Shreemant Dagdushet Halwai Ganapati - The king at the centre

I recently moved to the cultural capital of Maharashtra Pune, keeping my energy on high altitude to explore. A Punekar or a non Punekar must and should visit this stupendous holy place ‘Shreemant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapathi’ and I was insisted to do the same as soon as I dropped in.

Any goal you have set, is good if it starts with his blessings and so did mine. I got to visit Dagdusheth temple and attended the evening Aarti offering too.

Just passing by the temple to park the vehicle a glimpse at it left me with high dose of nostalgia. By all my good luck on the day, I got to see him from the closest possible with absolutely no crowd. Let me tell you something my dear readers, this place has got something that turns you on with positive vibes and your emotions and so it did to me too. So digging on to the history of it I found something that I thought of penning down.

History of Dagdusheth – why the name?

Dagdusheth Halwai, originally Dagdusheth Gadve, was a Sweet maker from Karnataka. After gaining enormous success in his business, he was referred by the locals as Dagdusheth Halwai (sweet maker). This shop is now called ‘kaka Halwai’ close to a Datta mandir. A must visit place and it is on my bucket list.

The temple was established in 1893 by a grief-stricken Dagdusheth Halwai. After losing his son to the plague, Dagdusheth and his wife were advised by their Guru- Shri Madhavnath Maharaj, to build a Ganpati Temple. The temple became a healing source for not just the merchant and his wife, but to the millions of People who still visit it regularly.

Lokmanya Tilak was a close friend of Dagdusheth Halwai. While witnessing the construction of the temple, it dawned on him that Maharashtra needed a festival to come together and celebrate. Thus, the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati became a source of historical importance and this is where the festival originated!

Evocative Idol!

To call it beautiful would be an understatement. It is merely 7.5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, but unlike Mumbai’s Ganpati idols, Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati is famous for his elegant and detailed facial features, rather than the idol’s size. The idol is adorned with more than 8 kilos of gold. Again, seeing him here leaves you tears of joy and is rightly said, some experiences cannot be put in words.

The best known thing about him in this place is that he the ever-granting deity of all the time.

One more interesting fact is, thousands of devotees offer prayers in many forms of materialistic ways and hence to handle all these things smoothly there is trust formed named Dagdusheth Ganapati Trust Foundation and is one of the richest trust in India. They operate an old age home called ‘Pitashree‘ by the pouring donations received by the devotees.

One last suggestion to you all who reads this

Every evening 8 - 9 there will Aarti that happens. Do not miss it if you get a chance to stay till 9 pm.

I enjoyed it, hope you will all too. we