Walkeshwar's Trimurti | From Archives

While exploring details for original remnants from the Walkeshwar Temple ruins located at Malabar point, i came across a foot note in the Bombay City Gazeteer. The text is as below;

Moore, the author of the Hindu Pantheon, (1800-1810) speaks of the remains of a rather elegant temple near the Shrigundi or Lucky Rock at Malabar Point. Fragments of well-hewn stone were still to be seen over and around its site, having a variety of images sculptured on their surface. Many of the most useful stones had been taken to help the erection in the neighbouring Brahman villages of a fine tank and temples. Moore had the site cleared. Some feet under ground he found in a state of mutilation the same triform head which forms the central sculpture in Elephanta. This sculpture, which is pictured at plate 81 of Moore's Pantheon, was carried to the India House Museum and is now believed to be in the South Kensington Museum.

I looked up the book on archive.org and discovered plate 81 from the book. The illustration of the Trimurti found is given below;

Pl. 81. Trimûrti, the Hindu Triad. From a bust in granite, about two feet high, dug from the ruins of a temple in the island of Bombay, and deposited by Major Moor in the Museum of the India House.

Looking at the illustration, one can see that it was in broken condition after the demolition done by the Portuguese. Reimagined it with the help of AI

Below is an article from the book Hindu Pantheon about Moore's discovery in his own words.

At the very extremity of a promontory on the island of Bombay, called Malabar Point, is a cleft rock, a fancied resemblance of the Yoni, to which numerous pilgrims and persons resort for the purpose of regeneration by the efficacy of a passage through this sacred type. This Yoni, or hole, is of considerable elevation, situated among rocks, of no easy access, and, in the stormy season, incessantly buffetted by the surf of the ocean. Near it are the ruins of a temple, that present appearances warrant us to conclude was formerly of rather an elegant description. It is said, with probability, to have been blown up by gunpowder, by the pious zeal of the idol-hating Portuguese, while Bombay was under their flag. Fragments of well-hewn stone are now seen scattered over and around its site, having a variety of images sculptured on their surface: many of those most useful in building have been carried away by the Hindus to help their erections in the neighbouring beautiful Brahman village, its fine tank, and temples.* With the view, neither pious nor sacrilegious, of discovering to whom this temple was dedicated, I have particularly examined its remains; and, with the help of my servants, succeeded in removing the stones and rubbish from the surface of the ground, and discovering what was buried beneath. The temple appears to have been sacred to the Hindu Trinity in Unity; for I found a stone, a good deal mutilated, some feet under ground and ruins, well carved into the triform head so stupendously sculptured in the cave at Ghari-puri, or Elephanta, of which Neibuhr gives a plate, and after him Maurice. And it appears also in the As. Res. but, in my humble estimation, ill executed in every instance; and I have examined the colossal bust with the copies in my hand. Of the stone that I thus found, a good representation is given in Plate 81. and it seems a fair model of its gigantic neighbour. The fragment is more than two feet high, nearly as broad, and about eighteen inches thick, and is of course very heavy. I brought this stone to England, and it is now deposited in the company’s museum at the India house. The front face is Brahma; on his right, Siva; to his left, Vishnu.

Footnote - The village here noticed (Banganga) is a pretty specimen of unsophisticated Hinduism; for, although situated on the populous island of Bombay, it enjoys a degree of tranquil repose that is rarely contemplated. It contains several temples, and is built round a fine tank, or piece of water, of considerable extent, with broad flights of steps down to the water at the north and south ends, having also steps at convenient situations at the sides. Brahmans are here found leading the life they love, although it would not, perhaps, be much relished by many Europeans: the ceremonies of religion comprise the business of their lives, and a literary and contemplative indolence form their negative pleasures: some of them, it is said, have lived here to an old age without once visiting the contiguous town of Bombay. Wealthy and devout persons pay occasional visits to these philosophers, and derive profit and consolation from their sage councils. At the distance of a mile to the northward from this village, and on the westernmost limit of the island, is situated. almost amidst the rocks, a pretty temple of Maha Lakshmi, much resorted to, especially at the annual Jatra, or fair, by pilgrims and pious persons, who have the additional benefit of the optional regeneration offered them in the passage through the venerated type under our notice, on the neighbouring promontory. The tombs of the Parsis, of which a particular description is given in my Narrative, contribute farther to the quiet and retirement of this most interesting part of the delightful island of Bombay.

Note - The highlighted text is a reference to the Dakhmas or the aerial burial grounds of the Parsis, known as Towers of Silence.