Mandapeswar Caves, Mumbai:Ruins of ancient Hindu cave temple

            The Mandapeshwar caves perhaps have the most tumultuous history of all the Mumbai caves, or so it would seem from the scars the walls still bear. A Hindu temple, it was targeted by the Portuguese, who asserted their religious beliefs over it by literally building a monastery and a church dedicated to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception on top of the cave temple. Fr. Porto founded the monastery and church in 1544.The Mandapeshwar caves were hewn out of a hillock about 1,600 years ago. At one time, the Dahisar river ran in front of it, but over time the course of the river changed and the caves now face a main road.In the 18th century the church was desecrated after the Battle of Bassein in which the Marathas defeated the Portuguese. They uncovered and worshipped the rock-cut sculptures again, but towards the end of the 18th century the British defeated the Marathas and the caves once again functioned as a place of Christian worship. After the end of colonial rule the church fell into disrepair and the caves gradually reverted to the worship of Siva. The church, including its roof, has been destroyed, but older local residents recall playing among the aisles and the nave of the church when they were children.A three-foot-high symbol of the cross, hewn out of a stone panel that once depicted mythical Hindu figures, stands at the entrance. It is the only remaining proof of Mandapeshwar’s historical past.
   

Taken on: January 10, 2016

Tags:

Mandapeswar

ancient Caves

Mandapeshwar caves

Hindu cave temple

cave temples of India

Cave sculptre

Ancient Indian art

Mumbai Caves

Mumbai City

Mumbai

Bombay

Ajanta Caves

antonio porto

Fr Antonio Porto

Francisco de Almeida

Portuguese in India

Portuguese church

vandalism

Catholic vandalism

clash of civilisation

Hindu god

Hindu deity

Mumbai history

Catholics in India

IC church

IC Colony

Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church

Portuguese colony

Shiva

Lord Shiva

Hindu god Shiva

Shiva temple

Ancient art

Ancient shiva temple

Indian Archaeology

Archaeological site

art

Stone sculpture

stone art

Stone curving « less

Sets appears in: • Mandapeswar Caves: Maharashtra,Ruins of first Hindu cave temple

Groups appears in: • Photojournalism • Global Photojournalism more » • All About Asia • World Press Photo • INDO INDIAN RELICS « less

Stats: 624 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder