Moreshwar (Mayureshwar) Temple

The starting and, traditionally, obligatory ending point of the Ashtavinayak Yatra — pilgrims are held to complete the circuit only by returning here after visiting all eight shrines. Per the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha here incarnated as Mayureshwar (‘Lord of the Peacock’), six-armed and white-complexioned, to defeat the demon Sindhu, afterward giving his peacock mount to his elder brother Skanda. The temple’s exact founding date is unknown; according to scholar Anne Feldhaus it likely does not predate the 17th century, when the Ganapatya saint Morya Gosavi (himself of disputed date, variously placed between the 13th and 17th centuries) popularized the site, after which it received significant patronage from the Peshwa rulers of the 18th century, who held Ganesha as their family deity.

Built of black stone, the temple is said to have been constructed by a knight named Gole from the court of the Bahamani Sultan of Bidar. Four minarets at its corners give it, from a distance, the silhouette of a mosque — reportedly a deliberate design choice intended to deter attacks during the Mughal period — and it is enclosed by a wall some 50 feet high. An unusual Nandi (Shiva’s bull mount) sits facing the entrance, which local tradition explains as an installation whose transport vehicle broke down before it could be moved elsewhere. The visible murti, trunk turned left with a serpent (Nagaraja) poised above it, is flanked by images of Riddhi and Siddhi; a further tradition holds that the original idol — consecrated twice by Brahma and later sealed in copper by the Pandavas — remains hidden behind the one currently worshipped. Morgaon village is popularly said to be laid out in the shape of a peacock, echoing the Mayureshwar name.