Mumba Devi Temple

Tucked into the jewellers' lanes of Bhuleshwar, a short walk from the gold and bullion shops of Zaveri Bazaar, Mumba Devi Temple is the shrine of the goddess who gives Mumbai its name.

• It is modest by the standards of India's grand temple complexes — a walled compound, a shikhara that rises barely above the surrounding shopfronts, and a courtyard that fills and empties all day long — and the lane outside is thick with flower sellers threading marigold, coconut stalls and the metallic clatter of the old city.
• Most visitors come not for architecture but for the quiet satisfaction of standing at the city's namesake.
• The goddess is a local mother-deity long venerated by the Koli fisherfolk who lived on these islands before the port town grew around them.
• The shrine's story is tangled up with the remaking of Bombay under the East India Company: the original temple is generally said to have stood nearer the old shoreline in the Bori Bunder area, roughly where the railway terminus district lies today, and to have been dismantled in the eighteenth century as the fort's defences were extended, with the deity re-established here in Bhuleshwar.
• Dates differ between accounts, and the building you see has been repaired and refurbished many times since.
• Inside, the image of Mumba Devi is dressed, crowned and heavily ornamented, set behind a silver-framed sanctum, with smaller shrines to attendant deities ranged around the courtyard.
• The rhythm is unfussy: a short queue along a covered passage, offerings of flowers, coconut and sweets, a few minutes at the rail, and out again into the bazaar.
• Leave footwear at the entrance, dress modestly, avoid photography in the sanctum unless staff say otherwise, and keep to the line on busy days.
• Navratri brings the longest queues, as do the weekly devotional days.
• Afterwards, the surrounding grid of Bhuleshwar and Kalbadevi rewards an unhurried wander — lanes given over to brass and copper vessels, wedding cards, textiles and silver — and the walk pairs naturally with Crawford Market and the Fort district beyond.
• For food, this is one of Mumbai's strongest vegetarian neighbourhoods: Gujarati, Marwari and Jain trading families have shaped Kalbadevi's kitchens for generations.
• Mumbai at large, though, is a major seafood and non-vegetarian city, so read the board and ask whether the kitchen is fully vegetarian before you sit down.
• Within a few minutes' walk you will find unlimited Gujarati thali houses, farsan counters stacked with khaman, patra and fafda, Marwari mithai shops heavy with ghee sweets, idli-dosa counters and stalls selling juice, falooda and kulfi.
• Many kitchens shut between lunch and dinner, so time your visit accordingly.