Zaveri and Dagina Bazaars

Zaveri and Dagina Bazaars Review

Zaveri and Dagina bazaars, a little beyond Fort in the neighborhood of Kalbadevi, are Bombay's crowded, 100-year-old jewelry markets, where the shops are filled with fabulous gold and silver in every conceivable design. At the Bhuleshwar end of Zaveri Bazaar is the six-century-old Mumbadevi Temple (22/224-24974), a noisy, busy structure that houses the mouthless but powerful patron goddess who is the city's namesake. Aarti, evening prayers, take place at 6:30. In front of the temple is the khara kuan, or saltwater well, an age-old water station funded by the jewelry bazaar from which free water is doled out to the thirsty from giant copper drums. One of the lanes leading off Zaveri Bazaar is called Khao Galli (literally "Eat Lane"): its endless food stalls feed most of the bazaar workers daily.