Parel (
ISO: Paraḷ, pronunciation:
">əɾəɭ is a neighbourhood of
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...
.
Parel used to have a number of
textile mills, but these have been replaced by commercial office space development.
History
Originally, Parel was a separate island, one of the
Seven Islands of Bombay.
The
Parel Relief
The Parel Relief or Parel Shiva is an important monolithic relief of the Hindu god Shiva in seven forms that is dated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the late Gupta period, in the 5th or 6th century AD.
It was found in Parel, ...
or (Parel Shiva) is an important monolithic
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
of the Hindu god
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one o ...
in seven forms that is dated to the late
Gupta period
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...
, in the 5th or 6th century AD by the ASI. It was found in Parel when a road was being constructed in 1931, and moved to the nearby Baradevi Temple, where it remains in worship, in its own room. The name Parel has its roots from the ''Parali Vaijanath Mahadev'' temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.
An inscription dated 26 January 1187 (Paurnima of Magha, Saka 1108) is found there recording of a grant made by
Shilahara king Aparaditya II out of the proceeds of an orchard in a village named Mahavali (close to
Kurla) for a Vaidyanatha temple.
In 1771
William Hornby,
the Governor of Bombay, moved into the former friary, which became known as Government House, and a number of mills were subsequently established nearby. In 1883, the Governor's wife died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...
in the house and two years later, the Governor's Mansion was moved to
Malabar Point. During the
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
epidemic
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious ...
s of the 1890s, the old Government House was leased to the newly founded
Haffkine Institute.
It was a district in
Girangaon, which was the focus of the
Great Bombay textile strike of 1982.
Politics
It was a
Vidhan Sabha
The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislati ...
constituency of Maharashtra from 1962 to 2004. It was constituted into
Shivadi constituency by the Delimitation of Parliament and Assembly Constituencies Order, 2008.
Citations
Further reading
*Michell, George (1990), ''The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India, Volume 1: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu'', 1990, Penguin Books,
*''Star Track''; ''
Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...
'' Mumbai; pg-2; 21 April 2006
{{Mumbai metropolitan area
Neighbourhoods in Mumbai