Ashtavinayak
Every Ganesha temple in the directory, grouped by state.
A guide is written where we have one, and the temple is named where we do not. Bookable pujas appear where we have verified pandits in the temple's city.
The eight Ashtavinayak temples are swayambhu — the images are held to be self-manifested rather than installed, which is what separates them from the thousands of other Ganesha shrines in Maharashtra. Each is a rock formation read as a form of Ganesha rather than a sculpture of one.
The trunk matters. Seven of the eight turn to the left, and only Siddhivinayak at Siddhatek turns right — a right-turned trunk is held to be the stricter form, demanding exact observance, which is why that temple is approached with more ceremony than the others.
The order runs Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar, Ranjangaon and Morgaon again, and covers roughly six hundred and fifty kilometres through Pune, Raigad and Ahmednagar districts. Girijatmaj at Lenyadri is the only one of the eight cut into a Buddhist cave, reached by about three hundred steps.
The busiest Ganesha temple in India is not among them. Siddhivinayak at Prabhadevi in Mumbai, which shares a name with the Siddhatek shrine but no connection to the circuit, takes the longest queues in the country on a Tuesday. Dagdusheth Halwai in Pune was built by a sweet-seller who lost his son to plague, and Kanipakam in Andhra Pradesh is known for an image the tradition holds to be still growing.
Ganesha also opens temples he does not own. A shrine to him stands at the entrance of most large temples of any deity, and the first offering of a pilgrimage is made there before the visitor goes further in — which is why the count of Ganesha shrines in India is not a number anyone attempts.
Temple collections
- Ashtavinayak
