Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The temple is also known as Girijatmaj temple. It gets its name from the words Girija (Parvathi) and Atmaj (son), thus the son of Parvati. This is the only Ashtavinayak temple which is on a mountain. Girijatmaj Temple is approached after climbing 307 steps. Out of 18 Buddhist caves on mountain, Girijatmaj Ganpati’s Temple is in the 7th cave. These caves are also known as Ganesh Gufa. Here, Lord Ganesh is worshipped as Girijatmaja. Lenyadri is situated on the North-west bank of river Kukadi. Lenyadri carries an ancient myth which says that when the great Pandavas were living in agyatvas during their 13th year of exile, they sculptured these caves in just one night. The current name “Lenyadri” literally means “mountain cave”. It is derived from ‘Lena’ in Marathi meaning “cave” and ‘adri’ in Sanskrit meaning “mountain” or “stone”. The name “Lenyadri” appears in the Hindu scripture Ganesha Purana as well as in a Sthala Purana, in association to the Ganesha legend. It is also called Jeernapur and Lekhan parvat (“Lekhan Mountain”). Lenyadri is one of the eight revered Ganesha temples collectively called Ashtavinayaka. While some believe that order of visiting the temples in an Ashtavinayak pilgrimage is irrelevant, Lenyadri is usually visited as the 6th temple.

The Ganesha temple is located in Cave 7, the largest excavation around Junnar, about 100 feet (30 m) above the plains. It is essentially a Buddhist Vihara (a dwelling for monks, mostly with meditation cells) in design, an unpillared hall with 20 cells with varying dimensions, 7 on either side and 6 on the rear wall. The hall is large, can be entered by a central door, under a pillared veranda. The hall is 17.37 metres (57.0 ft) long, 15.54 metres (51.0 ft) wide and 3.38 metres (11.1 ft) high. There are 2 windows on either side of the entrance. The hall is treated now as a sabha-mandapa (“assembly hall”) of the Ganesha temple. 283 steps built (by devotees) in stone masonry over eight flights lead to the entrance. The steps are believed to represent sensual pleasures, which Ganesha has overcome. The veranda has six pillars and two pilasters (half-pillars) that support “an architrave from which projects eaves relieved with a railing resting on beams and rafters”. The pillars have octagonal shafts and “over benches and back rest and topped by an inverted ghata, compressed amalaka in between two square plates, inverted stepped pyramid and finally crowned by a bracket” with tigers, elephants and bulls. In a later period, the two central cells of the rear wall have been combined by breaking the partition in between to house the Ganesha image. The old entrance was also widened during the conversion to the Ganesha temple. There are two other smaller entrances to the hall. All entrances bear marks of sockets for fixing wooden doors, added during the conversion, and still have doors. The hall also has traces of plaster and paintings, both added during the conversion and renewed in later times, possibly as late as the 19th century. The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency (1882) records that the hall was plastered and white-washed. The paintings depicted Ganesha’s childhood, marriage preparations, battle with demons and so forth, along with scenes of other Hindu deities like Devi, Krishna, Vishnu and Shiva. Some of the cells fitted with wooden doors were used for storage. Nine Sati memorials were added on the left wall during the conversion, each is in the shape of a long pillar with an arched top, and to the right of each pillar a hand raised above the elbow, with an open palm, signifies Sati’s blessing. While three panels were plain, the other memorials were sculpted. All of them are worn out, but one of them hints that its subject may be the immolation of Sati on her husband’s funeral pyre. In front of the huge entry gates of Shri Girijatmaj Ganpati temple are enormous pillars with pictures of elephants, horses, lions and various other animals carved on them. Similarly there are pillars with different carvings in front of every other cave.

The Sabhamandap of the temple is 60 feet wide with exactly 18 rooms of 7x10 feet area. These rooms, it is said, were used by saints for tapascharya. The speciality of this Sabhamandap is that it is not supported by any pillar. It is in the form of a very large room. Outside the Gabhara (sanctum) of the temple rest carved pillars. The sanctorum (Garbhagraha) of the temple show-offs a wide range of astonishing art in the form of devotional paintings of Shri Guru Dattatray, Lord ganesh resting on Shiv-Parvati’s lap, Bal Ganesh playing ancient game like ludo made using natural colours.