Banganga

Banganga or Banganga Tank is an ancient water tank which is part of the Walkeshwar Temple Complex in Malabar Hill area of Mumbai in India.

The Tank was built in the 1127 AD, by Lakshman Prabhu, a minister in the court of Silhara dynasty kings of Thane.

It was rebuilt in 1715 AD, out of a donation for the Walkeshwar Temple by Rama Kamath. The main temple, has been reconstructed since then and is at present a reinforced concrete structure of recent construction.

According to local legend, it sprang forth when the Lord Rama, the exiled hero of the epic Ramayana, stopped at the spot in search of his kidnapped wife Sita.

As the legend goes, overcome with fatigue and thirst, Rama asked his brother Lakshmana to bring him some water. Laxman instantly shot an arrow into the ground, and water gushed forth from the ground, creating a tributary of the Ganges, which flows over a thousand miles away, hence its name, Banganga, the Ganga created by a baan (arrow).

The Banganga also houses the 'Shri Kashi Math' and 'Shri Kaivalya or Kavale Math' of the Goud Saraswat Brahmins at its banks and samadhis of their various past heads of the Math.

The area also has a Hindu cremation ground which after 2003, received a makeover to house a Gas crematorium.

The area still has an old Hindu cemetery consisting of samadhi shrines of various Advaita gurus, such as Sri Siddarameshwar Maharaj (1888–1936) and his disciple, Sri Ranjit Maharaj (1913–2000).

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