Ashtavinayak Yatra: Part Four

Day Two: 14.08.2022 continues

Shri Moreshwar Ganpati, Morgaon

The temple is located in Moragaon, Pune. It is surrounded by a tall stone boundary wall with minarets at each of the four corners, suggesting a Muslim influence on the architecture. It has four gates, each facing a cardinal direction and with an image of Ganesha, each gate depicting him in the form that he appeared in each of the four ages (yugas). The main entrance of the temple faces north. The quadrangular courtyard has two Deepmalas – lamp towers with niches to light lamps. A sculpted 6-foot mouse – the vahana of Ganesha sits in front of the temple. 

A huge Nandi bull sculpture is positioned facing the Lord, just outside the temple gates. This is considered unusual as a Nandi is normally positioned in front of the sanctum sanctorum in Shiva temples. A legend explains this oddity: the Nandi sculpture being transported from nearby Shiva temple, decided to settle in front of Ganesha and then refused to move. Both the mouse and Nandi are considered guardians of the entrance.

We reached the venue at 4:15PM. The bus was parked, and we walked our way to the temple through small lanes. We kept our shoes in the rack and got into the queue outside the temple. We passed through the entrance door at 4:30PM, the queue was longer compared to Theur. While walking in the first line, we watched all the forms of ganesha idols like the Vakratunda, Dhumravarna, Ekadanta,etc on the walls. 

Finally, we had the darshan at 5:40PM and also got a chance to perform the aarati. 

Post that we visited the nearby idols including Moraya Gosawi. 

We got back to the main road for a tea-coffee break. It was past 6PM now. And surely both the Jejuri and Prati Balaji cannot be visited. So, we opted to visit Jejuri instead. We reached the venue at 7:15PM, it was dark by now. Many opted to stay in the bus since it was more than an hour standing in queue at Morgaon. Few of us decided to take darshan.

Khandoba temple, Jejuri

Khandoba temple of Jejuri is dedicated to the god Khandoba (Malhari-Martand), located on a hill in the town of Jejuri. This temple looks like a hill fort and is known as Jejuri gad (fort) The eight-sided, 350 yards (320 m) long fort boundary encloses a cloister courtyard, with the main temple shrine at the center. The temple can be approached by three flights of steps from the east, the west, and the north. It is accessed by climbing approx. 500 steps. The sanctum includes a linga (symbol of Shiva) and three pairs of images of Khandoba with his first wife Mhalsa.

We climbed through the east door. The steps were covered in yellow due to turmeric, so it was a bit slippery since it had rained. There were shops selling turmeric bags and dry coconut pieces, since the same is used to worship the idol. We kept the shoes in the rack before the entrance door. The stairs near the entrance were a bit elevated. Finally, we reached the temple. Devotees throw turmeric in the air as an offering to the god, and as a result the steps of the hill temple and premises have a yellow hue. Since there was a long queue, we bought VIP pass worth Rs. 100 and had the darshan. Post the main deity, we also worshipped the rest of the idols. 

It rained again and we had to wait for a while. Now even the umbrella was yellow along with our hair, head, clothes and feet. On the descend journey, we passed through several souvenirs' shops selling shiv pindi, shiv linga, etc. There was also a costume shop having the pheta of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We reached the bus at 8:30PM.

We drove back to our hotel in Chinchwad, again a tiring journey till 11:30PM. Dinner was tasty: consisted of rice, dal, roti, sabzi, noodles and pineapple sheera. 

Today we enjoyed the dinner with a relaxed mood. Our tour manager warned us not making the room and towels messy since we were covered with turmeric. It was a task clearing all the turmeric from the head and feet, while not making the room messy. Done with this task, I packed my bags and dozed off. We were checking out from the hotel in the morning. Six ganpati darshan was completed.

Read next: Ashtavinayak Yatra: Part Five