Ashtavinayak Yatra–Part 9, The Mahaganapati Temple, Ranjangaon,Maharastra, India

Ashtavinayak literally means "Eight Ganeshas" in Sanskrit. Lord Ganesha is the Hindu deity of prosperity and learning.

Lord Shiva is believed to have worshipped Ganesha before fighting the demon Tripurasura here. The temple was built by Shiva where he worshipped Ganesha, and the town he set up was called Manipur which is now known as Ranjangaon.

The idol faces the east, is seated in a cross-legged position with a broad forehead, with its trunk pointing to the left. It is said that the original idol is hidden in the basement, having 10 trunks and 20 hands and is called Mahotkat, however, the temple authorities deny existence of any such idol.

Constructed so that the rays of the sun fall directly on the idol (during the Southward movement of the sun), the temple bears a distinct resemblance to the architecture reminiscent of the 9th and 10th Centuries and faces the east. Shrimant Madhavrao Peshwa used to visit this temple very often and built the stone sanctum around the idol and in 1790 A.D. Mr. Anyaba Dev was authorised to worship the idol.

The Divine Belief

This is a story of Treta Yuga. There was a great and intelligent Sage Gritsamada. Once, Rishi Gritsamada got a very big cough. From that, came alive a reddish child. His ambition was to conquer the three worlds and also to defeat Indra. To turn his mind towards devotion, Rishi Gritsamada told him to worship Ganesh.

The child chanted Mantra given by Gritsamada for years. Penance of the child pleased Ganesh and he offered the child boons saying "Only Lord Shivshankara will be able to defeat you; I give you three cities made of iron, gold and silver. As long as they are, there you cannot be defeated by anyone. You will be called Tripura. All your desires will be fulfilled. And through one arrow from Shankara all your three cities will be destroyed".

Tripura came back and defeated all Kings on earth and all Gods of heaven. He had two sons. He gave kingdom of Brahmaloka (Lord Brahma's abode) to one son and Vishnulok (Lord Vishnu's abode) to another son. Narada adviced grief-stricken Gods to worship Lord Ganesh to get rid of the calamity.

Lord Ganapati getting contented with prayers of all Gods promised to bring about Tripura's defeat through Shankara's hands. Then Lord Ganpati in the guise of Brahmin went to Tripura's abode and told him: "O king! I have mastery over 64 arts. So I am called as "Kaladhar". I have come to meet you from far hearing your brave stories". Tripurasur replied : "Hey, Kaladhar, you show me your art, if I am pleased, I will give away my life also'. Kaladhar said :"O King, I will give you three aeroplanes. You can go anywhere in the world by this planes. You will get anything you desire. Except Lord Mahadev, nobody can destroy these planes".

Tripurasur on being pleased asked Kaladhar to demand anything in the world. Kaladhar demanded idol of Chintamani which was in the possession of Lord Shankar. Shiv Shankara refused to give it to Tripurasur and a war ensued between Shiv Shankara and Tripurasur. All gods started off for the war in a hurry forgetting to worship Ganesh before leaving. Therefore, the Gods lost the battle and Tripurasur found the idol of Chintamani. While returning back to his kingdom, Chintamani suddenly disappeared from the hands of Tripurasur. Thinking it to be ill omen, he returned back with a heavy heart. Sage Narada told Shankara the true reason of defeat of not worshipping Ganesh before beginning the war.

Lord Shankara on getting convinced went to Dandakaranya. He performed Pranayam and chanted six letters Mantra of Ganapati. Ganapati emerged at that time from his face with a peculiar form. He had five faces, ten hands, moon on the crest, garlands of heads on the neck and also the ornament of serpents. He looked both Shankara and Gajanana. He told Shankara : "In future, whenever you will remember me, I will appear to remove obstacles. After chanting my Bijamantra, send an arrow on the aeroplanes of Tripurasur. By that time all these three cities will be burnt. Then you can kill Tripurasur". He also gave Sahasranam Stotra by chanting which one gets victory everywhere, enemies are destroyed and wishes are fulfilled.

At that place, Shiva established a Ganesh Temple and around it a city called Manipur, which is presently called as Ranjangaon. The deity here is hence rightly called as Mahaganapati. Shankara went to fight. This time, Prithvi became the chariot, the Sun and Moon the wheels. Brahma Deva was the charioteer. Meru became the bow, Vishnu the arrow. Ashwinikumar become the horses. Shivshankara chanted the Ganesh Sahasranama. To destroy Tripurasura when he released arrow, there was light everywhere. Tripurasura fainted, fell down dead and his three cities were burnt. The demons life came out of his body in the form of Jyoti and entered Shiv Shankar's body. Thus, Gods got their posts and Sages started studying Vedas. All three worlds were happy.

The temple is situated 50 Km from Pune on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway in the village of Ranjangaon.

(Concluding Part)