Session 3- Tracing Ancient Roots of Mumbai- Visit to Sopara by Dr. Anita Rane-Kothare

First, we stopped at the Chakreshwar lake in Nalasopara West. Outside the temple along the compound wall are a row of stone carvings. Legend has it that these were all retrieved from the lake, presumably as a result of destruction of the original temple by the Portuguese who apparently destroyed most of the temples in the Bassein area after they took it over from the Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in the treaty of 1533 for helping him to counter the threat posed by the Mughals. The most impressive is this idol of Brahma with four faces that represent the four Vedas.


Later we went to what remains as ruins of a Buddhist stupa. In April 1882, Bhagvanlal Indraji, a noted archaeologist excavated at the Burud Rajache Kot mound in Merdes village, near Sopara. . From the center of the stupa (inside a brick built chamber) a large stone coffer was excavated which contained eight bronze images of Maitreya Buddha which belong to the c. 8th-9th century CE. This coffer also enclosed relic caskets of copper, silver, stone, crystal and gold, along with numerous gold flowers and fragments of a begging bowl. A silver coin of Gautamiputra Satakarni (Satvahans) was also found from the mound.

                               

Session 2- Maritime Heritage of Mumbai by Dr. Chhaya Goswami

...With the naissance of a rich ship building and seafaring culture and craft manufacturing traditions, the coastal region of Bombay appeared prepared to face global challenges and competition. The rapidly changing Gulf politics in the second half of the eighteenth century paved way to major economic shifts. The consequential ports of trade, like Bandar Abbas, Basra and Surat, lost their importance and diverted trade of the Gulf to Muscat, Mandvi and Bombay in the second half of the eighteenth century. Bombay was especially a significant centre for this commerce since it was at this harbour, that goods from the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Africa, India and Europe entered the Arabian waters. Bombay’s strategic location between traditional pearling regions of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Mannar and the Red Sea and its commercial viability along the East-West naval route made Bombay the commercial capital of the nineteenth century.

...To the physical landscape of the Bombay coast, the merchants had built networks to sustain a mercantile economy, involving relationship with interior groups to obtain commodities for trade. The decaying remains such as the lighthouses, docks, forts and dharmashalas or Musafirkhanas (rest houses) adjacent to the Bombay harbour reflect the existential of once a busy mercantile age. For centuries, forts and lighthouses have stood on the coasts where so much of our maritime history has played out. It is fair to say that the story of Mumbai’s maritime heritage is incomplete without the stories of her forts and lighthouses, docks, rest houses, esplanade land among others.

  

Session 1 - 'Beyond the Fort Walls of Mumbai' by Shraddha Bhatawadekar

(Reviews for the walking tour from CST to Crawford Market)

I could never imagine that the busy roads on which we walk daily had minute historical details. We completely overlooked them.  Making a visit to these heritage places has increased my love for history. For me, it was like one-step closer to heaven!

-Tejashwini Havannavar

The visit to the Heras Museum in St. Xavier's College was fascinating; the statues and stone carvings were so mesmerising! Looking at the Lokmanya Tilak house, the well-known author Rudyard Kipling's home, the canon weapon, the Elphistone College and the 38 steps were so intimidating!  The Crawford market main gate and the three fountains within it were carved so intricately with all the animals on it. Feeling so great after knowing and seeing all this places.

-Sejal Gotad

Who knows that a small round shaped iron, half buried in the ground could be a canon? Or who observes that a busy market of Crawford has a gate of historical significance? Well, no one but the people who have a craving for history and especially history of Mumbai. Mumbai's history is worth exploring, to know your city better, something existing since 19th century can be felt and learned in 21st century.

-Chetna Warudkar

The entire walk was an enlightening experience and by the end of it my mind said , “Who said that history is boring?” This is just the beginning of a new journey meant to explore the unsung and ignored heritage, which is a treat to the minds of history lovers!

-Shrutika Gondal

Welcome to Heritage of Mumbai Course 2015

MUMBAI receives its name from mother goddess Mumba worshipped by Kolis (fishermen). Mumbai was nothing but a mere cluster of 7 small islands upto about late 17th century. The rapid growth of city from an insignificant destination to commercial capital of India is an interesting journey!! As we walk on the roads of Mumbai, we can witness this history through visible monumental structures, sometimes hidden petty pieces that come from the past.

The first session of this course this week titled 'Beyond the Fort Walls of Mumbai', is all set to surprise you, shock you, excite you by the interesting variety of heritage it has to offer. This is a walking tour from CST to Crawford Market. It is more of a treasure hunt as you will stumble upon many hidden pieces of heritage right in the heart of South Mumbai.

So get ready for fun, excitement, exploration & adventure....

The schedule for the awaited course is up...

Delve deeper into the facets of Mumbai, hitherto unknown...through a unique combination of lectures and heritage walks by eminent experts!

Happy World Heritage Week- 19-25 November

To celebrate Children's Day and the upcoming World Heritage Week (19-25 November), we organised a heritage walk to Elephanta Caves- World Heritage Site for Ruia College students on 14th November. One of a kind, this abode of Shiva had so many unique experiences to offer. It was a journey full of fun, excitement, explorations and revelations. Offering glimpses of the visit....

First Impressions of the students after the visit to Elephanta Caves

Highlights of Elephanta captured by Devika Mayekar

How Students have perceived the Heritage of Mumbai Course in the last 4 years…

Living in Mumbai for 16 years, I never knew that the Bombay fort consists of something more than the Flora fountain, leave alone the architectural styles and experts who made them. The course was practically a pointer towards common things that we have been seeing around but never realised their importance. It was a practical to the theory we have been studying. Never knew Mumbai was so artistic, so beautiful, so wonderful! Today I feel proud to show people something that this course showed me! It is very important to know the place thoroughly that you live in for long and that, this course did! Application of history was always a question! This course showed us the importance of history and the need for its preservation. Proud to be a student of the course in its maiden year. Thank you!
- Nikita Mangaonkar, Ramnarain Ruia College

The Ruia Heritage of Mumbai Course was one of the best course I have attended so far. It was really an interesting course as we were introduced to the various aspect of this city like its communities, transport, architecture etc. Also the field visits like the one to the BEST Museum, Wadala was really an eye opener for us as we never knew that such a museum ever existed. Also the Walk through the Axes of Mumbai was also a really good one as we were introduced to exploring the city's heritage. After this course we did start to explore and understand this city more. So Three Cheers to the Ruia Heritage Mumbai Corse!!!
- Siddhija Kathe, Ramnarain Ruia College

After this course I have understood that a lot of history went behind making this city as popular as it is today. Although a lot of improvement still needs to be made. Our heritage is the story of our past which needs to be preserved and maintained for our future generations and hopefully the change can begin from us!

- Binaisha Bilimoria, KC College

I got to know about the history of Bombay. I never thought it would be so interesting.

It gave me an opportunity to Re-discover Mumbai in a new perspective.

I visited many places which I never had visited earlier. Came to know a lot about them.

Had adventurous time!!

The course did help me in understanding the heritage.

I fell in love with history.

It actually encouraged me to preserve as well as study heritage.

- Comments from students, 2014 course

Valedictory Ceremony

The memories of a successful course...a melange of feelings...exploration – interest – enthusiasm – surprise – shock – questions – appreciation – inspiration –awareness – engagement……just a beginning of a long journey towards sustainability!!!

More photos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8861v92YXo&feature=youtu.be

Competition Winners!

Winners:

                Photography : Devika Mayekar                                   Esaay Writing: Yash Agrawal

Winning Photos

    Intangible Heritage                                                  Tangible Heritage

Bridging the generation gap...                                   Heritage always prevails...


Winning Essay

Interpreting Cultural Heritage Sociologically (An Excerpt)

             The culture of any place is determined by its people and the features associated with them. Cultural heritage consists of folk-tales, language, dialect, myths, beliefs, life-style, cuisine, traditions, religious customs, clothing, indigenous industries and arts, festivals, values and manners, etc.. Mumbai being a metropolitan city has caused migration of people from all parts of India, and thus it has a diverse culture, affected by the ethnic groups residing here. Heritage includes the indications of our history that remain, and it is important to preserve, conserve or record them. Unfortunately, many people do not understand this importance, and they change the nature of surroundings, and damage our heritage. We can preserve tangible heritage such as architecture, but not necessarily some aspects of intangible heritage. Our cultural heritage may constitute both good and bad things. Some practices may be undesirable, unethical or unsuitable in the modern age. For example - superstitions. Yet, it is necessary to ‘record’ them, because they may be useful to us in future in finding what our origins are and finding solutions to our problems that have connection with the past. On the other hand, some activities are better if done in traditional way, than in the modern, newly introduced ways or methods.

But the step before conserving heritage is to interpret heritage. It is easy to understand others' cultural heritage, than to understand one’s own heritage and culture. This is because when we study others' cultures, we are able to identify the differences that they have with our culture, and thus we can know the characteristics of that culture. The study of societies emerged in that way; first the Europeans in the beginning of the modern age studied tribal cultures of faraway lands, and only then they were able to understand and describe their own culture and life-style. The same is true for the study of languages; by the comparative study of languages, scholars were able to understand the common grammatical principles that led to the development of linguistics. On the other hand, it is difficult to study our own culture, though it seems easy to, and though it is easy to practise it and live in it. This is because as we have been continually living by that culture, it has become ingrained in us and becomes a part of our life. We are likely to miss the nuances of our culture, and we may not be able to scientifically and impartially describe it. Some things may seem too common-sense to us, to be called a part of our culture. Thus, researchers may face this problem that their study might become subjective. It is affected by 'cultural relativism of ethics'.

Session 7: Conserving & Managing Heritage

With every heritage course lecture come a bunch of mind boggling facts, truths and some hilarious myths into light. Mr. Vikas Dilawari the keynote speaker and a Heritage Conservation Architect (a.k.a Guardians of Monumental sources of history) talked to us about the need to conserve our heritages and the modes of achieving this objective. His lecture hinted us about the innocence of a Gothic structure being affected by tall intimidating sky scrappers, displaced by them to be precise. Conservation of a monument lies in retaining its authenticity. A monument is historic only when it stands as a reflection of the times it belongs to, without that and with white washing and distemper it is just another building. Some would say it is the corpse of a monument. We sensed his disappointment about the Government and public apathy, towards the safeguarding of our monuments and preserving their sanctity.

Mr. Dilawari also laid down a foundation for Conservation of heritage becoming a Movement and not a fashion, by trying to inspire us. Rightly of him to expect so, as we students are the ones standing at those cross lanes where we have to choose between Rustic or Modern, Stone or Concrete, Revivalist or Progressive, The Roots or The Heights, Memorable or Useful and Careful or Careless!

- Pranav Sarma

Introducing Heritage Management & Conservation Concepts

HERITAGE MANAGEMENT is concerned with what things will be retained from the past, and with how they will be used in the present and future. In the light of acceleration of process of manufacture and discard, there is a fear that these vast remains of the past will be lost forever. As against this danger, heritage management ensures active participation of these resources in the society and contributes to sustainable development.

CONSERVATION is an action of prolonging the existence of significant objects. Conservation may, according to circumstance, include the processes of: retention or reintroduction of a use; retention of associations and meanings; maintenance, preservation, restoration, reconstruction, adaptation and interpretation; and will commonly include a combination of more than one of these. Minimal Intervention, Repair than replace, Reversibility, Maintenance of Visual Setting, Sustainability are some of the important aspects of conservation.

Session 6: Bhuleshwar, God's Own Neighbourhood

Walking through the lanes that spill over each other, narrowly demarcating one area from another - one lands up in the nerve centre of south Mumbai, Bhuleshwar. The width of the road is just about enough to support a two-way pedestrian traffic. And amidst the cramped co-existence of old buildings and zillion shops, spring up much to your wonderment, temples of varied sizes and lords.



The bustling lanes of Bhuleshwar in south-central Mumbai are home to more than 100 temples (many dating back several centuries). Name a God and you'll find Him here, either sheltered in a small temple or worshipped in a lavish one. Your faith will definitely find a form here." Out of the 19-20 temples we visited in the bhulbhulaiya, some of them are: the famous 130-year-old Laxmi Narayan temple where it is believed that all wishes come true, the huge Bhuleshwar complex where you can complete your mini tirthyatra, the Vallabhacharya Haveli, the Swaminarayan temple, Sheetla Devi Temple, Ranchodrai Mandir, Madhav Baug Temple, etc.

The entire place is a riot of architecture (referring to the mix of baroque, gothic and Venetian) with its ornamental motifs, community wadis and migrant population.

Also tucked somewhere in the by-lanes of the crowded Bhuleshwar bazaar was the Bombay Panjrapole, a 176-year-old infirmary that primarily looks after 350 cows and other stray animals like donkeys, hens, birds, dogs, goats, parrots and ducks.

Session 5: Visit to Khotachi Wadi

This visit was all about ‘Walk the Talk’ in the lane of Khotachiwadi by Mr Rahul Chemburkar - an architect by profession and our resource person for the visit. Upon entering the heritage village through its narrow lanes flanked by typical Portuguese house style facades and charming brightly coloured houses, it was hard to believe that we were still in Mumbai! Architecture was the highlight of this trip and rightly so, we found it difficult to take our eyes off the beautiful old wood bungalows with large verandas. Since the term ‘heritage’ is not restricted only to its tangible aspects, we visited some residents – Mr. Wilfred Felizardos and Mrs. Sylvester, the original inhabitants, to gain some insights into the history of that place, their culture and traditions.

We walked in the narrow lanes observing our surroundings, eating wafers of the famous 60-year-old Wafer House, taking pictures and thinking how ideal this location is for a game of chor- police or treasure hunt.

We did not realize how the time went by and only after unwillingly stepping out of the wadi did everyone realize how tired we were. We then walked all the way to Grant Rd station to visit the nearby Bhavani Shankar temple built by Jagannath Shunkerseth, which highlights the typical Deccan Marathi style of architecture before calling it a day.

- Aseema Karandikar

Time to get creative and participative!

We are glad to announce an two competitions as part of the Advanced Certificate Course on the Heritage of Mumbai.

Essay Writing
The essay should be approximately 800–1000 words (excluding the bibliography) on one of the following topics based on Mumbai:

1. Bombay to Mumbai: Historic Development
2. Architectural Heritage
3. Cultural Heritage
4. Natural Heritage
5. Conserving the Heritage

Photography Competition
Each participant will have to submit two photographs – one showing tangible heritage, and one portraying intangible heritage.
It could be anything- people, places, nature, etc.
The photos should be of the places visited during our walks. The competition will be judged on creativity and photographic clarity (if not quality).

Timeline
Registration (With Name, Division and Research Area) - 18th August
Submission - 31st August

Please submit your photos and essays on Email id: heritageofmumbai@gmail.com strictly within the stipulated deadline.

Session 4: Workshop at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum

This 2 hour workshop focused on the theory and practice of Heritage Interpretation. The session began with an interactive discussion on the concept of heritage interpretation and the practice of interpretive planning. Students were then taken on a guided tour of the Museum, following which they worked in groups to create an interpretive strategy for a heritage site in Mumbai. The aim of the workshop was to provide participants with the opportunity to engage with the theory and practice of interpreting and using heritage resources, taking Mumbai’s heritage sites as their subject of study.

Session 3: Lecture on Meaning and Perceptions of Heritage

Heritage is our legacy from the past;
what we live with today and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Whatever may be their forms, they are the surviving remains of human endeavour, achievement and failure. They have potential to evoke remembrance or understanding of a past cultural context. All cultural materials including cultural landscapes that survived from the past are potentially 'cultural resources' i.e. they have some value or use in the present or future. "Every tablet, every little scarab, is a portion of life solidified; so much will, so much labour, so much living reality..."
        Along with immense enlightment and incredible brainstorming, Mr. Dalal had us in splits with his amazing sense of humour. Besides heritage, there were discussions about various other topics including current affairs and myths in our Indian history. All in all, this session provoked awareness and implementation regarding our heritage.

Session 2: Bandra Fort Walk

The Portuguese, who had established a base in the area in 1534 after defeating Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, built several sea forts along the western Indian coastline. Castella de Aguada (popularly known as Bandra Fort) was one such strategically located fort, overlooking the Mahim Bay to the south, the Arabian Sea to the west, the islands of Worli to the south and the town of Mahim to the south west. The fort also guarded the northern sea route into Mumbai Harbour.

The Castelo is surrounded by the soothing sea and the magnificent view of Bandra-Worli sea link. The fort has been featured in many Bollywood movies such as Dil Chahta Hai, Wanted, Jane Tu Ya Jane Na, etc.

On the deluge and auspicious moments of the first heritage walk...

Heritage is not only history but, its future too. Many of architecture students can get good ideas from heritage properties. Many art directors can try dummy sets in their projects. Many photographers, painters can add their point of view in describing such subjects with lens or canvas.

Many writers can write blogs or articles on it. Many students as well as teachers can do their research. Scope is really wide but, the fact will remain same. Heritage is always remaining heritage but, would you like to satisfy with heritage or would you like to create heritage?

Question remains forever but, answer may differ at certain condition. It’s a magical journey through Mumbai to know heritage, promote heritage, preserve heritage & to create heritage with our benevolent contribution and unique work.

-Shubhankar Karande

  

Session 1: A Walk through the Fort Area

The first walk from was from Gateway of India to Mumbai University introduced the city of Mumbai, its history, heritage with focus on its architecture.

The route offered a grand testimony to the British Mumbai and presented landmarks of colonial architecture such as Gateway of India, Maharashtra Police Headquarters, Regal Cinema, Institute of Science, Prince of Wales Museum, Kala Ghoda Area, Mumbai University, etc. An array of architectural styles such as Neo-Gothic, Indo-Saracenic, Neo-Classical, Art Deco have truly established the cosmopolitan character of the city of Mumbai.

A walk through the myriad lanes of Mumbai is always exciting, as one is ought to stumble upon a hidden treasure; a missing piece in the narrative of the city.