My Heritage Chronicles

Borivali is a coastal suburb of Mumbai located at the Northwest end. It is believed that the name Borivali comes from bushes of sweet berries called "Borr" in the local language that was found in abundance here. It was once a congregation of small villages called Eksar, Vazira, Shimpoli, Mandapeshwar, Kanheri, Magathane, Tulsi, etc sandwiched between two major erstwhile rivers, Poisar river & Dahisar river. Some say it was called "Berewlee" under British rule. Prehistoric era caves of smaller Mandapeshwar & bigger Buddhist center cum settlement of Kanheri stand testament to the rich heritage of this place. But apart from these caves, there are many ancient religious places as well as pieces of heritage scattered across nooks & corners of Borivali which makes this suburb of Mumbai worth exploring and knowing about interesting trivia around it. Borivali's most famous attraction is the well-preserved cave complexes of Kanheri, located deep inside the S...

Mangaldas market - a century-old market is one of the busiest and oldest markets in South Mumbai known as a wholesale cloth center. Such is the popularity of the market that 100 small shops which line the narrow lanes inside had a daily footfall of over 100,000 people (pre-covid). My curiosity to know more about the person "Mangaldas" lead me to this interesting story about this wealthy family. Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai (1832 -1890) was the first Hindu to have received a knighthood from the British. The famous cloth market and a street in old Bombay have been named after him. Mangaldas Nathubhai came from a trading (Bania) family of Kapole Bhatias, He was the biggest benefactor to Mumbai University and had helped several charitable institutions. It is said that the great grandfather of Sir Mangaldas, Manordas Rupji Dhanji (1727-92) was a Hindu banker and merchant while his father Rupji Dhanji was one of the earliest traders from the village of Ghogha near Diu to have settled in...

Today when Mumbai along with other cities across the world is grappling with a pandemic of Coronavirus, over 125 years ago, the city had faced one of the worst epidemics of its kind, the Bombay plague in 1896. The plague crisis prompted the civic authorities to create the "Bombay City Improvement trust" in Dec 1898 with the aim to improve sanitation and living conditions in the city. The trust opened up northern suburbs to decongest the colonial Bombay and thus neighborhoods like "Gamdevi" grew out as a need for affordable and well-planned housing colonies of the twentieth century. Gamdevi attracted a lot of communities like Gujaratis, Saraswat Brahmins. Many owned private mansions like diamond merchant Revashankar Jhaveri who built a private mansion which we today know as "Mani Bhavan". It was the focal point of Gandhiji from 1917 to 1934 for his political activities. It was here in the historic four walls of Mani Bhavan, Gandhiji launched the non-coopera...