Travelogues

Ashtavinayak is a group of eight Ganesh temples in Maharashtra that are considered very important by the devotees of Lord Ganesh. These eight temples house the ‘swayambhu’ or ‘self-formed’ idols of the Lord Ganesh, hence the importance and high reverence attached to this octet. A pilgrimage to the Ashtavinayak is considered to be a milestone in the devotee’s life. The eight temples/idols of the Ashtavinayak in their religious sequence are: 1. The Moreshwar Temple at Moregaon 2. The Siddhivinayak Temple at Siddhatek 3. The Ballaleshwar Temple at Pali 4. The Varadavinayak Temple at Mahad 5. The Chintamani Temple at Theur 6. The Girijatamak Temple at Lenyandri 7. The Vighnahar Temple at Ozar 8. The Mahaganapati Temple at Ranjangaon Each of these temples has its own individual mythology and history the details of which can be found at http://www.ashtavinayaktemples.com/ Since we set out from Mumbai, and most of the temples are around Pune, we did not abide by the suggested religious sequence of visiting the temples but planned our own. On day 1 Mumbai – Pali (112kms) We headed our car onto the Mumbai Goa highway (NH17) for Pali. The road was excellent right up to Nagothane from where we had to turn into a side road for Pali. The distance from the turnoff up to Pali, which is about 15kms, brings you down to earth after a smooth ride. On reaching Pali we saw a few ‘Free Parking’ boards displayed but all those were empty except for the one nearest to the temple, where there were just a couple of cars parked. Having parked, we set out to visit the temple when we were accosted at the entrance of the parking lot by a mother-daughter combo selling ‘puja thali’ (offerings for the puja). Apparently the parking was free if we bought the offerings from them! Or else we had to pay Rs.10/-, which anyway was the cost of the ‘puja thali’. So we did the smart thing, bought the offerings and proceeded towards the temple. No photography of the idol is allowed in the sanctum sanctorum so had to be happy taking a snapshot of the temple from outside.

Our next destination was The Varadavinayak Temple at Mahad at a distance of 44kms from Pali. We had to head towards Khopoli and on our way out of the parking lot we spoke to a driver just driving in. He was apparently coming in from Mahad and gave us very scary stories of the road conditions. But we moved on regardless and were pleasantly surprised to find that maybe only a couple of kilometers of the 44kms to be traversed were bad, well awful. It took us about an hour to cover this distance. The parking here is free – no strings or offerings attached. You can see the temple premises from the parking spot, which is on one side of a lovely pond.

When we were standing to pray, we were told that we could actually enter the Garbagriha (sanctum sanctorum) and offer our prayers, but no photography please! So after offering our prayers, when we came out, we were directed to a spot where the ‘mouse’, which is considered to be the vehicle of Lord Ganesh, was installed.

We could stand behind this mouse and take photographs of the idol.

 In the same premises there is also a Datta mandir and a small space housing 3