Monday, December 27, 2010

DADAR- PORTUGUESE CHURCH THEN AND NOW -BEFORE ENGLISH STARTED CALLING THE PLACE DADAR(STEPS) IT WAS KNOWN AS 'SALVESONG' BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH OF NOSSA SENORA DA SALVECAO


Portuguese Church - The Church of Our Lady of Salvation was originally built by the Portuguese Outside the Church's main entrance, on what is now the footpath or sidewalk, is a mortuary memorial to a Baretto, built about 200-300 years ago, and which names the location as "Mahim". Indeed, at that time, the Church was one of two Catholic Churches on the then Island of Mahim, with a shallow sea separating it on the east and south sides from other islands of the Bombay Archipelago. 
The name "Dadar" signifies a small stairway built on the eastern edge of Mahim Island; when the British built the Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railways (B.B.&C.I., now the "Western Division" of the Indian Railways), they named the station near these steps as Dadar. The area around the station on either side came to be named after this station by newer immigrants.




 NOW

3 comments:

gauri argade said...

Thanks for sharing the photo!!
It is an amazing feeling to be in such a space.

Shivraj said...

Nice!! I feel the old church looks much better than the new one and should have been preserved. Ditto for St Michaels in Mahim.

Arvind Kolhatkar said...

The origin of the word 'Dadar' is difficult to trace. However, Molesworth's Marathi-English Dictionary, printed in 1831, has this word and it is explained - among other meanings - as '3.A bridge. 4.A Bombay word. A ladder-like and movable staircase.

The word is thus clearly pre-railway and existed as a Bombay word prior to 1831.

Sheppard, in his book 'Bombay Place Names and Street names' (1911) considers this as possibly a Koli word meaning 'a locality lying on the outskirt of a village'. He also mentions another locality called 'Dadar' which lay on the outskirt of the village Kelwe in Thana Distict.