Mayureshwar Morgaon Temple
Mayureshwar Ganesha temple, Morgaon (Moreshwar Temple) is the 1st of Ashtavinayak Temples around Pune. According to Shastra of the Hindu religion, first a devotee has to visit Moreshwar of Moregaon.
Then only visit other Vinayaka temples such as Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Thevur, Lenyandri, Ozar, Ranjangaon, and then again return back to Moregaon. With this return to started journey temple will end a devotee’s Ashtavinayak Yatra. The temple is 55 km from Pune, next to the river Karha in the village, Moregaon.
Mayureshwar of Morgaon Ganesha temple is the most important temple on this Ashtavinayaka yatra. During the Bahamani reign, this particular temple was built from black-stone. It has four main gates.
According to the historians, these gates were built by Mr. Gole who was one of the knights from the court of Bidar’s Sultan. In the centre of the village, this temple is located. If seen from a distance, the temple gives feeling of a mosque because it is covered from all the four sides by Minarets. During the Mughal periods, these minarets were done in order to prevent attacks on the temple. The walls are 50 feet tall.
In Shri Mayureshwar of Morgaon, at the temple entrance, there is a Nandi sitting in front of the gate. Normally Nandi is found in front of Shiva temples only. This situation makes it quite unique. There is an old story regarding this Nandi, once some people were carrying Nandi to a Shivamandir but the vehicle carrying it suddenly broke down and they weren’t able to remove it from that place.
The idol of Ganesha is in the form of riding a peacock which is in the form of Mayureshwara. It is actually believed to have killed the demon named Sindhu at this particular spot. This murti has its trunk slightly turned to the left. This idol also has a Cobra for protecting it. This idol has two other idols of Riddhi (Intelligence) and Siddhi (Capability).