Chandrapur's 300-year-old ganpati awaits visits by devotees

Even five days after Ganesh chaturthi, there is a ganpati in Chandrapur that hasn't had a single visit by any devotee.

What is his story?

It is believed that in the 17th century, Rayyappa Vaishya, the chief of Chandrapur, decided to build a grand Shiva temple.

For this, stones were brought in from Mana tekdi, which is not very far away. Sculptors are said to have toiled night and day and created 16 sculptures. This included figures of Mahaganpati, Devi Durga, Hanuman, Nandi and a Shivalinga.

But even as work for the temple was in progress, Rayyappa met his end. With this, work on the temple, too, stopped. The sculptures, however, have withstood rain and heat and survive to this day, said historian Ashoksingh Thakur.

The most eye-catching sculpture of these is said to be the 10-foot Mahaganpati made out of a single stone. It has a headpiece in the likeness of snakes.

Since a temple was never constructed, a pooja for this idol has never been performed. And since this idol has not been brought to life in keeping with dharmashastric injuctions (prathisthapan), people have not been able to offer prayers to this idol for 300 years.