your bridge home
Tales of the Gods
In 1893 a newspaper editor in Pune worked out that the British could ban a political meeting but could not ban a prayer.
In 1893 a newspaper editor in Pune worked out that the British could ban a political meeting but could not ban a prayer.
What he did with that has become one of the largest annually recurring public gatherings on earth.
The story does not start with him.
And the order matters here. He is usually credited with inventing something he actually brought back.
Ganapati was the Peshwas' own kuladevata - the family deity. The Peshwas governed the Maratha Confederacy as its chief ministers from 1713 to 1818, and under them Ganesh Chaturthi had real state patronage.
Not private household worship. A public occasion the ruling family sponsored and attended.
We know this from outside the tradition too. A Scottish artist's diary from 1792 records exactly that kind of state-supported celebration in Peshwa-era Pune.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.