Temples in Pune

Pune's gram daivat, the presiding deity of the town. Jijabai, Shivaji's mother, consecrated the idol in 1639, soon after the family settled at the Lal Mahal nearby. As Manacha Pahila Ganpati, first in honour, this Ganesha leads the city's immersion procession every year. A small stone-and-timber shrine, steps from Shaniwar Wada; no ticket, shoes off at the door.

Dagdusheth, a sweet-maker (halwai), and his wife Lakshmibai built this temple after losing their only son to plague in the late 1800s. Today it is the city's best-known Ganesha, with a murti (sacred image) dressed in gold and jewels from offerings. The temple's own site gives hours of 5:00 to 22:30 (to 23:00 on Tuesdays) and streams live darshan, the viewing of the deity. Weekday mornings are the calmest time.

An 8th-century cave temple cut straight into the rock in the middle of the modern city: columns, an inner hall and a Shiva sanctuary. Traffic runs past outside; inside it is cool and quiet. Free, and rarely busy.

About a hundred stone steps lead to the Shree Devdeveshwar Temple of Shiva and Parvati on the city's highest point. Punekars climb it as a morning walk; at sunset the whole city spreads out below.

A flight of steps off Senapati Bapat Road climbs to the goddess of the four-peaked hill, held to be more than three centuries old, with smaller shrines to Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kali on the way up. Navratri brings Pune's biggest goddess fair here.

Six acres and twin sanctums, for Radha-Krishna and for Venkateswara Balaji, with architecture borrowing from Jagannath Puri and Tirupati. By the temple's schedule mangala aarti, the first offering of light, is at 4:30; darshan closes from about 13:10 to 16:30, so come in the morning or late afternoon. Govinda's serves sattvic vegetarian food.

A temple town on the Indrayani river around the samadhi of Sant Dnyaneshwar, the poet-saint who wrote the Dnyaneshwari, a Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, and by tradition entered samadhi here in 1296. It is the heart of the Warkari tradition; major Ekadashi days draw sixty to seventy thousand pilgrims. See Alandi.

Khandoba, the warrior form of Shiva revered across Maharashtra, keeps a fort-like temple on a hill. Pilgrims climb the steps throwing bhandara, turmeric powder, until hill and town turn gold: hence Sonyachi Jejuri, golden Jejuri. Clothes, skin and cameras turn yellow too, so cover your equipment. Somvati Amavasya (a new moon on a Monday) and Champa Shashthi bring crowds in the lakhs.

A black basalt Shiva temple of the 13th century, Yadava era, alone on a hillock off the Pune–Solapur highway. The pillared hall carries dense carving: Mahabharata and Ramayana panels, musicians and a rare Ganesha in female form. Mornings outside Shravan and Mahashivratri are near-empty.