My heritage walk exploring the legacy of Old Panvel city.

For a person living in city or suburbs of Mumbai, Panvel is and has always been a node of Navi Mumbai city. A planned urbanised part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. When Navi Mumbai was developed as a complete self contained township across the harbour of Mumbai, Panvel became part of the development project. But deep inside this planned city lies the treasure trove heritage - a legacy of old Panvel which dates back at least couple of centuries.

Panvel city once was known as Panwell as well as Paneli and it flourished around land and sea route under Mughal's, Marathas, later Portuguese played their part and then came the Britishers. And this can be seen in the architecture of settlements which is influenced by Peshwa / Marathas, Konkani & colonial styles. Old Panvel has been around since 300 years and was primarily known for its rice market. Once a cluster of 153 small villages, Panvel has been a melting pot of different cultures and communities like Agri's, Koli's etc who have settled here for centuries. Being a part of trading route, Many trading communities of Hindus, Bohra's, Jain's have been significant population around here. Panvel once even had significant presence of Bene- Israel Jews but these have dwindled over the years.

Some Families over the years have made some important contributions towards creation of Panvel's Urban image and have left behind important heritage. These families were of wealthy merchants involved in trade or were families which had administrative clouts. The legacy of these families like The Bapat's, Gulve's, Puranik's, Sahstrabuddhe's, Banthia's can still be seen in their residential homes they built or religious structures and institutions built under their patronage.The old part of Panvel is home to many wadas - courtyard houses built by wealthy citizens of various communities. Few still stand today displaying the old lifestyle within their walls.

Religious places like Hindu temples, mosque, Jain temples show a lot of influence of unique Dravidian / Bijapur influence, some have local Konkan timber constructions. The best kept secret of Panvel is it's 175 years old Beth EL Synagogue - a place of worship for the Bene - Israel community. The connection of Jews with Konkan trace back to 2000 years when forefathers of the community migrated to villages in Konkan after reaching Navagaon in Alibaug. Close by there is even a cemetery of Jews which has tombs dating back almost 250 years with inscriptions in Hebrew and Marathi. The synagogue is situated on M.G Road camouflaged with other buildings on the busy street.

Many streets in Panvel are referred to as "aali" like Joshi Aali which is another word for street or a lane, At Joshi Aali lies a Ganesh temple called Jyestaraj Siddhivinayak Mandir, It is one of the oldest temples established in 1696.

Closer to the temple is a very unique Jain temple and Upashray where Jain monks stay. Exterior of one storied Jain temple has a wooden frame facade and looks like some residential house rather than a temple.

Similar facade is also seen at Shri Ram Mandir located at Shivaji Road. The temple is guarded by an idol of Hanuman outside the main shrine. The interiors of this Konkan style temple also has wooden ceilings and timber frames and pillars. What is interesting about the temple is the partition done in the main mandap hall, The sides were reserved for bhajan singers and musicians while the space in front of the idol would be for devotees to take darshan.

Mirchi galli is street for heritage enthusiast for it is home to many wadas though most of them are either in ruins or in very deplorable conditions. Very few are occupied.

Few notable temples on the street include Satyanarayan temple, Narshing temple as well temple dedicated to Lord Ram. The temple architecture is such that it looks like a house from outside, interior has a hall within which lies another smaller temple holding the main deity idols. The temple also has dedicated rooms which were used as residence for caretaker pujari.

Areas like Sadashiv peth - Tilak Road, Kapad Gali, Shivaji road , Bazaar peth are some of the areas where one can find wadas or courtyard houses & heritage structures associated with local history and are worthy of conservation. Almost all of the wadas that I visited during my walk were unfortunately in a very dilapidated conditions with owners or their descendants having moved out.

Bapat wada - one of the largest and oldest in Panvel today is at a cusp of becoming history with owners having partnered with some real estate company to construct residential building. Bapats were among the first settlers of the area in 1720. As one enters the wada, one gets a glimpse of the humongous area it covered. There were royal houses for the owner family and there were tenant houses which were either servants or just tenants, some tenants still occupy a portion of the area. It is said that biggest "Dahi Handi" festival used to occur at Bapat wada. What is worthy among the ruins was the simple structure with wooden construction which had touch of ornamentation like some very ornate timber brackets.

The Tilak road where Bapat wada is situated also has a series of other wada's owned by other families of Panvel, notable among them are Puranik wada who are also owners of Ayurvedic medicine manufacturing plant near by. Some anecdotes learned were that one of the son of Puranik was educated in medicine from Europe so their wada had some European influence which included a "Pavan chakki" or a "windmill".  Sahastrabuddhe wada is another one on Tilak road, The family was instrumental in establishing the first school of Panvel in 1910.

Panvel's first post office is also located in same locality, still operates from the old fashioned building where it started operations almost a century ago.

Panvel is also home to many man made Talavs or lakes like Wadale, Krishnale, Devale, Lendale, Israel to name a few. The oldest settlement is said to be around Wadale Talav which is surrounded by 18th century temples, Most popular among them is Balleshwar Temple.

Many of us would not be even aware that the first Ayurvedic medicines factory of Maharashtra was setup in 1872 in Panvel which is still functional near Wadale Talav. The Doothapapeshwar or SDL India (Link) is run by 5th generation of Puranik family. 

It was amazing experience and completely surprised with the heritage of old Panvel, Few areas covered in my walk was just a part of larger heritage that lies in the alleys, nooks and corner of old part of Panvel city. There is lot more to be explored and hopefully will cover them some other time. Most of the heritage around comprises of grade II heritage structures associated with local history. Even though Panvel has not been historically in the forefront, but local history and local memories are deemed to be really worthy of conservation in whatever way we can.

The heritage walk was conducted by Sahapedia platform (an NGO working towards understanding and revitalising different aspects of Indian culture) and walk was curated by Architecture college professor Tejashree who regularly showcases rich heritage in this part of the city.