Temples of Maharashtra

Bhima, son of Kumbhakarna and Karkati, grows up on the Sahya mountain and learns that Rama killed his father. He wins unequalled strength from Brahma, defeats the gods and Vishnu, and imprisons Sudakshina, the…

• 6 · Dvadasa Jyotirlinga

The sage Kapila owns the chintamani, a wish-granting jewel, and uses it to feed a visiting prince, Gana, and his retinue. Gana demands the jewel and takes it by force. Kapila worships Ganesha, who defeats Gana and…

• 5 · Ashtavinayaka

Parvati, also called Girija, meditates at Lenyadri for twelve years, seeking Ganesha as her son. Ganesha grants the boon. Parvati shapes a clay image of him and, through her worship, it comes to life. The site is…

• 6 · Ashtavinayaka

Tripurasura, protected by three cities no ordinary attack can destroy, drives the gods from their places. Shiva marches against him and fails, because he went to war without first invoking Ganesha. Shiva then…

• 8 · Ashtavinayaka

In the Treta Yuga the demon Sindhu holds a bowl of amrita given to him by the Sun and swallows it so that no one can take it from him. Ganesha, born to Parvati after her penance at Lenyadri, takes as his mount a…

• 1 · Ashtavinayaka

King Abhinandana performs a sacrifice and leaves Indra without a share. Indra sends Kala, Time, to destroy it; Kala becomes the demon Vighnasura, who wrecks the sacrifice and goes on disrupting rites everywhere. The…

• 7 · Ashtavinayaka

The brahmin Sudharma and his wife Sudeha, living near Mount Deva in the south, have no son, so Sudeha has him marry her younger sister Ghushma. Ghushma makes and worships 101 earthen images of Shiva every day,…

• 12 · Dvadasa Jyotirlinga

The temple is named for Kailasa, Shiva's mountain, and its most celebrated relief shows Ravana, king of Lanka, trying to lift it. Carved almost in the round beneath the main hall, the panel sets Ravana's whirling…

Ballal, the son of the Pali merchant Kalyan, leads the village children in worshipping a large stone as Ganesha. His father, angry that the boys stay out late, breaks their shrines, beats Ballal, ties him to a tree…

• 3 · Ashtavinayaka

Gritsamada is born when Indra, disguised as Prince Rukmangada, comes to Mukunda, the wife of the sage Vachaknavi, after the real prince had refused her. Learning of his birth, Gritsamada curses his mother, and she…

• 4 · Ashtavinayaka

At the start of creation Brahma sits on the lotus that grows from Vishnu's navel. Two demons, Madhu and Kaitabha, spring from Vishnu's ear and wreck Brahma's work. Vishnu wakes and fights them but cannot win, and…

• 2 · Ashtavinayaka

Ravana performs severe penance below the Himalaya and offers his heads one by one until Shiva appears and restores them. He asks to take Shiva's linga to Lanka; Shiva agrees on condition that wherever it touches the…

• 5 · Dvadasa Jyotirlinga

In the Devi Bhagavata Purana, Sati gives up the body born of Daksha after her father insults Shiva. Shiva carries her body across the land until Vishnu cuts it apart with his arrows, and each place where a part falls…

• 7 · Ashtadasa Shakti Peetha

The temple was consecrated in November 1801 as a small structure around a black stone image of Ganesha, about two and a half feet across, with a trunk bending to the right and Riddhi and Siddhi at its sides. When the…

In the Mahabharata, the sage Jamadagni orders his sons to kill their mother Renuka after she is stirred by the sight of King Chitraratha. Four sons refuse and are cursed; the youngest, Rama — Parashurama — beheads…

• 8 · Ashtadasa Shakti Peetha

In a hundred-year drought the sage Gautama obtains everlasting water from Varuna on Brahmagiri, and other sages settle around him. Their wives quarrel with Ahalya over water, and the sages have Ganesha, disguised as…

• 10 · Dvadasa Jyotirlinga