Dated: November 20th 2011
Our next stop for day was at the St. Bonaventure Church,
Erangal followed by Mandapeshwar Caves. St. Bonaventure Church is an Old
Portuguese Church located on a beach at Erangal village. I had planned to
revisit this Church on second Sunday of January, since the Church celebrates
its annual feast on the day and then post a detailed blog on the feast. However
I couldn't make for some reason and now will have to wait until next year.
We then returned to Malad station taking the same bus route
that took us to Madh fort and from there took a rickshaw to Mandapeshwar caves.
These caves are probably the smallest I have seen so far and are located on
S.V. road just behind I.C. Church. Although it not clear to me but my Google
research tells me these caves were probably built by Buddhist who at some point
deserted these caves. The Caves were then under Portuguese, Maratha and British, rule
and occupation at different times and all have used these caves for varied
purposes both religious and military. It was a few Bandraites who built the
Immaculate Conception Church in 1888 at its present location.
I managed to capture a few pictures before the onsite police
security stopped us from clicking any further pictures. When asked we were
informed that the caves are under a religious dispute and therefore no pictures
were allowed.
Below is an informative article that appeared in Times Of
India with some interesting details of Mandapeshwar Caves.
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