01Ballal and the stone
Kalyan, a trader of Pali, had a son named Ballal who played at puja with the village children. One day they found a large stone outside the village and worshipped it as Ganesha, so absorbed that they forgot to come home. The angry parents went to Kalyan. He found the children listening to the Ganesha Purana, smashed their little shrine, beat Ballal till his clothes were soaked with blood, tied him to a tree and threw the stone down. Ballal, half-conscious, kept repeating Ganesha’s name. Shri Ganesh appeared to him as a brahmin, healed him, and at the boy’s request stayed at Pali in his name. The stone the father threw is worshipped as Dhundi Vinayak, and pilgrims bow to it first.
02The stone temple and the Vasai bell
The temple sits between the Sarasgad fort and the Amba river. The old wooden shrine was rebuilt in stone in 1760, laid out so that, seen from above, it takes the shape of the letter श्री; lead was mixed into the mortar. It faces east, and at sunrise the light reaches the murti in the sanctum. Ballaleshwar sits on a stone throne with his trunk turned left, eyes and navel set with diamonds, Riddhi and Siddhi waving chamaras on the silver behind him. In the courtyard hangs a great bell that Chimaji Appa brought back after taking Vasai from the Portuguese in 1739. The main hall has eight pillars carved like cypress trees.
The life of this place
- 1739Chimaji Appa takes Vasai from the Portuguese; a bell from there is later hung at Pali.
- 1760The wooden temple is rebuilt in stone in the shape of the letter Shri.
Pali is about 28 km from Roha and about 110 km from Mumbai by Khopoli. Bhadrapada and Magha Chaturthi bring the great crowds; take darshan of Dhundi Vinayak first.
