resources for his own benefit but, it was all created with keeping the nature in mind and not by "manipulating" it. One of the examples of earlier/ancient human creations are caves and the city of Mumbai still have them in its municipal limits.
I had a chance to visit Mandapeshwar caves in borivali (West), Mumbai. There are BEST buses available from Borivali station that take you to IC colony. The caves are in IC colony itself. One need to fill the stomach before reaching this place, positively near station as there are very less option available near by Mandapeshwar. We too had good breakfast near the station itself.
when I first looked at the caves a thought came in mind - these caves to are a silent/unfortunately silent observers of degrading natural resources of the city. I had earlier seen Kanheri caves that are in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai. Kanheri are still surrounded with a patch of greenery since it is a protected area under Indian forest protection act. But, the Mandapeshwar caves are really unfortunate as far as natural greenery is concerned. I was shocked to know that earlier Dahisar river used to flow in front-of these caves. Currently, one can see a continuous patch of concreted roads and buildings! It is now managed by Archaeological Survey of India. The area of the caves is much smaller as compared to Kanheri. They were carved in the parent rock of Maharashtra-The Basalt about 1600 years ago. It has lord Shiva's temple in middle which is in worship. On both the sides of temple are empty chambers with few carvings in it. One on the left side has shiva's marriage carved on a wall. Some of the other carvings and even some pillars are not in good condition. Since we (myself and my friend) had lot of time in hand we spent pretty good time in observing the sculptures and tried to look everything from our point of view and discussed a lot.
On top of the caves are many broken walled chambers. This part was utilized by Portuguese as Christian University. After capturing the place they removed/broke/covered some sculptures of the caves and put a Holy cross in place of one (covered) sculpture (probably Lord Shiva's). The church was funded in 1544. Maratha defeated Portuguese in 18th century and opened the temple for worshiping again. Later British took over and started church (Our Lady of Immaculate Conception - IC church) practice once again. Finally after independence it was open for lord shiva's worship and it is in practice till date. Now caves have open ground in-front and locals use it as playing ground. This cave also has rain water harvesting tanks (still in usable condition). Since we visited this place in monsoon this small was green. When we went on top I saw few trees, herbs and shrubs. It is also suggestible to visit here during the night of 'Tripurari Pornima' which is held in the month of 'Kartik' (Indian lunar calendar) as during that time this cave is lighted with 'Diyas' (ghee lamps) and is a pretty good site to see. After this we went to the church which is just next to it.
We left the place in afternoon. I am sure these caves must have seen a 'lot' and witness the human greed and madness. Hence-forth hopefully they see some good part of humans' mind.
Mumbai has lots of surprises in store for everyone. Its people, its biological diversity, the places etc keep-on making me wonder. Like any other city it has seen lots of changes - some rapid, some slow. I really wonder how this city was looking like about 60-50 years back?? In the name of "progress" we (citizens) have managed to "Kill' its natural beauty and ultimately its natural resources. The forests are converted rapidly into urban landscapes or some human-made landscapes, all our rivers and streams are now almost converted into nallahs. Yes, I do agree that things will change and they have been changing from past. But what really matter are the impacts of that change, isn't it so? In ancient time as well human tried to make use of resources for his own benefit but, it was all created with keeping the nature in mind and not by "manipulating" it. One of the examples of earlier/ancient human creations are caves and the city of Mumbai still have them in its municipal limits.
when I first looked at the caves a thought came in mind - these caves to are a silent/unfortunately silent observers of degrading natural resources of the city. I had earlier seen Kanheri caves that are in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai. Kanheri are still surrounded with a patch of greenery since it is a protected area under Indian forest protection act. But, the Mandapeshwar caves are really unfortunate as far as natural greenery is concerned. I was shocked to know that earlier Dahisar river used to flow in front-of these caves. Currently, one can see a continuous patch of concreted roads and buildings! It is now managed by Archaeological Survey of India. The area of the caves is much smaller as compared to Kanheri. They were carved in the parent rock of Maharashtra-The Basalt about 1600 years ago. It has lord Shiva's temple in middle which is in worship. On both the sides of temple are empty chambers with few carvings in it. One on the left side has shiva's marriage carved on a wall. Some of the other carvings and even some pillars are not in good condition. Since we (myself and my friend) had lot of time in hand we spent pretty good time in observing the sculptures and tried to look everything from our point of view and discussed a lot.
On top of the caves are many broken walled chambers. This part was utilized by Portuguese as Christian University. After capturing the place they removed/broke/covered some sculptures of the caves and put a Holy cross in place of one (covered) sculpture (probably Lord Shiva's). The church was funded in 1544. Maratha defeated Portuguese in 18th century and opened the temple for worshiping again. Later British took over and started church (Our Lady of Immaculate Conception - IC church) practice once again. Finally after independence it was open for lord shiva's worship and it is in practice till date. Now caves have open ground in-front and locals use it as playing ground. This cave also has rain water harvesting tanks (still in usable condition). Since we visited this place in monsoon this small was green. When we went on top I saw few trees, herbs and shrubs. It is also suggestible to visit here during the night of 'Tripurari Pornima' which is held in the month of 'Kartik' (Indian lunar calendar) as during that time this cave is lighted with 'Diyas' (ghee lamps) and is a pretty good site to see. After this we went to the church which is just next to it. 
We left the place in afternoon. I am sure these caves must have seen a 'lot' and witness the human greed and madness. Hence-forth hopefully they see some good part of humans' mind.
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