Ashtavinayak Mayureshwar – Morgoan Ganesha Temple

One of the great Ganapatya saint, MoryaGosavi poppularized Morgaon Ganesha temple. The Brahmin Peshwas, who ruled Maharashtra during 18th century, were great devotees of Lord Ganesha. They have donated land and money for the development and establishment of the Ganesha temple.

Long time back a Sage named Kashyap lived with his two wives, Kadru and Vinita. Kadru’s son’s snakes imprisoned Vinita’s sons namely Shyen, Sampati and Jatayu. Vinita was sorely disappointed. After few years Vinita got one more son. However, when her son was in the form of egg, young Ganesh broke that egg and peacock came out of that egg. Newly born peacock had fight with Ganesh. Finally mother Vinita interfered and peacock agreed to be vehicle of Shri Ganesh. However, he laid one condition and said, ” Oh! God my name should be pronounced before your name and you should be popular by my name.” Ganesh agreed and took name Mayuresh for himself. With the help of peacock released Vinita’s sons from imprisonment.

Another story associated with the Morgoan Ganesha temple is that there was a king named Chakrapani reining the Gandaki city of Mithali. His wife was Queen Ugra. The king and the queen were childless for many years and after their heartfelt worship to god Surya (Sun), Ugra conceived a child. But, the brilliance and radiance of the fetus was such that Ugra failed to nurture it within her embryo for long. As a result, after few months of conceiving she released the whole embryo into the sea.

A brilliant and dominant child was born from the embryo. The guardian of the child, the Sea, disguised as Brahmin, went to Chakrapani and handed the child over to him. The child was named Sindhu and he grew up to become one of the strongest human beings on earth. Under the guidance of Guru Shukracharya, Sindhu worshiped god Surya wholeheartedly. The god, in return, gifted Sindhu the nectar and said as long as the nectar remains near his naval he will be immune to death. Unfortunately, Sindhu’s blessing turned into a curse for the other gods as he started misusing his immortality. He indulged in excessive fights with other gods and also held Lord Vishnu and Indra as captives in his kingdom. The other gods then started praying to Lord Ganesha to escape the atrocities committed by Sindhu.

Lord Ganesha, in return, promised the gods to take birth as goddess Parvati’s son and kill Sindhu who was actually a demon in human form. As part of the story, Parvati worshiped the clay idol of Lord Ganesha on the day of BhadrapadashuddhaChaturthi before the idol assumed a real form. When Ganesha was a boy of ten years, Shiva and Parvati left Mount Meru and decided to resettle at Mount Kailash. On their way to Kailash, Ganesha entered into a series of fights with demons and defeated all of them with the help of Siddhi (Shakti) and Buddhi (Intelligence).

He first killed Kamalasura and next he found out the Gandaki Nagari of King Sindhu and framed an action plan along with Lord Shiva’s army. In a powerful fight, Ganesha first killed the two sons of King Sindhu and then proceeded towards killing the king. Sindhu’s confidence on his nectar was such that he neglected the warnings given by his father, Chakrapani. Lord Ganesha came riding on a peacock and with his Parashu he killed Sindhu in one go. Ganesha was thus named ‘Mayureshwar’, the one riding a peacock. After the fight was over, Ganesha decided to reside at Morgaon in his Mayureshwar form for the sake of his devotees.

Suggesting a Muslim influence on the architecture, at each of the four corners in the temple there are the minarets and the temple is surrounded by a tall stone boundary wall.

The Morgoan Ganesha temple 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). Each of the four Ganesha forms is associated with a Purushartha (aim of life) and accompanied by two attendants. The image of Ballalvinayaka at the eastern gate, accompanied by god Rama (Vishnu’s Avatar) and his consort Sita, symbolizes Dharma (righteousness, duty, ethnics) and embodies the preserver-god Vishnu. Vignesha at the southern gate, flanked by Ganesha’s parents Shiva and Parvati (Uma) symbolizes Artha (wealth and fame) and embodies the dissolver – Shiva. Chintamani at the western gate – representing Kama (desire, love and sensual pleasure) – is attended by the love god Kamadeva and his wife Rati and embodies the formless (asat) Brahman. Mahaganapati at the northern gate standing for moksha (salvation) is accompanied by Varaha (Vishnu’s boar avatar) and his wife the earth goddess Mahi embodies Sat Brahman.

The quadrangular courtyard has two Deepmalas – lamp towers with niches to light lamps. A sculpted 6 foot mouse – the vahana (mount) of Ganesha sits in front of the temple. A Nagara-khana – which stores Nagaras (kettle drums) – is situated nearby. 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 sanatorium 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.

A recently built sabha-mandapa (assembly-hall) has idols of god Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi. It leads to central hall built by King Kurundwad Patwardhan. The ceiling of this hall is formed from a single stone.

Central image of Ganesha

The garbhagriha (sanctum sanatorium) has a central image of Ganesha as Mayureshwar or Moreshwar, facing the North. The Ganesha image is depicted in a seated posture with its trunk turning to the left, four arms and three eyes. He holds a noose (pasha) and elephant goad (ankusha) in his upper hands, while his lower right rests on his knee and the other one holds a modaka (a sweet). The navel and the eyes are embedded with diamonds. A cobra hood raised over Ganesha’s head, shelters the Lord. The image is actually smaller than it looks as it is smeared with a thick level of saffron-coloured sindoor (vermillion), which peels off once every century. It last fell off in 1882, and prior to that in 1788. Ganesha is flanked by idols of his consorts Riddhi and Siddhi sometimes called Siddhi and Buddhi. These idols are made of an alloy of five metals or of brass. The deities are covered with crafted silver and gold. Like all Ashtavinayaka shrines, the central Ganesha image is believed to be svayambhu (self-existent), naturally occurring in the form of an elephant-faced stone.

The space around the sabha-mandapa (assembly hall) has 23 different idols depicting various forms of Ganesha. The Ganesha idols include the images of the eight avatars of Ganesha described in MudgalaPurana – Vakratunda, Mahodara, Ekadanta, Vikata, Dhrumavarna, Vighnaraja and Lambodara – positioned in eight corners of the temple. Some of the images are installed by the Yogendra Ashram followers. One more noteworthy Ganesha idol is of “SakshiVinayaka” who is “a witness” to the prayers offered to Mayureshwara. Traditionally, first “NagnaBhairava” is prayed then Mayureshwara and then Sakshi Vinayaka. This is the perfect sequence for prayers offered here.

There are other images of Hindu deities around the sabha-mandapa including those of the regional deities Vithoba and Khandoba, personifications of Shuklachaturthi and Krishna chaturthi (the 4th lunar day in bright fortnight and dark fortnight of a lunar month, both of which are sacred for Ganesha worship) and the Ganapatya saint MoryaGosavi. On the circumambulation path (Pradakshina path), there is a Tarati tree (a thorny shrub) near the KalpavrushkaMandir. The tree is believed to be the spot where MoryaGosavi underwent penance. There are two sacred trees in the courtyard: shami and bilva.