WALK MUMBAI
Bhavani Shankar Temple, Tardeo
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
Built by Nana's father in memory of his mother, who died when Nana was three years old. It has stayed with the family for two centuries, not as a museum piece but as an active temple. Nana was a devout Hindu who never hid it, even as he spent his life making room for people outside his own community. Start the walk here, at the one stop that's about family rather than the city.
Family also built a shrine at each place they lived on the way to Mumbai. Local tradition places one at Amruteshwar Temple, Ghodbunder Road, though the best-sourced account instead ties that one to the family's earlier home in Murbad.
Nana Chowk, Grant Road
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
A busy Mumbai junction that thousands cross every day, most without knowing whose name is on it. “Nana,” a term of affection roughly meaning “grandfather,” became attached to Jagannath Shankarshet so completely that it eclipsed his given name. The chowk is one of the few places in the city where his name survives in daily use, spoken by people who've never heard of him.
Jagannath Shankarshet School, Girgaon
Opened in 1857, specifically so that poorer families in Girgaon wouldn't have to send their children all the way to Elphinstone High School to get an education. It's a smaller, more local gesture than the grand institutions elsewhere on this walk, and proof that his idea of education wasn't only about producing elites.
The Girgaon Wada Site (Residence)
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
Where Nana actually lived, and where, on 31 July 1865, he died. This was also, by most accounts, where the girls' school ran that he opened on his own property; sources disagree on exactly when, somewhere between the 1830s and 1849. There's no dramatic monument to photograph here, which is its own kind of honest: this is where an ordinary domestic life happened, not a shrine.
Sonapur Cremation Ground, Marine Lines
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
A crematorium he fought to protect. The British tried twice to shut it down; Nana beat them both times, once by leading roughly two thousand Koli fishermen to the Governor's bungalow to explain what the ground meant, and he personally funded the wall around it. His bust still stands at the gate.
University of Mumbai, Fort
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
Nana was a Founding Fellow in 1857 and served until his death in 1865. He didn't just fund the university; he argued about its curriculum for years, a duller kind of commitment than donating money, and a rarer one.
Elphinstone College, Kala Ghoda
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
He chaired the fund that built it. Its alumni became modern India's makers: Dadabhai Naoroji, Justice Ranade, R.G. Bhandarkar, Pherozeshah Mehta, Tilak, and Gokhale all studied here. Nana never attended a college like this himself. He built one so others could.
Town Hall, Horniman Circle
The white marble statue, sculpted by Matthew Noble in London and commissioned in 1864, while Nana was still alive. It arrived in Mumbai in 1870, five years after his death, and was installed inside the Town Hall rather than outdoors as originally planned. Upstairs, the Asiatic Society's library holds books he personally paid for.
Not about Nana directly, but about the building his statue stands in.
CSMT / Boribunder
On 16 April 1853, India's first train left from here, bound for Thane, and Nana was aboard, having spent a decade making the railway happen before anyone in London had proposed the idea. Look up at the station facade: his is the only Indian face on it. A fitting place to pause, looking up at something three million people pass under every day without noticing.
Sir J.J. School of Art
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
He sat on the committee that created it. Today it's one of India's most respected art schools, a lineage that runs back to a civic committee Nana helped chair a century and a half ago.
Grant Medical College & J.J. Hospital, Byculla
Photo Credit: Alman Sunkersett
He proposed the memorial to Sir Robert Grant that became the college, and funded scholarships so students could study medicine in Marathi rather than only in English, widening who could actually become a doctor, not just who could afford to.
Rani Baug & Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Byculla
He chaired the Agri-Horticultural Society for 35 years, the body behind this garden and the museum beside it. His last public speech, two weeks before he died in 1865, was fundraising for this exact garden. A fitting place to end: forty-five years of unglamorous committee work, still growing.
Town Hall Statue
Commissioned on 9 March 1864 during Sunkersett's lifetime by public subscription raising Rs 25,000. Sculpted in London by Matthew Noble; arrived in Mumbai on 2 March 1870 on the ship British Nation.
Bhavani Shankar Temple Bicentenary Bust
Commissioned for Nana's 200th birth anniversary and unveiled on 15 February 2003 by his great-granddaughter-in-law, Smt. Sunandabai Madhusudan Sunkersett, inside the sacred temple compound established by Nana's father in 1806.
Nana Chowk Bust
Unveiled on 26 July 1995 by Balasaheb Thackeray at the busy South Mumbai intersection.
Girgaum Chowpatty Seaside Memorial Bust
Erected inside the beachfront garden at Girgaum Chowpatty, framed by palms and the heritage Art Deco skyline of Marine Drive.
Sonapur Cremation Ground Marble Bust
A classical white marble bust on an inscribed stone plinth, protected by an ornate white wrought-iron enclosure in the paved courtyard of the historic Chandanwadi burning ground.
CSMT Grand Staircase Oil Portrait
A gilded oil portrait installed against the Victorian Gothic cast-iron and gold staircase banister inside the UNESCO World Heritage administrative headquarters.
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum Portrait
Displayed inside Mumbai's oldest museum — an institution Nana co-founded in 1858 with Dr. Bhau Daji Lad and Lord Elphinstone. In this photograph, Thea Sunkersett, a 7th-generation direct descendant of Nana, stands proudly beside her illustrious ancestor's archival portrait and plaque.
BMC Corporation Hall Portrait
Originally installed on 28 March 1938 via a petition by his grandson Raoji Sunkersett. In the devastating June 2000 fire that gutted the entire Corporation Hall, Nana's portrait miraculously survived the blaze untouched while other paintings were completely destroyed.
Jagannath Shankarshet School Memorial Portrait
Installed inside the assembly hall (सभागृह) of the Jagannath Shankarshet School in Girgaon, founded by Nana in 1857 to bring accessible vernacular education to neighborhood families. The hall was inaugurated on 13 November 1997 at the hands of Nana's great-granddaughter-in-law, Smt. Sunandabai Madhusudan Sunkersett, dedicated in memory of grandson Raoji Vinayakrao Shankarshet and great-grandsons (Madhusudan, Vinayakrao, Bhalchandra, Prabhakar, and Vasantrao) through a Rs 4,11,111 endowment by the Sunkersett family.
Jagannath Shankar Sheth Metro Station
Underground station serving Mumbai Metro Aqua Line 3, inaugurated on 8 October 2025 by Hon. PM Shri. Narendra Modi.
Antop Hill Smarak Bust
Unveiled in August 2015 to commemorate Sunkersett's 150th death anniversary. It forms the first phase of an ongoing government-led memorial park.
CSMT Facade Bust
Carved in the late 19th century by students of the Sir J. J. School of Art as part of the architectural ornamentation of the terminus.
Banganga Crematorium Bust
Consecrated atop a red stone pedestal at the historic Banganga Cremation Ground during the 2012 site revitalisation led by the Burial Ground Committee and Rotary Club of Mumbai Malabar Hill.
Sonapur Cremation Ground Entrance Bust
Erected at the entrance gate on land Sunkersett fought twice to protect from British shutdown and eventually secured for native cremation rights.
Elphinstone College Library Painting
Installed in the historical Library Hall to celebrate Sunkersett's legacy as a co-founder of the Elphinstone Institution.
Sir J. J. School of Art Portrait
Unveiled on 10 February 2025 (his 222nd birth anniversary) by Sunkersett's descendants and the Director of Art to honor his role on the founding committee.
Jagannath Nana Shankarshet Flyover
Major overpass crossing the Dadar TT junction on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road.
Jagannath Shankarshet Marg (J.S. Road)
The historic arterial street passing through Girgaon and Kalbadevi.
Shankarshet Road (Swargate)
A major bustling commercial arterial road in Pune.
Namdar Jagannath Nana Shankarsheth Bus Depot
Officially inaugurated and named on 25 July 2022 by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC). Situated on Swatantrya Sainik Yashwant Shankar Mhatre Marg in Ghodbunder Village near the regional RTO, this municipal transit complex serves as the operational depot powering the public bus network across Mira-Bhayandar, Thane, and Mumbai.
“Beyond these public institutions and civic landmarks, many more rare photographs, ancestral heirlooms, and fine oil paintings are lovingly preserved in the private homes of the Sunkersett family and Nana’s lifelong admirers across Maharashtra.”