On 25 December 2004 (Christmas day), me and my mother went to Pune. Our plan was to stay in my uncle's house at Hadapsar for one day and then to go to Bhima Shankar on the next day. We didn`t intend to go back to Pune after visiting Bhima Shankar as we wanted to go to Nasik from there.
During the stay in my uncle's house in Pune, we heard about the Ashta Vinayaka temples for the first time. My uncle's son took us to Theur in the evening where Chintamani Ganapathi (one of the Ashta Vinayakas) is located. Theur is just around 25 kms from Pune and it is even nearer to Hadapsar.
After coming back to Hyderabad, we decided to visit all the Ashta Vinayaka temples. However, it took almost 10 years for us to fulfill that wish. (Though it is irrelevant, I would like to inform you that after reaching Nasik on the next night (26 December 2004), we heard about the Tsunami in Bay of Bengal).
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Ganapathi is one of the most worshipped Gods in Maharashtra and there are many temples for him in that state. Some of them are very popular too (like the Siddhi Vinayaka temple at Prabhadevi in Mumbai). However, there are eight Ganesha temples which are very famous in Maharashtra. These temples are collectively called Ashta Vinayaka temples and they are situated around the city of Pune. The idols in all these temples are Swyambhu (self-originated) and are always covered by sindoor.
These temples are located in different directions from the city of Pune. It is not possible for anyone to cover all the eight temples on the same day. It takes two complete days to cover all these temples even if one has his own vehicle. In fact, it is more convenient to go by the tourist buses than to go separately.
In April 2014, we went to Pune from Shirdi. My aunt (my mother's cousin) who stays in Nellore, was also with us. We three boarded an A/C sleeper bus in Shirdi after having our lunch and reached Pune in the evening. As my uncle was still staying in Pune, we went to his house directly. We had already booked the tickets in Prasanna Travels for the next day to visit the Ashta Vinayaka temples. They charged Rs1500/- per person and this amount included everything (transport, accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea etc).
We reached Pune on Friday as per our plan as the travel agencies run their buses to the Ashta Vinayaka temples only during the weekend. So, we blocked our tickets for the tour that would begin on the next day - Saturday. However, the tour coordinator later told me that they were planning to run the buses every day going forward.
The bus would start at 7 AM from a place called Swargate which is around 12 kms away from my uncle's house in Hadapsar. We would have to wake up early in the morning, get ready and reach the pickup point before the bus would leave. So, we wanted to sleep early on that day. However, as we all met after a long gap, we continued to have our conversation for a long time until the IPL match was over at 11 PM. Though we slept late, there was not much difficulty in waking up early on the next day. We had already packed one pair of dress for each of us in a small bag that night itself.
Day 1
We got ready by 6:30 AM and my uncle's son dropped us at the nodal point in his car. The bus was ready and some pilgrims had already occupied their seats. As it was a 2X2 seater, my mother and aunt sat together and I occupied the seat in front of their row. One Gujarati person sat beside me and he said it was his eighth visit to the Ashta Vinayaka temples. He kept on talking about their Chief Minister Narendra Modi throughout the journey. As the general elections were going on at that time, he said Modi would definitely become the Prime Minster shortly.
The bus started at 7:30 AM as some devotees came late. One agent from the travel agency also travelled along with us and sat in the first seat which was close to the driver. Once the bus started, he gave a cap to each of us as complement. The caps were in Yellow colour and I thought they were given to us as it was mid summer.
Our bus headed towards Morgaon as it is a belief that Mayureshwar in Morgaon should be the first one among the Ashta Vinayaka temples to be visited. Some devotees visit Mayureshwar again at the end of the trip after visiting all Vinayakas. This is followed by the devotees who go separately either on their own or rented vehicles as tourist buses generally end the trip after visiting all the temples once.
1. Morgaon
Morgaon is located on the Pune-Solapur highway and on the banks of the Kanha river. It is at a distance of around 80 kms from Pune. It took more than 1.5 hours for us to reach the village. The tour agent asked us to wear the caps and keep them on our heads until we board the bus again. After wearing the cap, we all got down and headed towards the temple.
There were three more buses from other travel agencies parked in the open ground. The pilgrims who came in those buses were also wearing similar caps of different colours. Now, I understood the real purpose of those caps - to make sure that we wouldn`t board the wrong bus after coming back from our darshan. Each travel agency has a different colour cap.
The deity is three eyed and is in sitting position. His trunk is turned to the left. There is a small snake on the head of the deity. There are the idols of Siddhi and Buddhi on either sides of Mayureshwar. There are the idols of Rat and Peacock in front of the deity.
The priest told us that the original idol is much smaller than what it appears to be. As sindoor is applied to the idol regularly, there have been layers of sindoor that make the idol look bigger. He also said that the sindoor gets automatically peeled off once in 100 years and revealing the original idol.
We boarded the bus at around 9:30 AM and the bus headed towards Siddhatek where the second Vinayaka is located.
2. Siddatek
Siddhatek is at a distance of around 85 kms from Morgaon and is in the Ahmad Nagar district. The village is located on the banks of Bhima river.
It took another 1.5 hours for us to reach Siddhatek. The temple is located on the top of a small hill. We again wore the caps and got down from our bus. As it was mid summer and most of the pilgrims in our bus were senior citizens, it took some time for us to climb the hill.
The Lord is known here as Siddhi Vinayaka and his trunk is turning to the right in the sanctum. The priest told that all the Ganesha idols, where the trunk is turning to the right, are very powerful. He told us the significance of that place.
Brahma faced so many initial set backs when he started to create the earth. He then invoked Vinayaka and worshpped him. After that, there were no struggles and he could create everything. The temple was constructed in the same place where Brahma invoked Vinayaka. As Brahma attained siddhi here, the Lord is worshipped as Siddhi Vinayaka and the place is called Siddhatek.
All of us came back at around 12 noon and boarded our bus after spending more than half an our there. Our bus headed towards Theur where the third Vinayaka is located. Theur is almost 82 kms away from Siddhatek and it would again take 1.5 hours to reach that place if we would go at a stretch. However, our driver stopped the bus in a town after almost half an one hour of drive. Once we got down, we realised that the bus was stopped in front of a function hall. Our agent told that lunch would be served for us in the ground floor.
There was a big hall and tables and chairs were neatly arranged in the middle of the hall. The food items were kept at a distance from the tables and the staff of the function hall asked us to occupy the chairs. They served us all the dishes that were available. The lunch was served with eight to nine dishes and all of them were tasty. We boarded our bus at around 2 PM after all the pilgrims had their lunch. The bus headed towards Theur and we reached that village after one more hour.
3. Theur
Theur is a very small village situated on the banks of the Bhima river. The Lord here is worshipped as Chintamani Ganapathi.
Among all the Ashta Vinayaka temples, this temple is visited by the pilgrims the most. It is for the simple reason that Theur is situated close to Pune and is very easily reachable from the city. Even for us, it was the second visit to this temple.
Though this temple had been in existence from thousands of years, it was renovated by the Peshwa king, Madhavrao. Theur is the place where Ganesha gave the wish giving jewel (Chintamani) to the sage Kapila. It is also a belief that the Lord here drives away all the tensions (chinta) and provides piece of mind.
The deity in the sanctum is in sitting pose and is cross legged. There were diamonds studded in his eyes. The entire temple was very clean and peaceful. We spent more than half an hour in the temple and came out. The agent was sitting in a hotel where the bus was parked and he asked all of us to have one cup of tea each. When we all had our tea, he paid the bill. We all boarded the bus at around 4 PM. The bus headed towards Ranjangaon where the fourth Vinayaka is located.
4. Ranjangaon
Ranjangaon is located on the Pune-Shirdi highway and is at a distance of 55 kms from Theur. We reached Ranjangaon at around 5 PM. This is the biggest temple among all the Ashta Vinayaka temples. There were two elephants beautifully carved on the either side of the entrance that denote the size of the temple indirectly.
This temple also attracts several pilgrims every year due to it's beauty along with significance. Also, this temple can be reached conveniently from Pune. The temple is constructed in such a way that during the movement of the Sun from South to North and again from North to South (Dakshinayan and Uttarayan), the rays fall directly on the idol.
The Lord is worshipped as Maha Ganapathi here (again, Maha means very big). The deity is in sitting pose but the idol is not as big as I imagined. When I asked the same to the priest, he said there is another Ganasha idol in the basement which is very big in size with 10 trunks and 20 hands. However, as the basement was closed (locked), we couldn`t see that Ganesha.
We spent around one hour in the temple and boarded our bus at around 6 PM. The bus headed towards Lenyadri where the fifth Vinayaka is located. The agent told us that Lenyadri is around 75 kms away from Ranjangaon and the Lord is located in a cave on a mountain rock. The visitors would be stopped after 6:30 PM and we wouldn`t be able to reach there before that time. So, we would be staying there for that night and have our darshan on the next morning.
We all reached Lenyadri at around 7:30 PM and the bus was stopped in front of a building close to the mountain. It looked like a dharmashala. The agent asked us to wait in the bus for some more time and he went into that building. He came back after 10 minutes and asked us to get down. He had keys in his hand and said that he allocated rooms for us for that night. He said each room had four beds and four of us should share the room. As we were only three (me, my mother and my aunt), he allocated the fourth bed in our room to another person from a Marathi family in our group that had five members. However, that family wanted to adjust in their own room rather than sending one person into our room as they felt it was more comfortable to them. In fact, it was even more comfortable to us.
The agent showed us a restaurant beside the building. He said dinner would be served there till 10 PM and gave us the dinner coupons. He asked us to have our dinner quickly and sleep as soon as possible as we would have to wake up early in the morning to cover the remaining four Vinayakas. He asked all of us to come to the same restaurant before 7 AM on the next day so that we could have our morning tea. He repeatedly requested us to adhere to the schedule strictly as we would reach Pune by 8 PM on the next day only if we start the trip at 7 AM. If we delay, we might reach Pune very late due to the weekend traffic.
We went into our room and noticed that there were four beds placed on the floor. There was no cot. As it would be difficult for my mother to sleep on floor, I asked the agent if he could arrange a cot. As he was helpless, he requested me to adjust for that night.
After taking rest in the room for some time, we went to the hotel at 8:30 PM to have our dinner. A traditional Marathi dinner was served to us after we handed over the coupons. We went back to our room after having our dinner and slept before 10 PM.
Day 2
5. Lenyadri
We woke up at 6 AM and got ready before 7 AM. To my surprise, I couldn`t find my fresh pair of dress in our bag. I then realised that I must have forgotten to keep them in the bag and left them in my uncle's house in Pune. Lenyadri is too small a village to buy a new dress and no shop would be open so early in the morning. As there was no option, I continued with the same dress that I wore on the previous day.
We reached the same restaurant where we had our dinner last night. Some pilgrims were already present there and they were enjoying their tea. We also had a cup of tea. The agent told everyone to start climbing the hillock as it is just a few yards away from the restaurant. He asked us to meet at the same restaurant after coming back. He said we all would have our breakfast in the restaurant before leaving the place.
We also started climbing the mountain along with others. There were exactly 338 steps and they were all rock cut steps which were not of equal height. My mother faced difficulties in climbing, so, we climbed slowly. Similarly, some of the aged pilgrims found it difficult to climb the mountain.
In Marathi, Leni means cave and in Sanskrit, Adri means mountain. Lenyadri consists of caves on the mountain which were believed to be sculpted by the Pandavas in one night during their Agnatavas. There are 28 caves in total and the the idol of Ganesha is situated in the 7th cave. He is worshipped as Girijatmaj here which means the son of Parvathi.
Each cave has several pillars and each pillar has so many animals sculpted on it. The cave where the Lord is located is 60 feet wide and, surprisingly, there are no pillars in that cave. The cave looks like a big hall.
There are two water tanks in front of the 7th cave. There is water in these tanks throughout the year. The water is very pure and cool. Almost all the pilgrims tasted the water before they went down.
It again took some time for us to get down and go back to the restaurant. By the time we reached the restaurant, most of the pilgrims from our bus had already started having their breakfast. The breakfast consisted of the South Indian dishes like Idly and Vada along with the Marathi dishes like Aloo Bonda and Bread Pakoda. We tasted all four items one each and had our tea again at the end.
The agent asked all of us to vacate our rooms and keep the luggage in the bus. We all did that and by the time we boarded the bus, most of the pilgrims had already been seated in the bus. A few aged people, who took some time to go up and come down, were still having their breakfast. In the meantime, their family members who completed their breakfast, vacated the rooms and handed over the keys to the agent. The bus started at 9:30 AM once everybody boarded. Our next visit was Ozar where the sixth Vinayaka is located.
6. Ozar
Ozar is in the district of Nasik and is around 15 kms away from Lenyadri. It took less than 20 minutes for us to go there. The Lord here is worshipped as Vighnaharan which means the remover of obstacles. The temple is not so big in size. It was renovated by the brother of the Peshwa king Bajirao.
The story behind the temple is that once King Abhinandan performed a yagam, but he didn`t offer anything to Indra. Indra was upset with this and sent a demon who is known as Vighnasura (demon who create obstacles). He started to create obstacles to that yagam and the saints worshipped Lord Ganesha to save the yagam. After being defeated by Ganesha, Vighnasura begged Ganesha not to kill him. Ganesha left him and ordered that he should not create any obstacles where Ganesha is worshipped. Hence, Ganesha here is called Vighnaharan.
We were all back in the bus in less than 30 minutes after having our darshan. We started before 10:30 AM and headed towards Pali where the seventh Vinayaka is located.
7. Pali
Pali is around 170 kms away from Ozar and is located in the district of Raigad. It took more than 2.5 hours for us to reach the village. During this journey, we crossed the Mumbai-Pune express way after travelling on that highway for a few kilometers.
The temple is located in a small street and our bus was stopped at the beginning of the street. The agent showed us a small open ground on the left side of the road on the way to the temple and asked us to meet in that ground after our darshan.
We started walking down and reached the temple in 5 minutes The temple here is also not so big in size. The Lord is worshipped as Ballaleshwar. It is the only temple in the Ashta Vinayaka temples where Ganesha is known by his devotee's name.
There lived a young boy by name Ballal who was a sincere devotee of Ganesha. He influenced his friends also to worship Ganesha and it was not acceptable to their parents as they thought that Ballal was leading them towards devotion at a very young age. Hence, they complained it to Ballal's father and he became very angry on his son. He beat Ballal and threw away the small Ganesha idol that Ballal worshipped. He then tied Ballal to a tree and went back.
Ballal started praising Ganesha and praised him for the whole night. Ganesha appeared in front of him and untied him. When Ganesha asked him to make a wish, Ballal requested him to stay in his village permanently. Ganesha agreed to that and stayed back in the village. The Lord is known as Ballaleshwar thereafter.
There is an idol of a rat at the entrance with Modak in the hand and it faces the main idol of Ganesha. The deity faces the East and is very wide. The idol of Ballaleshwar is the biggest in size among all the Ashta Vinayakas.
We spent around 15 minutes in the temple and went back to the open ground. By the time we reached, our lunch was ready. It was served to us by the caterers who prepared it. We all had our lunch in buffet style in that ground. There are a few benches made of cement and the aged pilgrims sat on those benches so that they could comfortably have their lunch.
It was almost 2.30 PM when we all boarded our bus and headed towards Mahad where the eighth Vinayaka is located.
8. Mahad
Mahad is also located in the Raigad district and is around 75 kms away from Pali. It took more than one hour for us to reach the village. Our bus stopped close to the temple and the agent asked us to come back in half an hour after having our darshan.
The Ganesh here is worshipped as Varada Vinayaka and there is a story behind it. Once Ganesha was pleased with the prayers of one of his devotees and gave him a boon that he would be blessed with a son who couldn't be defeated by anybody other than Lord Shiva. The devotee felt very happy and requested Ganesha to stay in his village. Ganesha accepted that and stayed there permanently. In Sanskrit, varada means gift, hence, he is worshipped as Varada Vinayaka here.
There is a belief that the person, who eats the coconut offered by the priest in this temple on Magha Chaturthi, is blessed with a son. Hence, thousands of pilgrims visit this temple during that time.
This temple is located on the bank of a pond. Though the temple is not so big in size, it was well maintained. There are four entrances to the temple in all four directions and there is an elephant idol in each direction guarding the temple.
There is an oil lamp in the sanctum which is said to be lightening continuously since 1892. The trunk of the idol is turning towards the left (in fact, except Siddhi Vinayaka at Siddhatek, all the remaining Vinayakas have their trunk turning to the left).
We spent around 20 minutes in the temple and returned to the place where our bus was parked. Some pilgrims were already there and others were also started to come. Once everybody reached, the agent took us to a nearby shop and ordered sharbat for all of us as a parting gift. Though it was around 4.15 PM then, the Sun was still so hot as it was the mid summer.
It was really excellent to have sharbat at that time as most of us were completely tired. We all thanked the agent for offering us sharbat instead of tea. The agent also thanked all of as we were so disciplined with regards to adhering to the time table imposed by him. He said Pune was around 120 kms away from there, but we all would be able to reach Pune in two hours as we would travel by the Mumbai Pune express way after 50 kms. He said we would reach Pune by 6 PM which was very unusual in all his previous Ashta Vinayaka trips.
The bus started once we all boarded and reached the express way after half an hour. Three families got down there with their luggage as they were going to Mumbai. The journey was very smooth from then on and we reached Pune after 6 PM.
Initially, I thought of going to my uncle's house directly after getting down in Pune (as we expected to reach by 8 PM). However, as we were much ahead of our schedule, I changed the plan and wanted to visit the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganesh temple in Pune before going to my uncle's house.
Dagdusheth Ganesh Mandir
It is one of the famous Ganesh temples not only in Pune, but in the entire state of Maharashtra. There used to be one sweet maker who came from Latur to Pune and started selling sweets (Halwai in Marathi means sweet maker). His sweets became very famous soon and he became rich. Unfortunately, he lost his son in a plague epidemic. He constructed a temple for Ganesha in the memory of his son. As he was not left with any legal heirs, he adopted his nephew Govindsheth later. Dagdusheth passed away when Govindsheth was 9 years old.
The temple is a beautiful construction and it had a rich history of more than 145 years. The priest told me that the temple would have it's 150 years celebrations in 2017. The main idol was decorated with gold and rich diamonds. One of the devotees told me that the main idol was insured for 10 crores. I was surprised as there are so many rich temples in India where the main idols are decorated with gold and valuable stones, but it was the first time I heard of one idol being insured. Probably, it is the only idol in India that was insured.
The temple was constructed in such a way that the idol and the rituals performed to the idol are visible to the people even from outside when they go by that road. The entire temple was so graceful and there was high security at the temple.
We came out after being there for more than half an hour. We hired a cab to Hadapsar and reached my uncle's house by 8 PM.
Those who follow my blog must have known that I love going to new places, but don`t prefer going through travel agencies. I have been travelling all over India ever since 2003, but there were only two instances in all these years that I travelled through travelling agencies.This trip was just the second instance (the first instance was in Mount Abu in Rajasthan in October 2006). I am basically not so comfortable travelling with groups.
However, this trip was a complete exception. Though the pilgrims didn`t have much interaction with each other during our trip, nobody caused any inconvenience to others. All the pilgrims adhered to the time and behaved in a pleasing manner. It was a very pleasant time indeed.
I would like to provide an honest feedback on Prasanna Travels here. It looked they were very experienced in conducting this kind of trips and their experienced appeared in all the acts they did. Their organisational skills were very clearly visible in every phase of the trip.
They must be aiming at delivering high quality customer service.
Generally, lunch is provided with three or four dishes. But the lunch was served with more than eight dishes on the first day. On the second day, they arranged lunch for us in an open ground in Pali. The ground was completely vacant when we got down from the bus. However, by the time we were back after our darshan (within 20 minutes), tables were arranged and buffet was ready. In fact, some pilgrims had already been eating by the time we reached. It is still a mystery to me how they were able to arrange that in such a short span of time.
The only discomfort (I don`t want to use the word inconvenience as it was a very minute one) was the non availability of cots in Lenaydri. I wrote it in their feedback form so that they might think about it in future.
I felt the money they collected from us for the trip was quite reasonable when compared to the services they provided. Moreover, the agent who was with us for those two days was very polite and well mannered. I would strongly recommend Prasanna Travels to others who want to visit the Ashta Vinayaka temples in Maharashtra.
