MUMBAI: Behind a cluster of tall trees and amid the thickets of shops and buildings, smog and traffic in Fort area, the three-century-old St Thomas Cathedral has seen it all. But past its famous arches and inside its walls lined with sculptures, stained glass and liturgical art stands an intriguing piece of history that remains in good part unknown.
Inside the city’s oldest Anglican church, on its west wall, lies an imposing marble memorial that is decidedly out of place at first glance. It is the monumental figure of a Hindu Brahmin priest in dhoti and shawl with a downturned visage and his hands joined in prayer under a banyan tree, bending gracefully over an urn. To understand how this monument found pride of place in a church, one would need to delve into the life of Jonathan Duncan, Bombay’s longest-serving governor from 1795 to 1811, who lies buried at the Cathedral and to whom the memorial is dedicated.