The famed 'Gateway of India'& 'Taj Hotel' of Mumbai in one frame
We
had a full day to ourselves on the second day of visit to Mumbai, as for the
half day on our first day of our visit, we had explored visiting Mumbai, which is
detailed in my previous blog (titled ‘Visiting Mumba’).We had planned a visit to the famed Elephanta
Caves on the second day.I tried to
glean some information from the reception clerk of the Hotel regarding ferry
timings from the famed ‘Gateway of India’, but he did not have much information,
except for that the ferry ride starts at 10.00 A.M.Since I too could not gather much
information, I decided to start from the hotel at around 9.00 A.M.However, the late serving of B’fast, despite
my having instructed them on the previous day, delayed our scheduled visit by
about 20 minutes and we started only around 9.20 A.M.The weather was a bit sultry that day, but
when I reached the famed ‘Gateway of India’, I found that there was no dearth
of boats leaving for Elephanta Caves and there were a plethora of operators
offering return trips from as low as Rs.140/- per person onwards to average of Rs.200/-
per person, depending upon the size of the boat used for ferrying and the
service starts from around 9.00 A.M onwards.
The ferry boats at Gateway of India jetty ready to ferry passengers to Elephanta Caves
All set to embark on the journey to Elephanta Caves
As the Sea Gulls fly alongwith the ferry boat
Waiting for the train ride at Gharapuri island
Lovingly
called the City of dreams, Mumbai is the financial capital of the country and
is brimming with life 24X7.One of the
most famous monuments of Mumbai is the ‘Gateway of India’, which was built to
commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Many in 1924.The monument is a huge gate like structure
constructed in Indo-Saracenic architecture style, overlooking the Arabian Sea
and the Mumbai harbor and it took four years to complete this structure.The area is a sought after destination by
both domestic as well as foreign tourists visiting Mumbai and being set with
background of the famed Taj Hotel, a large number of instant photo makers will
converge on you to get a photograph taken with either of the structures as
background and do a brisk business.Besides this there are hordes of other vendors pedaling their wares
from balloons to food items, who will also bicker you to buy their
products.But the main thing that the
tourists must be aware of is that being an overcrowded location, especially the
ferry ticket counter area, it is infested with notorious pick pockets etc.,
therefore, visitors should be extra vigilant in this region.
As the climb for the Elephanta Caves begins
Since
the mechanized boats ferrying passengers to the Elephanta Cave start the
journey from the small jetty at the Gateway of India, there are a plethora of
boats of all sizes, shapes and colour jostling along the jetty, waiting for
their turn to pick up their load of passengers.The Elephanta Caves are situated about 11 Kms from the Gateway of India
on an island called Gharapuri, which is also called the ‘Island of the Caves’.The journey from the Gateway of India to the
island takes about 45 minutes to an hour depending upon the type of boat one
has purchased tickets for and from the jetty of the island, it is another 1.5
to 2 Kms. trek to the base of the hills, wherefrom about a 100 odd stairs take
you to the hill top.However, there is a
small train like contraption that ferries passengers from the jetty to the base
of the hillock and it’s ticket costs Rs.10/- for a return journey and during
the hot summer days it saves a person a lot of hard work and sweat, if one
chooses to travel by it.We immensely
enjoyed our ferry ride from the Gateway of India to the Island of Caves, with
the Sea Gulls flying around the sea breeze making the journey a pleasant &
memorable one.Occasional sighting of
huge tankers or other ships, including a cruise ship was an added bonus during
the trip through the Arabian Sea.
We finally reach the famed Elephanta Caves
The entry to Cave No.1
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (2)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (3)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (4)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (5)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (6)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (6)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (7)
Cave No.1 - The sculpture inside (8)
Historically,
the Elephanta caves date back to the 2nd Century B.C, wherein some
relics related to Buddhist culture have been discovered. The rock cut caves are attributed to medieval
India and are dated back to 450 to 750 A.D.
Being an important trade route, this island remained under control of
various Kings right from 400 AD and the rock hewn caves are attributed to have
been constructed during the reign of Pulakesin-II of the Chalukya dynasty of
Badami. The
most important amongst the caves is the great Cave 1, which measures 39 metres
from the front entrance to the back and the main body of the cave,
excluding the porticos on the three open sides and the back aisle, is 27 metres
square and is supported by rows of six columns each.The layout of
the caves, including the pillar components, the placement and division of the
caves into different parts, and the provision of a sanctum or Garbhagriha of
sarvatobhadra plan, are important developments in rock-cut architecture. The
Elephanta Caves emerged from a long artistic tradition and one will see some
of the highest watermarks of medieval India's sculptural art.
Cave No.2 - The entry to the cave
Cave No.2 - The sculpture inside (1)
Cave No.2 - The sculpture inside (2)
As we return back - the view of Gateway of India and Taj Hotel from the sea.
The
Cave number 1 is resplendent with various stone cut motifs and sculptures and
the chief amongst them is the 7-metre-high masterpiece
“Sadashiva” that dominates the
entrance to Cave. The sculpture represents three aspects of Shiva: the Creator,
the Preserver, and the Destroyer, identified, respectively, with Aghoraor Bhairava (left
half), Taptapurusha or Mahadeva (central full face),
and Vamadeva or Uma (right half). Representations
of Nataraja, Yogishvara, Andhakasuravadha, Ardhanarishwara,
Kalyanasundaramurti, Gangadharamurti, and Ravanaanugrahamurti are
the other forms that can be viewed in this gallery. The details of the sculptures or motifs in
Cave are detailed as follows –
Slaying of
Andhakasura : Depicting Shiva slaying a demon
called Andhaka. One of the most animated panels in Elephanta. Shiva is
represented with eight arms in this panel.
Kalyana
Sundara: The
more humanly theme of marriage depicted in this panel. Arguably, Parvathi is
portrayed superbly than Shiva in this panel, with her her head slightly tilted
towards him with a hint of coyness.
Shiva-Parvathi :
One of the highly damaged panels in Elephanta. This depicts Shiva and Parvathi
engaged in a game of dice. The divine couple tries to cheat each other in the
game as much as possible, though Shiva loses in all the games. Shiva loses
everything, the trident,moon, earrings, snake and even the loincloth. The
mythology is associated with a complex philosophy.
Nataraja : Nataraja,
literally translate as the king/lord of dance.
In mythology Shiva is
considered as the cosmic dancer, who performs his divine dance to destroy the
weary universe.
Ravana
Shaking Kailasa :
Ravana, unsuccessfully tries to lift Kailash, the adobe of Shiva. There are
popular mythical stories associated with the Demon king Ravana, the lord of
Lanka and Lord Shiva.
Mahayogi
Shiva : A rare posture of Shiva meditating on
a lotus. Considered as the aadiyogi ( or the first guru of
Yoga) by the Yoga tradition, Shiva is depicted as the original
master of yoga.
Gangadhara: The
story depicting Shiva bringing River Ganga to earth. The fall of the river is
so powerful that Shiva has to make it fall on his matted hair first, before it
further descends.
Mahesh Murthy: The three headed iconic image representing
three aspects of Shiva. The masterpiece image of Elephanta. It's debatable to
find a more spectacular sculptural expression created during or after the
medieval period in India.
Ardhanarishvara :
Probably the most mystical theme to narrate. Shiva and Parvathi as a single
body, depicting the complex philosophical theme of male-female energy of the
universe.
Here
is a short video of the travel to the Island and the caves
N.B - Some of the details have been browsed from the UNESCO website
The famed Girgaon Chowpati and Marine drive as seen from Kamla Nehru Park
My kids wanted
to visit Mumbai since a long time, but I was a bit sceptical about the visit,
being more of a nature lover, I could not fathom any good reason for visiting
another metropolitan City.However, an
opportunity arose when we planned a visit to Goa and hence I decided to
accommodate my kid’s wish and planned the trip via Mumbai.
The visit was
scheduled for first week of April, 2019 as there was no other appropriate
window available during the year, due to academic issues of the kids.Although it was perceived that the season
would be rather hot in those parts of the Country, yet we decided to push ahead
with our plans.
As
planned we reached the airport and as the boarding was completed well in time, the
Captain announced early take off, which was about 15 minutes prior to the
scheduled departure time.The flight was
uneventful and we reached Mumbai 35 minutes earlier than the scheduled time of
arrival and landed at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal.The availability of App based Taxi service
has made a dent in Mumbai as well and one can just use the App to book your
taxi at appropriate rates without hassling.We had booked a hotel in the Santa Cruz area, as I was a bit
apprehensive about the Mumbai’s notorious traffic jams and wanted to stay as
close the airport as possible to avoid any kind of traffic trauma while taking
my flight to Goa.
The approach to Worli Sea Link
Having
reached early, we checked into the Hotel room by noon and after freshening up had
ordered early lunch and enjoyed a brief siesta, as the afternoon was quite
hot.Thereafter, we called for a Taxi
for four hours duration and started for our evening excursion at around 4.00
P.M, to visit some parts of Mumbai, as we had planned to visit the famed
Elephanta Caves the next day.It was my
wish to visit the famed ‘Siddhi Vinayak temple’ and accordingly, we first
headed for the destination.But enroute
the taxi driver informed us that since the day we had chosen to visit was the
New Year day in Maharashtra and locals celebrated it as ‘Gudi Pawda’ and that
there would be a huge rush in the temple.Despite his advice we decided to take a chance, as we had started at an
off-beat time and decided to take the Worli
sea link to reach early.However,
when we reached the temple complex, we found that the queue of the devotees had
spilled right across to the road adjoining the temple and that it would take
about 2-3 hours to visit the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine, so time being a
constraint, we decided to skip the visit and paid our obeisance from outside
the precincts of the temple itself.
The famed Siddhi Vinayak temple in Prabhadevi
Siddhivinayak Templeis located in Prabhadevi area, near Dadar railway station. This temple was constructed way back in the
year 1881. The temple receives thousands of devotees on daily basis. The small
hall or mandap has the idol of Lord Vinayaka or Lord Ganehsa who it is believed
fulfils
wishes of all his devotees. While the
huge wooden doors have sculpted carvings of the 8 manifestations of Lord
Ganesha as Ashtavinayak, the inner roof is gold plated. The beautiful idol of the Lord Ganesha
is in black stone and stands in the middle of the sanctum
sanctorum. On the both sides of this
idol, there are idols of the better-halves of Lord Ganesha known as Riddhi and
Siddhi.
The Hanging Garden in Malabar Hills
Thereafter,
on advice of the taxi driver we visited the famed Hanging garden also known as Pherozeshah
Mehta Gardens. Hanging
Garden is a layered or terraced garden, placed on the western top-side of the
Malabar Hills, right in front of Kamla Nehru Park. The garden offers some amazing sunset views over the Arabian Sea. Established over a reservoir by Ulhas Ghapokar
in 1881. The garden is also popular amidst
locals for walks and yoga sessions, as we found that there was huge crowd of
people enjoying in the park. It is one
of the best places to enjoy in Mumbai tour.
Panoramic view of Girgaon Chowpati from Kamla Nehru Park
Thereafter, we just strolled across
the road and visited the Kamala Nehru
Park, which has a viewing gallery and therefrom one can view the entire
vista of the Girgaon Chowpati/beach and the famed Marine drive.The viewing
gallery is a three storey structure and one has to use the staircase to reach
to the top and is not an easy access for the old, as the lift was closed at the
time we visited.However, we enjoyed the
views and shot videos and took photographs.
Families enjoying the evening breeze in Girgaon Chowpati
The food stalls in Girgaon Chowpati
As the Sun sets across the Girgaon Chowpati
Therefrom we headed for the Girgaon Chowpati and it was teeming
with people as many locals had come to the beach to enjoy the festive mood of
‘Gudi Padwa’. Located northwards of
Marine Drive, the Girgaon Chowpatty/beach bustles
with activity as a picnic spot, on all the days of a week. One can not only indulge in fun activities but
can also gorge on sumptuous street food of Mumbai such as sev puri, bhel puri, batata
puri, pao bhaji and so on in the stalls that are situated on one side of the
beach entry. One is free to quench one’s thirst
with fresh coconut water or various kinds of cold drinks or ice creams and
local chuski’s being served by various stalls, each of which cries out loud for
attention, not only as a metaphor but literally too, as various agents approach
you vigorously with the menu card of their stall and harping on its’ specialties. During our visit in the evening hours’, we found children and their
families enjoying rides such as ferry wheels, taking a leisure stroll, riding a
pony and enjoying the cool sea breeze by the sea side sitting on mats being
rented out by agents. Having enjoyed
some local snacks at the Chowpati, it was time for us to head back home and
since we could not locate any local Parsi Restaurant, on advice of the driver
again, we picked up our dinner from the famed Lucky Restaurant in Santa Cruz
area itself and the food served was really lip smacking. Thus, ended our first day in Mumbai.
The commendation certificates given by famed personalities on walls of Lucky Restaurant
Here
is the link to a short video of this part of the visit –
