Mahaganapati of Ranjangaon

Mahaganapati of Ranjangaon

Mahāgaṇapati of Ranjangaon (Pune district) — the eighth and final Ashtavinayak. Mahāgaṇapati is the form Shiva worshipped before his own battle against Tripurāsura.

Tradition & Significance

The temple is built so that on Śayana and Uttarāyaṇa ends of the year, the first rays of the sun fall directly on the mūrti — Chola-era solar-alignment architecture transplanted to Maharashtra. The mūrti (Mahāgaṇapati) is said to have ten trunks and twenty arms, though the publicly worshipped outer form is a standard two-armed image; the ten-armed inner form (mahāmūrti) is hidden in an underground chamber.