Siddhivinayak Temple, Siddhatek

Not to be confused with the far more famous Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir in Mumbai’s Prabhadevi neighborhood (also in this directory) — a separate, much later urban temple that is not part of the historic Ashtavinayak circuit at all. This Siddhatek shrine, on the Bhima river, is traditionally held to be where Vishnu performed penance and invoked Ganesha to gain the siddhis (spiritual powers) needed to defeat the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, per the Mudgala Purana — giving the site its name. An earlier temple is said to have been built by Vishnu himself and lost to time; the structure seen today was built in the late 18th century by the Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar, with a later Nagarkhana (drum chamber) and paved approach added by Sardar Haripant Phadke, an official under the Peshwas.

The inner sanctum built by Ahilyabai Holkar stands 15 feet high and 10 feet wide; the north-facing temple sits atop a small hillock, and the murti — at 3 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide — is unique among the eight Ashtavinayak idols for having its trunk turned to the right rather than the left, a form popularly held to be stricter with devotees. Circumambulating the temple means walking the full perimeter of the hillock, a round trip of roughly 30 minutes. Local tradition credits Haripant Phadke’s paved approach path to stone taken from the Badami fort, which he attacked soon after regaining his generalship — said to have followed 21 days of pradakshina around this temple.