01Where Vishnu found his siddhi
At the start of creation, the Mudgala Purana says, two asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha, rose from the wax of Bhagwan Vishnu’s ear as he lay in yoganidra, and troubled Brahma at his work. Vishnu fought them and could not win. Mahadev told him why: he had not first called on Ganesha. So Vishnu sat on this hillock by the Bhima and worshipped Ganesha with his mantra, received siddhi, returned to the fight and slew both. The hill was named Siddhatek, the hill of attainment. A Ganesha whose trunk turns right is held to be quick to grant and strict in his worship, which is why this shrine is called jagrut, awake.
02Ahilyabai’s temple on the Bhima
The temple faces north, built of black stone on a low hill thick with babul. Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore raised the present shrine. Haripant Phadke, a Peshwa general, added the nagarkhana and the paved approach; the temple account says he prayed here for twenty-one days, walking round the hill twenty-one times each day, and got back his command. Moraya Gosavi of Chinchwad is remembered as having attained siddhi here too. Devotees still walk seven times round the whole hillock on a rough path through thorn scrub. The outer hall, raised earlier by a landlord from Baroda named Mairal, was taken down in 1939 and rebuilt in 1970.
The life of this place
- 1939The old outer sabha-mandapa is taken down.
- 1970The outer sabha-mandapa is rebuilt.
Daund is the nearest railway station, about 19 km away. From Shirapur on the south bank you cross the Bhima by the new bridge; the Chinchwad Devasthan Trust runs the temple.
