Author: Kavitha Iyer   
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 3, 2016
URL:   http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/once-upon-a-time-standing-tall-for-117-years-in-bhuleshwar-is-citys-only-sun-temple/

The trust is run by members of the Dasha Sorathiya Vaniks, a community of landlords, traders and industrialists, belonging originally to Kathiawad in Gujarat.

WITH the Met department anticipating an unusually hot summer in the coming two months, now is perhaps a good time to appease the Sun god. Hidden away in the heart of Bhuleshwar in South Mumbai, in an island of calm amid the din of one of the city’s most congested localities, is Mumbai’s only temple dedicated to the Sun god.

At the end of the 3rd Panjrapole Lane, just off CP Tank, standing tall for 117 years, the Shree Suryanarayan Mandir guards a history and tradition, revealed gradually as one walks round the structure, its impressive architecture recounting the mythological tales of the Sun god. There are figurines of rishis or ascetics, surrounding the temple, each holding a different object and showcasing a different mudra. According to Hindu mythology, these rishis lead the procession that accompanies the Sun god’s chariot.

“The idol has its own story. It shows the Sun god on his chariot. Look at the obstacles it overcomes — it is a single-wheeled chariot, the charioteer Arun is disabled and does not have lower limbs, and the chariot storms forward with seven horses pulling it,” says a representative of the Harjivan Vasanji Charitable Trust that runs the temple. “The horses are yoked with the help of serpents, creatures which are otherwise enemies.”

Legend has it that in the late 1800s, Mumbai philanthropist Harjivan Vasanji Maniar suffered a skin ailment that was cured after he worshipped the Sun, considered the ‘Aarogya-dev’ or the deity according health. Maniar, however, passed away after the foundation of the temple was laid and its work was eventually completed under the supervision of his wife Radhabai. Portraits of the duo are still placed in the office of the trust along side the temple.

The trust is run by members of the Dasha Sorathiya Vaniks, a community of landlords, traders and industrialists, belonging originally to Kathiawad in Gujarat.

“There are daily prayers before 6 am, at 11.15 am, and then an hour and 15 minutes before sunset. The pujas are based on Vedic tradition, performed fastidiously,” says the trust representative.

Open to everybody, the only rules for visitors are general temple etiquette and dressing in white to participate in the puja. “The Sun is the only deity that gives proof of his existence every day, and generously blesses believers and non-believers with the same light and day,” he adds.

Located in the heart of Bhuleshwar, the temple has also been witness to historical events.

In a very different Girgaum, in the early days of the freedom struggle and reformist movements in Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi gave his first speech after his return from South Africa in 1915 in Hira Baug hall which is barely 200 metres from the temple.