Not just religious travellers, but anyone interested in history, culture, and colour are potential visitors to the Ganesh festival in the state.
For the first time ever, the Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Government of Maharashtra, invited travel agents and media people from across India to witness the monumental Ganesh Utsav celebrations in Mumbai and Pune, in a bid to weave a touristic narrative around the history and culture surrounding them. They facilitated visits to all the main Ganesh mandals, and also organised special tours for local senior citizens as part of this initiative.
The Pune POV
Pune is always considered the cultural capital of Maharashtra, and on this visit to the Ganesha celebrations in the city, we got to see firsthand exactly why this is so. The festive fervour runs high in the oldest parts of Pune, the various peths (old neighbourhoods), which surround the Shaniwar Wada, once the grand residence of the Peshwas that ruled Pune in the 18th century. Troupes specialsing in traditional dhol tasha and dhol lezim have flourished even as deejays and modern equipment have been coopted into the festivities.
While there’s a Ganesh pandal at almost every street corner, there are some that are considered extra special for various reasons. Some are venerated for their historic significance, others because of the grand scale they are built on, and many for the particular Ganesha that resides in the main temple.
Mumbai has similar ‘celebrity’ Ganeshas that everyone eagerly lines up to see, but what’s unique about Pune is that they have also preserved the culture of live performances on makeshift stages on every other street corner to complement the decorations and devoutness in the pandals. I found the level of acting, costume design, set design, and music quite remarkable. That such quality entertainment is offered for free comes as a pleasant surprise in a world where even ‘VIP darshan’ at the pandals commands a price.
Fond farewells
Joy, however, is free, and nowhere do you feel it wash over you in waves as much as at the ritual immersion (visarjan) that takes place at the end of the 10-day Ganesh festival. The experience is both, moving as well as full of monumentally mad rejoicing, as processions of devotees take their beloved deity to the confluence of the Mula & Mutha rivers to bid him a fond farewell, accompanied by everything from simple and beautiful flower-bedecked carts to gigantic flatbed trailers bearing deejays playing their tunes aided by massive speakers and flashing strobe lights.
It’s a celebration that transcends religion and I saw people of many faiths and races taking part wholeheartedly. This year, there was also a contingent of enthusiastic visitors from Thailand, taking active part in all the rituals of the Ganesh festival.
Rashmi Mathur, co-founder of Lucknow-based travel company Traveloventures, who was part of the DoT’s contingent of invitees appraising the tourism potential of the Ganesh festival, believes that this could be a new circuit that can be sold successfully to her North Indian clientele. She observes, “Lord Ganesh is equally loved and worshipped across India, so Ganesh Utsav of Maharashtra would be a wonderful two-to-three nights’ itinerary covering the major pandals, learning about the history associated with it, and witnessing the grand visarjan.”
Top seven historic pandals to add to your Pune Ganesh festival itinerary
Name: Shri Kasba Ganpati | Where: Kasba Peth | Why: The Shri Kasba Ganpati temple that this pandal is associated with was built by Jijabai Bhosle, mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in AD 1639. This highly respected Ganesha also enjoys precedence and pride of place in the immersion procession.
Name: Tambdi Jogeshwari Ganpati | Where: Budhwar Peth | Why: This one is attached to the 15th century temple of Goddess Durga, who is the gram-devi or patron deity of Pune, which makes the Ganesha extra special.
Name: Guruji Talim Ganpati | Where: Laxmi Road | Why: This is one of the oldest Ganesha pandals of Pune and one of the first to preach communal harmony, as it was started by one Hindu and two Muslim families.
Name: Tulshi Baug Ganpati | Where: Budhwar Peth | Why: Established in 1901, this 15-feet-tall idol, the tallest in Pune and the first one to be made of glass fibre (since 1975), is richly adorned with gold and silver and beautifully sculpted.
Name: Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati | Where: Budhwar Peth | Why: Started by grieving parents, Dagdusheth Halwai and his wife Lakshmibai, in memory of their son who died of plague in the late 1800s, this Ganesha idol was special to the family as well as the neighbourhood. Over the decades, it has not only become one of the largest and most lavish pandals that people vie to visit, but also a hub of social and cultural development, providing educational and financial support to under-privileged children, micro financing small businessmen, building old-age home, rehabilitating brick-kiln workers, etc.
Name: Kesari Wada Ganpati | Where: Narayan Peth | Why: This is the one that made the community Ganesha festival famous. Freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak initiated the practice in 1893 by setting up the pandal at his own house. Even today, although the Ganesha idol has moved from the original location of Vinchurkar Wada to Kesari Wada, the trust that manages the proceedings embodies the original ideology of the celebrations bringing community together by organising lectures and contests instead of spending all the money from donations on decorations.
Name: Shrimant Bhausaheb Rangari Ganpati | Where: Budhwar Peth | Why: This was the country’s first public Ganesh mandal, one that Lokmanya Tilak praised in his newspaper Kesari. And, to this day, the original Ganesha idol exists. Very different from the benign ones we see elsewhere, this one depicting Ganpati vanquishing a demon, quite literally, slays! A small but swish museum housed in the same homestead that hosted freedom fighters brings alive the times it was born in.
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