Theur 14/2/2010

Places visited: Theur
Date: 14/2/2010
Purpose: Ganpati Darshan.
Persons: Harshal, Juilee.

I was thinking about going to Theur on Scooty from several days. On saturday we heard the news of Bombsfot and I was in dilema whether to go or not. But on sunday it suddenly came to my mind that we should go today iteslef. So I asked Juilee and she confirmed. Aai was a little bit resistent as we were going on Scooty. She asked me to go by car. But I wanted scooty, so kisiki bhi mere age kuch nahi chali.

Amhi mast jevlo aluchi bhaji, corn bhaji, etc.... till 2:30 PM.

Juilee's mood was little damp. Still, she showed interest and packed her purse. I too packed my backpack with water bottle, camera, ladu+bakarwadi, napkin. Juilee was asking me to let her drive scooty and I was doing hidisfidis to her. ( Meanwhile she decided not to carry the purse. I understood that she will now forget her driving licese at home. :-D )

At 3:15 PM, we ignited scooty and took sinhagad road and in half an hour reached magarpatta signal. At tollnaka there is no toll for scooters. The road was vacant with a few sugercane trucks.

After Loni, in 2 minutes, we arrived at Theur phata ( The directions are there on boards. ). We turned left there and immediately there is a uddanpul over a stud farm. After some 4 Km road passing through banana and cane fields, we arrived at Theur Ganapati Mandir at 4:15 PM. ( It took just 1 hours from our home to Theur Mandir ). We parked scooty there and went inside. No crowd was there. Mandiracha jirnoddhar chalu hota.

At Theur in the Haveli Taluka of Pune district in Maharashtra is the Ashtavinayak temple dedicated to Chintamani Vinayak. The village is along the river Mulamutha. Lord Ganesha as Chintamani is god who brings peace of mind and drives away all perplexities of the mind.
It is believed that Brahma the creator once felt tharva that is restive. To still his mind he called upon Lord Ganesh. The place where Brahma achieved the quietude he was looking for is known as the Sthavar region or as Theur.

The temple is build during the rule of Peshwas. The total cost of expenditure incurred to make the temple was Rs. 40,000 which in today's world amounts to Rs 400 million. The temple is made so strong that it still has the same structure even after 400 years of existence, the gathering hall is still original made with wood.

As Peshwas visited these place very frequently, the two 5 metal bell bought from Europe from the church was one kept in Mahad and other one was kept here . As after the death of Madhav Rao Peshwa, his wife went for sati, the beautiful garden was made in her memory is very attractive to see.

The main archway of the temple faces north.Temple hall is made up of wood and there is a small fountain made up of black stone in the hall.The courtyard of the temple is quite big paved with floor. There is a small temple of Lord Shankar in the courtyard of the temple.A big bell can also be seen in the temple. The Idol faces east and is swayambhu (self emanated) and has a left side trunk.There are carbuncle and diamonds in the eyes of Vinayaka.
We entered and put our shoes in the chappal stand. We then entered in the gabhara of the mandir. Khup chan hota vatavaran. Ghantecha manjul aavaj, udbatti + tirthacha vaas, ani Chintamani chi sundar murti.... manatlya saglya chinta visrayala lavnari ( Ghari paratlyavaar parat chita satavtat... :-) ) We took prasad ( forgot to take it to home ). Then we did pradakshina and sat inside the madir and then Juilee asked me to say Atharvashisha. Mi manatlya manat atharvashirsha mhantla. Then we came out and sat near the wall of the temple and took some photos ( even the board over there says "No photography allowed."! ) Juilee's mood was slightly recovering. ( She changes her mood frequently! I can not do that. I wish I could... If I am sad I remain sad for long..... ).

Mandirachya shejari Ganesh Pradarshan ahe. ( tyacha pan jirnoddharacha kaam chalu ahe. ). We went there. It has a huge collection of Ganesh idols from different ages and photos of Ganesh carvings in different caves ( some are from 1000 B.C. ). Also it has 8 models of 8 mandirs of ashtavinayak. The models are very good with high details. They look like real ones. The Ganesh idols include shrimant ganesh, Jaswandi chya panavarcha ganesh, Supari Ganesh, etc. etc. Mala shrimant ganesh ani bal ganesh aavadla. Loni khanara krushnarupi ganesh pan chan ahe. Kahi kachechya murti ahet. Pradarshan pahava asa ahe. Punyatlya mangalvar peth davakhanya javalchya trishunda ganpati chi pan katha ani photo ahe tithe.

We then came out, took the scooty and went straight from the bajar to the Ramabai Peshwe samadhi ( Tya Madhavrav Peshwe yanchyabarobar sati gelya hotya ). Its just 1 minute away from the Ganpati Mandir. ( Juilee first said no, but later agreed to go there. ) Samadhi chi khup duravastha zali ahe. Konitari tithe kapde pan valat takle hote. We took some photos there. Mala adhi vatat hota ki tithe Mastani chi kabar ahe... mhanun mi babanna phone kela... taar baba oradle ke tithe kashala gelas mhanun. After taking some photos, we spotted a black dog, which was watching us. So Juilee took its photo. I told her not to flash as he may get atracted towards it. And the same thing happened. The dog jumped from the kumpan and ran towards us. When we showed our helmets, he got frightened and ran away.

Then I saw a place where a cement rectangle is built and nicely covered with a shed. We went there out of curiocity and we found that it is actually a smashan - chita jalnyachi jaga..... We immediately turned and started walking towards the scooty. Juilee got nervous by seeing that scary thing. She did not allow me take the water bottle out there to drink the water.

Then we returned back to the road which leads to the mandir and then we took the road back to Pune. We sat for a while in a banana field to eat ladu and bakarwadi. The field was having small banana plants in rows with thibaksinchan mechanism implemented. ( Baba called me to tell that the Mastani Samadhi is at Shanivarwada. ) Other couples going from bikes from the road were observing us and the girls were laughing at us ( they might be thinking of us as a romantic couple or might be mad couple, too ). On the road we took some photos. Sunset photos were not that good, as I took them when Juilee started driving the scooty. She started driving from the theur phata. ( I forgot that she did not have license with her ). She drove till Tollnaka but I asked her to drive upto home. She denied and stopped at the Grape farms at the tollnaka. Then she told that she had forgotten the license at home... :-( Labad. But she drove very well on the highway. She took just 10 minutes to reach to tollnaka from Theur phata. We reached 55KMPH speed max.

We reached home at 7:15 PM.

Scooty:
starting Km reading from home = 850
ending Km reading to home = 917
Total = 67 Km.

Expenses:
Ganesh Pradarshan ( Rs.5 X 2 ) = Rs. 10.