Visit Babulnath Temple: The Oldest Shiva Temple & Popular Tourist Destination in Mumbai (2024)
Babulnath Temple is a Shiva Temple, and therefore a place of religious importance in Walkeshwar of Mumbai. One of the oldest temples in the Mumbai city, it is also a tourist location and hordes of devotees visit it all through the year, with the greatest number of them reaching the temple during Mahashivratri.
Babulnath Temple Story
Babulnath Temple, like every other religious location in Mumbai and India, has an interesting history. The temple exists since the 12th century, but the Babulnath temple ended up buried and lost for more than 500 years.
According to legend, the original place was pastureland, for a cowherd named Babul. Babul would return only in the evening to his employer. One day, his employer noticed that one of the cows did not give any milk. When the employer questioned Babul, Babul said the cow does not give any milk because it empties all its milk in a desolate spot in the pasture. When the curious employer digs up the pasture, he finds a Shiv Ling under the ground.
After the re-discovery of the idols, the first temple was built in the 17th century.
The temple has a place in the history of Mumbai as well. Until the 1980s, it was the tallest structure in the city. It was a landmark for anyone who visited the city and the pride for Mumbaikars.
The Babulnath Temple Experience
The Babulnath temple has a Shiva Linga, the idols of Ganesh, Hanuman, and Parvati. The existence of the Ganesh idol and the Hanuman idols makes it another temple that holds reverence to both. The main deity here is Lord Shiva, who is in the form of a Babul tree.
Along your way, you will see the intricate carvings on the walls of the Babulnath temple, a symbol of Indian architecture and creativity in the past. You will see spellbinding carvings of peacocks at the arches. As you move in, you will see several other ancient carvings on each of the arches of the windows and doors. One of them seems to have Lord Krishna surrounded by cowherds, while another seems to depict Lord Rama.
The deep mala of the Babulnath temple is one of the iconic images of Mumbai. You will also see a Nandi idol here, which is black.
The Babulnath temple is open from 4 AM to 11:30 PM on Mondays and then from 5 AM to 11:30 PM on other days.
The Ganesh idol here is orange, and the trunk points to the left. There is another Ganesha idol which is black. The Hanuman idol is red. To reach the Babulnath temple, one needs to climb almost a hundred steps. There are escalators available to reach the top of the temple.
The religious destinations in Mumbai and Maharashtra are unique, in the sense that most of them welcome people from all castes and religions, making them not just religious structures that show our cultural heritage as well.
Babulnath temple has been the background for some Bollywood movies as well. Recently, shooting for scenes from the Hrithik Roshan movie Agneepath took place at this location.
Babulnath Temple is in Walkeshwar, that’s near Grand Road. You can spend around an hour in the Babulnath Temple. Even though there is a crowd here all through the year, you will have a calming and surreal experience that very few religious destinations can give you.
Keep in mind that almost every religious destination is just an hour’s visit to Mumbai. If you make the right itinerary, you can visit a couple of them during the day, if you succeed in leaving early in the morning.
Places Near Babulnath Temple
There are some other destinations in and around Mumbai and around Girgaum Chowpatty that you can visit. One of the most famous is the Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi, which is a landmark temple in Mumbai and is popular all over the world. The two temples are a short drive away from each other.
The other places around are Hanging Gardens, the Banganga Water Tank, and the Taraporewala Aquarium.
If you have the time, you can also visit Kamala Nehru Park, which is in Malabar Hill. The Park is one of the few nature lungs amid the humdrum life that’s Mumbai. It is also home to a lot of flora and fauna and birds that you seldom see in Mumbai, otherwise.
Later, you can head over to Marine Drive as well. The Marine Drive is one of the oldest nightspots in Mumbai and has been the subject of scenes in several Bollywood movies.
The visit to Babulnath Temple could be a weekend trip where you explore the temple and also the other places in its vicinity after checking out in any of the hotels in the vicinity.
How to Reach Babulnath Temple?
Reaching the Babulnath Temple is simple. You need to travel towards the South and get down at Grant Road station. From the station, it is a walkable distance.
You will also find several bus routes that take you to this location. Mumbai has a robust public transport system, so you will find many buses that travel right on the highway and take you directly to locations all over Mumbai. You can also book a cab via an aggregator app or hire one of the local autos. Rickshaws don’t’ ply in Mumbai beyond Bandra, so you will need to depend on a cab, local taxi or a bus.