Chintamani Ganpati Temple
Sri Chintamani Temple, Theur (Chintamani Ganpati) is the 5th of Ashtavinayak Temples.
According to the local people of Theur, for sage Kapila, Lord Ganesha at this spot is largely believed to have got back the popular and precious Chinatamani jewel from the greedy Guna. Later jewel was put it in Vinayaka’s (Ganesha’s) neck by sage Kapila . In this incident, the idol was named as Chintamani Vinayak.
It is to be noted that this particular incident happened under the Kadamb tree so the village Theur in the olden times was popularly known as Kadambanagar.
Kadambteertha is the name of the lake which is just behind the temple. North facing is the temple entrance. The Peshwas built the outer wooden halls. Dharanidhar Maharaj Dev from the family-lineage of Shri Moraya Gosav has built the main temple. The idol has diamond and carbuncle as its eyes; the trunk is towards the left side and faces to the east side.
Shrimant Madhavrao I Peshwa’s family deity was Theur’s Chintamani. He died at a very young age of 27 years because of tuberculosis. On 18 November 1772, at this temple, he died and his wife, Ramabai committed Sati with him.
It is to be noted that each and every temple in the Ashtavinayaka has its own individual legend and local history. They are very distinct from each other too. The murtis in each temple is very powerful.
At the confluence of three major regional rivers named as Mula, Mutha & Bhima, the village of Theur is situated. It is off the Pune-Solapur highway, 22km away from Pune.