Vajreshwari temple: a sign of thankfulness to the deity

So, in my last post I talked about how the Maratha and the Portuguese sweated it out in the creek of Vasai to hold the position of those islands.

Vajreshwari is a town located around 25 km away from Vasai. The town gets its name from the Temple built in the honor of the goddess Vajreshwari. It was known as Vadavali earlier. So this was the little details about the town.

The temple was built in year 1739, yup, the same year the Portuguese lost the battle of Vasai to the Marathas. Chimaji Appa, the commander of the Marathas, set his camp in the city of vadvali on his route to capture the Vasai fort. There, he used to pray the local diety. For three years the fort was not captured by the Marathas. In his prayers, Chimaji Appa promised the goddess that he would built a grand temple for her, if she blessed them the might to defeat the Portuguese.

When the Portuguese were finally defeated with the capturing of the fort, Chimaji build the temple to keep his promise.

If you look outside the temple premises, you would find a wall barricade in the shape of a fort.

It is because the temple was the designed on the grounds of Vasai fort.

Also at the entrance, you would find a tower like structure called “dipamala”.

The place is surrounded by hot water springs, which you could find crowded with the people dipping into (which I found very unhygienic).

The temple structure is not that overwhelming, but quite unique because of the fort like architecture. Also, it gives you an insight of what happened in the past. Visiting Vasai fort without visiting Vajreshwari is like leaving a task incomplete.

P.S… the instagram bug has bitten me… so you can view my profile here. I would not ask you all to follow me… it’s up to you to decide…. (but deep in my heart I know you would…)

You all would ? Right?