Ganapati Festival - Maharashtra Tourism

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Ganapati Festival
HARIHARESHWAR
ARAVALI
TARKARLI
at
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n Ganapati Festival
All gods are popular. But then there are some
who are favoured just a little more. And figuring high on that list is Lord Ganesha, the one
who represents wisdom, prosperity and good
fortune. Small wonder then that it is Ganesha
whose blessings are invoked at the beginning of
any new venture. Or even before putting pen to
paper at the start of an examination, embarking
on a trip, booking a house or a car, or just about
anything that requires good luck. What also endears is this god’s looks, posture and personality.
The elephant head epitomises everything related
to knowledge and wisdom, the small shrewd eyes
and the large ears miss nothing, the long nose can
smell out anything and his vehicle, a mouse, reflects how much importance a wise man gives to
the smallest of life forms.
Bringing
the Lord to Life
Ganapati Festival
Aruna Dhere and Varsha Gajendragadkar
Photographs © Sunil Gokarn, Sachin Naik
The authors are noted research scholars of Indian Culture, Pune
and can be reached at [email protected]
During the ten-day Ganesha Festival, as celebrated across different states in India, the
elephant-headed god who is worshipped for
granting good fortune in all new enterprises almost seems to come alive in homes and
specially decorated pandals alongside extravagant cultural performances, designed
to bring people together irrespective of religious bonds and faiths. The article sheds
light on the festival and its various rituals
Displayed at gateways and on doors, either by
visuals or symbols, the deity generally faces the
rising sun in the east. Across the world, Ganesha,
also known as Ganapati, is revered as Vighnaharta, the one who removes obstacles. And so it is
only right that there should be a grand festival
each year to celebrate his presence among mankind – the Ganesha Festival thus is not just an
occasion to pray and seek his blessings but also
a cultural extravaganza that brings on a common
platform artistry and talent, song and dance. It
also serves as an occasion to get people together,
irrespective of their religious affinities and faiths.
The festival enhances among us the sense of belonging and sovereignty.
The Period
Vinayak Chaturthi in the Hindu calendar month
of Bhadrapada is when the festival is celebrated.
Also called Vinayagar in Tamil Nadu, Ganesha is
the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi and
as per mythology, it is on this day when Shiva declared that Ganesha would be superior to all gods.
Ganesha Festival in Maharashtra is coupled with
Gauri Poojan, which is the worship of Goddess
Lakshmi. It is believed that this is when the two
sisters of Ganesha, Jyeshtha and Kanishtha, elder and younger respectively, come to meet their
dear brother. Women of nearly every household
prepare sweets and other delicacies and decorate
their homes to welcome the special guests.
Gauri Poojan has its roots in agrarian life. It is
the time when the first spell of monsoon is over
and farmers are happy looking at the flourishing
crops in the fields. There are ample vegetables
and flowers available in the farmyards and nature’s bounty is at its best. It is the starting point
of the forthcoming harvest. Gauri, also known as
Mahalakshmi, is the symbol of this green treasure. Gauri Poojan is thus an expression of the
deep gratitude of farmers towards Mother Earth
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n Ganapati Festival
for producing grains and vegetables. While celebrated all over India with equal fervour, Ganesha
Festival takes on a much more elaborate form in
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa. The festival starts on the fourth
day of the waxing moon and usually takes place
on any ten days between August 20 and September 15. It ends on the day of Anant Chaturdashi,
the 14th day of the waxing moon.
The Celebration
Ganesha Festival begins with the installation of
an idol of Lord Ganesha, which is worshipped
daily over the ten-day period. While such idols
are installed in homes, the community celebration takes on the form of small and big pandals
that are set up across the city by various neighbourhood mandals. These are decorated using
various religious, social, political, and cultural
themes. Therefore, you will find the depiction of
a particular incident from any mythological text
or even a representation of the most talked-about
real life incident. The pandals also have a sound
and light show with extravagant special effects, et
al. Coming to life as they do in the evening hours,
these pandals are visited by people not only from
the city but from neighbouring towns and villages
too.
dal to the nearest water body accompanied with
loud chants of “Ganapati Bappa Moraya”. Along
the way, faithful devotees dance to the sound of
drumbeats and sprinkle red-coloured gulal on
each other, while requesting Ganesha to return
early the next year. The procession comes to an
end with the immersion of the idol.
The History
It is not known exactly when and how the Ganesha Festival first came to be celebrated in Maharashtra. In fact, Ganesha was the family deity
of the Peshwas and Nanasaheb Peshwe was an
ardent devotee of this god who even got a lavish
place built for Ganesha within Shaniwarwada in
1755. Historian Pandurang Balkawde has recently procured rare documents revealing the huge
expenses made by the Peshwas on eye-catching
decorations during the Ganesha Festival using
gold, silver and precious gems. It is said that the
festival also marked sumptuous banquets for
In pandals and even in homes, a priest is invited to follow the rituals as prescribed by the holy
texts. Clad in a white or red dhoti and uttariyam
(shawl), the priest chants the prescribed many
mantras to invoke the presence of Ganesha. This
ritual is the Pranapratishtha. After this a ritual
called as Shodashopachara i.e. 16 ways of paying tribute follows. Coconut, jaggery, modaks,
durva (trefoil) blades of grass and red flowers
are offered. The statue is anointed with red unguent, typically made of kumkum and sandalwood paste. Throughout the ceremony, Vedic
hymns from the Rig Veda, the Ganapati Atharva
Shirsha Upanishad, and the Ganesha stotra from
the Narada Purana are chanted.
The idol is worshiped every morning and evening
until the ‘departure’. The worship involves various offerings to the idol including flowers and
bunch of tender grass shoots called durva. Each
durva bunch has 21 shoots. The shoots have either three or five strands. Other offerings like
modak too have to be 21 in number during this
worship. The daily worship ceremonies end with
the singing of the aarti, composed by the 17th
century saint Ramdas. As per the tradition decided by generations of each family, the domestic celebrations come to an end after 1,3,5,7 or 10
days. On the day of the immersion, a procession
of the idol is taken from the home or the pan-
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n Ganapati Festival
people of the city. However, the festival was then
limited to a five-day period, marked by musical
soirees and dance programmes.
After the end of the Peshwa rule, the Ganesha
Festival remained a family affair from 1818 to
1892. In 1893, Indian freedom fighter and social
reformist Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak transformed this annual domestic festival in Maharashtra into a large public event. Tilak recognised
the wide appeal of the deity and popularised the
festival in order to bridge the gap between the
various castes and religions. He used this festival as a tool to generate a nationalistic fervour
among people in Maharashtra against the British
colonial rule. It was Tilak who encouraged the
installation of large images of Ganesha in public
pavilions and established the practice of immersing, via processions, those idols in rivers, the sea
or other pools of water on Anant Chaturdashi.
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The Geographical Diversity
In Karnataka, the Ganesha Festival is celebrated
with prayers offered to Gauri, Ganesha’s mother. Married women pray to Goddess Gauri to get
blessings for a long-lasting married life. Here,
the festival is known as Vinayak Chaturthi and
is counted amongst the most popular festivals
in this state. In Rajasthan, on Ganesha Chaturthi, an image of Ganesha is bathed in red kumkum and adorned with a garland of red flowers.
Many households place the image of Ganesha at
the entrance to ward off the evil eye. During the
festival, a small plate with haldi and kumkum is
placed at the entrance so that visitors can offer it
to Ganesha and apply a pinch to their foreheads.
The favourite sweet delicacies of Ganesha, laddus
and modaks, are first offered to the god and then
distributed as prasad to the devotees.
Ganesha Chaturthi is also celebrated in a big way
celebrated in Tamil Nadu. Here it is known as
Vinayaka Chaturthi or Pillayar Chaturthi and the
festival falls on the fourth day after new moon
in the month of Aavani. The idols are decorated with garlands and Bermuda grass known as
arukampul. In Kerala it is known as Vinyakha
Chathurthi or Lamboodhara Piranalu. The festival falls in the month of Chingam, and people
worship idols alongside carrying out the ritual
of milk abhishekam. In the city of Thiruvananthapuram, a grand procession is taken out from
the Pazhavangadi Ganapathi Mandir to the
Shankumugham beach with tall statues of Ganesha made of organic items and milk which are
immersed into the sea. Elephant worship is also
widely practiced across Kerala.
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The Environmental Angle
Due to environmental concerns arising out of
pollution of water bodies during the immersion
process, municipal corporations across India
have been promoting the concept of immersing
the idol in a bucket or tub of water at home or
in specially made water tanks put up across the
city. Some of the other concepts being promoted
to avoid pollution include the use of a permanent
icon made of stone and brass which can be used
every year after a symbolic immersion; recycling
of plaster idols to repaint them and use them
again the following year; and creative use of other
biodegradable materials such as papier-mache to
create Ganesha idols.
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