Walkeshwar Temple

Walkeshwar Temple, also called the Banganga Temple, is a Shiva temple near Malabar Hill in south Mumbai, on the city's highest ground, beside the Banganga Tank. Legend says Rama stopped here on his way to Lanka and, tired of waiting for Lakshmana to bring a linga, made one of sand, which gave the name Valuka Ishwar. When he grew thirsty he shot an arrow into the ground and brought up the Ganga; a spring still feeds the tank with fresh water despite the nearby sea.

Lakshman Prabhu, a minister of the Silhara kings, built the temple and tank in 1127. The Portuguese destroyed the temple in the 16th century, and the Mumbai merchant Rama Kamat paid for its rebuilding in 1715. The main shrine has since been largely reconstructed, and by 1860 a ring of other temples and rest houses had grown up around the tank.