In the busy lanes of Pune’s Shaniwar Peth, lies a quaint Ganesh temple that is home to an idol with an unusual name – ‘Gupchup Ganpati’. Illuminated by beautiful lights and chandeliers, with several paintings and old photographs on its walls, entering the 132-year-old Varad Ganesh temple is like stepping back in time. Built by Vishnupantji Gupchup in 1892, the temple was later dedicated to Raoji Shastri Dixit.
Dixit was said to be highly knowledgeable in Vedic Shastras, and Gupchup, whose name eventually got linked to the deity, was his disciple. Gupchup reportedly passed on the bakshis patra (gift deed) of the temple to Dixit, handing over its responsibility to Dixit’s family. While Gupchup’s lineage is said to have died with him and a child he fostered, the temple, for generations, has been managed by descendants of the Dixit family.
Advertisement Retaining its old-world charm A distinctive feature of the Varad Ganesh temple is the shami tree (Prosopis cineraria) behind the sanctum sanctorum, which, the Dixit family says, is a rarity. The idol is made of shendur or red lead and the same is used to polish it every year in the Hindu month of Aashadh. Over the years, the temple structure has, more or less, remained the same “It was my uncle who created the paintings, out of interest,” says Madhuri, 68, a descendant of the Dixit family, about the artwork on the temple’s expansive walls.
The temple also houses photographs of family members responsible for prote.
