Indore (Madhya Pradesh): There are many historic narratives which say that Mughals have done many loots in several temples of the country and have demolished many of the temples too during their rule in India.
The city has one of the oldest temples, claimed to be 1200-years-old, where the sixth emperor of Mughal empire who is said to come here to loot the temple ended up bowing down before Lord Ganesha’s Idol at the temple which is known as ‘Juna Chintaman Ganesh Temple’.
The temple is claimed to be older than Indore and its idol has existed there for more than 1200 years. The temple’s priest Pandit Manoharlal Pathak said, ‘Mughal emperor ‘Badshah’ Aurangzeb came at the temple to loot money and other valuables there but according to historic stories he failed in looting the temple and vandalising it.
Lord Ganesha showed such a miracle that he was not able to enter the temple and things were going wrong with him due to his ill deeds.’ He claimed that when he failed in his attempt, he bowed down the temple and moved ahead from it keeping it as it is. Still now, attempt to damage the temple by Aurangzeb is visible.
However, the damage was recovered but the mark is still there, Pathak said. Sunlight falls on idol directly during Uttarayan and Dakshinayan, he added.
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The Idol at Juna Chintaman Ganesh Temple (INSET) |
Shivaji also stayed at the temple
When Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was treacherously captured by the Mughal emperor, at that time his guru Swami Ramdas came to this temple and stayed here for the whole period. He also established Hanuman ji’s temple here, which is still present. This temple is associated with Swami Ramdas's worshipped Hanuman ji.
Later, when Chhatrapati Maharaj escaped from the clutches of the Mughals by hiding in a fruit basket, he found out where Gurudev was. When he came to know that his Gurudev was living in Indore's Chintamani Temple, he himself came to this temple to meet him and stayed here for a few days.
Telephonic services at the temple
Pandit Pathak said that earlier there used to be a service for devotees of the temple to make a call from anywhere in the world and can make a wish to Lord Ganesha. The service was discontinued due to some reasons and due to high demands of calls.
Pathak claimed that many ‘manokamna’ (wishes) of devotees were fulfilled over a call only and then devotees came to the temple for completing their wishes. He said there are devotees from Germany, USA, Canada and many other countries. There was also a letter that came to Lord Ganesha from UAE which was written in Urdu, Pandit Pathak claimed.
