Down by the waterfront

Patches of plaster have peeled away to reveal the ancient rain-stained brick. Once, there were over a hundred soaring spires outlined agains...

Patches of plaster have peeled away to reveal the ancient rain-stained brick. Once, there were over a hundred soaring spires outlined against the western skies. Now the shikharas are crowded out by high- rise warrens, clustered around the 2,500-year-old water tank like some species of mutant tropical fungi.

Banganga8217;s tank itself is a dark shallow green; the socio-cultural hub of this little temple town that flourishes on the southern tip of Malabar Hill. There could hardly be any other piece of real estate in the city so soaked with myth and history. Yet modernity is much too omnipresent for it to pose as a time-warped, tourist clutch of souvenir shops and pilgrim homes. The view here is a little less than picture postcard perfect.

At every corner, one is confronted by vistas; vignettes from the easily accessible past. An important pilgrimage site for Hindus, the steps of the tank, its ghat and temples still have the power to transport one into the 13th century 8212; with some imagination, of course.

The tank supports a bustling community of settlers, including the inevitable collection of charlatans indigenous to any pilgrim centre, who have exploited development rules. Village houses which harmonised with the scale of the tank, crumbled and made way for housing of all vintage and pedigree to be woven tightly around the tank and temples.

The Jabreshwar temple is one such example. Squeezed by an organically growing chawl on three sides, the fourth pushes onto the stepped streetway. It8217;s easy to fall under the spell of its brooding interior, once you learn to ignore the sewage stench. Facing the tiny shrine is a high wall with a window cut into it. It enhances the sense of enclosure, yielding a pale yellow light that oozes into the black basalt sanctum 8212; until you glimpse a laundryman in the window high above, ironing clothes, witness to your piety like an unpropitiated God of the Unwashed. A surreal experience8230;

Loved by dhobis, children, amateur cricketers and pilgrims alike, Banganga8217;s origins are wreathed in myth. The only surviving fresh water tank in the city today, it is believed to have been born when Lord Rama8217;s arrow pierced the soil to quench his followers8217; thirst, en route to Lanka. The 12th century Shilahara kings built the stepped stone tank to contain this perennial spring.

One of the later temples, the 207-year-old Venkatesh Balaji is a fine example of Maratha style. Sited on Banganga8217;s eastern bank, its entrance is heralded by a nagarkhana, where musicians would sit, elevated above the masses, and play. A friendly looking, crimson and lilac dwarpal in stucco welcomes you to the modestly-scaled structure. The temple also has a lush garden abutting it in an interior courtyard. Built during a time of thrift, its bare interiors and severely plain, domed shikhara come alive every Navratri, when a settlement of fisherfolk from Naigaon arrive with their musical bands and colourful offerings for Venkatesh Balaji.

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A little lower down, one encounters the Siddheshwara temple, a small jewel like form set into a raised pavillion. It is almost as if a miniature painting has been translated into three dimensions: such is the wealth of detail and ornamentation embellishing it. On the western bank, the Rameshwar temple8217;s shikhara is also one of the finest, bearing tiers of miniature replicas of shikharas. It is also one of the first temples whose restoration by PACE a group of conservation architects 8212; is currently underway.It8217;s been possible thanks to a very special event, one worth emulating wherever a lack of resources has endangered heritage.

For seven years now, during the second weekend of January, Banganga has hosted a concert which helped it look after itself. The Banganga Festival, an important event on the city8217;s cultural agenda, was born out of a desire to save the precinct from an alarming plan to fill up the tank and build over.For Anita Garware, the convener of both: The Indian Heritage Society and the Banganga Festival Committee, it has been a satisfying progress. Resistance to the conservation effort melted away, she says, when the residents became more aware of Banganga8217;s rich heritage. The usual suspects, the bureaucracy was a willing partner in the restoration effort. What are the lessons she8217;s learnt from the thumping success of the Festival? quot;That any conservation effort is incomplete without the active participation of local residents, legislators, government and citizens8217; groups.quot;

The Banganga festival will be held on January 10 and 11, 1998 between 7.00 pm and 9.30 pm. Umakant Gundecha and Ramakant Gundecha will present a vocal jugalbandi and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma will present a santoor vadan. The tickets priced at Rs 50 and Rs 100 are available at all MTDC information counters and at Rhythm House.