Kakad aarti 5:30 am Tuesdays from 3:15 am Angarki · Tue 29 Sep 2026 The trunk Turns right Darshan is free Consecrated 19 Nov 1801
Long before you see the Temple you meet its queue, folding down S.K. Bole Marg past stalls of marigold, coconut and modak. Phones go dark at the gate, shoes come off, and the chant starts to carry: Ganpati Bappa Morya. Above the crowd rises a pale tower of stepped balconies and niches, its domes tipped with gold and a saffron flag. Inside, beneath all of it, Sits Shree Siddhivinayak, small and vermilion-bright, His trunk turned to the right. Most Ganesha murtis turn left. This one does not.
The murti Is carved from a single block of black stone, two and a half feet high, with the trunk turned to the right: the rare siddhi form, which tradition regards as swift to bless and exacting to serve.
Riddhi and Siddhi, the givers of prosperity and attainment, Stand at His sides; a third eye like Lord Shiva's marks His forehead, and a serpent circles Him as the sacred thread. He Is Vinayaka with fulfilment already beside Him.
This is Mumbai's Temple of the asked-for thing. On Tuesdays and on Sankashti and Angarki Chaturthi days, lakhs of devotees queue from the small hours, mill workers and film stars in the same barefoot line, until the Shejaarti near midnight.
The vow of Deubai Patil
Tradition holds the Temple began with a woman who could not have children. Deubai Patil, a wealthy Agri woman, paid for a small shrine to Lord Ganesha, and the contractor Laxman Vithu Patil built it: one modest hall beside a lake, with room for fifteen or twenty devotees at a time. Her prayer was not for herself. She asked that Bappa Grant children to the childless women who would come to Him here. The murti was consecrated on Thursday 19 November 1801, a date still noted in government records.
For most of two centuries the shrine stayed small while the city around it grew immense. The lake was levelled in 1954, the mill district rose and fell, and the queue kept lengthening, because word had spread across Maharashtra and beyond that this Vinayaka Answers. By the late twentieth century a few hundred square feet could no longer hold a metropolis's asking.
So in 1990 the Temple Trust began raising the present building around the old sanctum: a multiangular structure six storeys high, designed by architect Sharad Athale after studying the old Shiva Temple at Ambernath, and completed in three years at a cost of three crore rupees. Its central dome is plated with gold and ringed by smaller crowns of gold and panchadhatu. The stone is new. The murti inside, and the vow it Keeps, are the same as in 1801.
What you'll actually see
1
The gold-crowned shikhara
From the street the Temple reads as a slender tower of pale stone, six storeys of carved balconies and niches stepping inward to a central gold-plated dome flying a saffron flag, with smaller pinnacles of gold and panchadhatu, the five sacred metals, clustered around it. In the evenings the dome is lit in colours that change through the night.
2
The sanctum of three doors
The rebuilt garbhagriha keeps the murti close to the crowd: three entrances thirteen feet high, an inner ceiling plated with gold, and room for more than three hundred devotees to take darshan at once. The wooden doors are carved with the Ashtavinayaka, the eight self-manifested Ganeshas of Maharashtra, and the pillars repeat them.
3
Shree Siddhivinayak in His makhar
At the centre, dressed in vermilion and gold within a gilded frame, the black-stone murti Sits crowned and garlanded, with Riddhi and Siddhi in gold at either side. Look for the lotus and the axe in the upper hands, the rosary in the lower right, the bowl of modaks in the lower left, and the serpent tied across His body as the sacred thread.
Shree Siddhivinayak in the sanctum, crowned and garlanded, with Riddhi and Siddhi in gold at His sidesThe six-storey Siddhivinayak Temple and its lit crown rising above Prabhadevi at night
Inside the sanctum and above Prabhadevi at night · photos Jagdish Mali CC BY-SA 4.0 and Abhijeet Rane CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
THE TUESDAY OF TUESDAYS
Angarki Chaturthi, when Mumbai queues through the night
Every lunar month, Sankashti Chaturthi brings a fast for Lord Ganesha that is broken only after moonrise. When that Chaturthi falls on a Tuesday, Bappa's own day, it becomes Angarki Chaturthi, and this Temple receives it like nowhere else: doors open at 3:15 am, Kakad aarti sounds at 5:00 am, and lakhs of devotees file past the sanctum until the Shejaarti at 11:45 pm. The next Angarki Chaturthi falls on Tuesday 29 September 2026. Ganesh Chaturthi comes on Monday 14 September 2026, and Maghi Ganesh Jayanti follows on 10 February 2027.
On Tuesdays and Angarki days the wait can stretch to several hours; come well before dawn or in mid-afternoon, travel by train or metro, and carry as little as possible since phones stay off inside.
Plan your visit
By rail
Dadar station is 15 to 20 minutes on foot, with taxis and shared cabs from Dadar West; Prabhadevi station on the Western line is also close by.
By metro
Siddhivinayak station on Metro Line 3, the Aqua Line, opened in May 2025 beside the Temple, with seven entry and exit points.
By air
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport is roughly 11 km by road; allow up to an hour in Mumbai traffic.
Timings
Wednesday to Monday: Kakad aarti 5:30 to 6:00 am, darshan 6:00 am to 9:50 pm with pauses for naivedya and the evening aartis, Shejaarti at 9:50 pm.
Tuesdays
Darshan from 3:15 am, Kakad aarti 5:00 to 5:30 am, night pooja and aarti 9:00 to 10:10 pm, Shejaarti at 11:45 pm.
The queue
Darshan is free for all. Weekday mornings move fastest; Tuesdays, Sankashti and Angarki days can take several hours. Darshan slots and poojas can be booked through the Trust's website and app.
Dress
The Trust asks for culturally appropriate, modest dress; footwear is removed at the entrance.
Siddhi Vinayak means the Ganesha Who Grants your wish, and the right-turned trunk marks the murti as a siddhi form, rarer and, tradition says, stricter than the left-turned.
Mobile phones must be switched off before entering, and photography inside is strictly prohibited; the Trust posts the rule at the Temple's own gates.
Temple donations, roughly ten to fifteen crore rupees a year, fund the Trust's dialysis centre, medical financial assistance and educational programmes.
Apple's Tim Cook began his first visit to India with a pre-dawn darshan here in May 2016; film stars, cricketers and industrialists join the same barefoot line as everyone else.
Questions pilgrims ask
What is special about the trunk turning right?
Most Ganesha murtis are carved with the trunk curving left. A right-turned trunk marks the siddhi form, which tradition holds Is swift to bless and demanding of discipline. At Prabhadevi the right-turned Vinayaka Sits with Riddhi and Siddhi beside Him, which is why He Is called Siddhivinayak, the Ganesha Who Grants the wish.
Is darshan free, and can I book ahead?
Darshan is free for everyone. The Trust books poojas and darshan slots online and through its official app, and runs a live darshan stream on siddhivinayak.org and its YouTube channel for devotees far from Mumbai.
When are the queues shortest?
Wednesday to Monday mornings, soon after the 5:30 am Kakad aarti, are calmest. Tuesdays, Sankashti and Angarki Chaturthi days draw lakhs of devotees, and the wait can stretch to several hours.
Can I carry my phone or camera inside?
No. The Trust asks devotees to switch phones off before entering, and photography inside the Temple is strictly prohibited. Travel light; darshan itself takes only a few moments before the sanctum's three open doors.
How do I reach the Temple?
Take a local train to Dadar and walk 15 to 20 minutes, or ride Metro Line 3 to Siddhivinayak station beside the Temple; Prabhadevi station on the Western line is also near. From the airport it is roughly 11 km by road.
The Sthan in photographs
Darshan from afar
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