Shree Prabhadevi Mandir

Most visitors to this stretch of central Mumbai are heading for the Ganapati temple a few hundred metres away, and walk straight past the shrine that actually gave the neighbourhood its name.

• Shree Prabhadevi Mandir sits on a short lane off Prabhadevi Road, screened by low buildings, flower stalls and the usual tangle of parked two-wheelers, and it holds on to a village-temple calm that feels improbable so close to the traffic of Veer Savarkar Marg.
• The goddess worshipped here is Prabhavati — the Prabha in Prabhadevi — and for once the map is telling you a genuine local history rather than a developer's invention.
• The temple's story is carried in community memory rather than carved into stone, so the dates are best held loosely.
• Devotees trace the goddess's presence on this ground to the sixteenth century, when, by tradition, her image was hidden in a nearby water body during a turbulent period on the old island of Mahim.
• The shrine as an organised place of worship is generally credited to the Pathare Prabhu community, among the oldest communities of the seven islands, who are said to have recovered the image and rebuilt the temple in the early eighteenth century after a dream vision.
• Local accounts describe the sanctum as holding Prabhavati alongside Chandika and Kalika.
• Treat all of this as living tradition, faithfully told, rather than settled scholarship.
• The building itself is modest and all the better for it: a compact hall, a silver-framed doorway, oil lamps, brass bells, and a tiled forecourt where families sit for a while after darshan.
• Outside festival days the queue moves fast and the visit rarely runs beyond half an hour, which makes it an easy, unhurried pairing with the busier temple nearby.
• Mornings, when the aarti bells carry down the lane and the camphor smoke is still hanging in the doorway, are the best hour to come.
• Remove footwear at the entrance, dress modestly, ask before photographing inside, and expect a crush during Navratri and on Tuesdays, when the whole neighbourhood is busy with pilgrims.
• For food, walk or ride the short distance into Dadar West and the lanes around Prabhadevi, which have a long tradition of vegetarian eating houses: Maharashtrian snack counters doing misal, sabudana vada, thalipeeth and piping sheera; Udupi-style cafes with idli, medu vada and filter coffee; and Gujarati and Jain thali kitchens serving unlimited plates at lunch.
• Mumbai is also a great seafood city with a deep Koli culinary culture, so never assume — look for a clearly stated pure-vegetarian board and confirm at the counter before you order.
• If you avoid onion and garlic, say so when you sit down rather than after the thali arrives, and ask specifically whether any dish uses egg in the batter or the sweets.