Monday, January 23, 2012
Ban Ganga is located in Walkeshwar and can be easily accessed by road. Taxis and buses frequently ply there. I was told about this place by Parag, an ex-colleague of mine. So I headed off to see this place.
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| View of Ban Ganga |
Having checked with the locals, I was able to locate this place. It is surrounded by many temples.
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| Temples near Ban Ganga |
There is a rectangular water tank in the middle with steps on four sides leading to it. There are two pillars at the entrance where oil lamps were lit in ancient times.
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| Swans |
Mythology states that Rama, the Hindu god, had stopped there on his way to Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita. As Ram was tired and thirsty, he asked his brother, Laxman, to bring him some water. Laxman shot an arrow in the ground and at once water gushed out from that spot. This place is called Ban Ganga, meaning Ganga created by means of an arrow (ban in Sanskrit).
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| Another view of Ban Ganga |
This area smelled really bad. The stink was horrible. I felt nauseous. Also to my surprise many eagles flew above the area. I wondered why. To my surprise there are many people who stay nearby. Wonder how they have managed to adjust to the stink.
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| Contrast Picture of a Rustic Ban Ganga and a skyscraper near it |
To add to this I saw two young boys bathing in the water. The water was green in colour. I was wondering if the water was clean and good enough for them to bathe in.
I shot a few photos here and then left in a hurry as the stink was driving me nuts.
3 comments:
Haha @ the stink was driving you nuts
First of all I must confess I m very biased about this place n have become one of the favorite places in Mumbai…first time I had been there 4 years back as an architecture student for community project and I must say with all the preconceived notions I wasn’t completely in love with the place bt I cudnt hate it also…there was something coz of which I kept going there even after my project got over n every time I found something new…..it always makes me wonder what exactly I like about the place, the diversity of morning chants n prayers with bustling road nxt to it or rising skyscrapers nxt to the such core heritage site or jst sound of the temple bells with noise of sea waves in the background….bt the place always manages to surprise me to some extent….there is always at least one painter or photographer or a student sketching the surroundings wandering around the tank which makes me feel less abnormal :p… and I dnt think banganga is similar to ghats of banares, that is completely different experience to live… maybe m too biased about the place :/…bt if I had to describe my experience in one phase abt banganga it wud b “my personal space under open sky”..
P.s.there was no stink when I had
gone there..:p
Ban Ganga is beautiful but the stink that day was driving me insane, Thanks for your comments though
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