Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Chants of 'Ganpati Bappa Morya' and sweet offerings of 'laddoos' and 'modaks' marked the commencement of the Ganesh festival in Maharashtra on Monday, 2 September.
The 10-day festival is being held this year amid the looming economic slowdown and the devastation caused by floods after heavy rains in some parts of the state.
As the festival began on Monday, idols of different shapes and sizes of Lord Ganesha, considered as a symbol of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune, were installed at the sarvanjik (community) pandals and at homes by devotees.
On the first day of the festival, which was started by Lokmanya Tilak over 100 years ago, long queues were seen at Lalbaugcha Raja, Mumbai's most famous Ganpati pandal in Central Mumbai, with devotees eagerly waiting to catch a glimpse of Lord Ganesha.
Celebrations were also witnessed in other parts of the state, including Pune, Nashik and Nagpur districts.
Around 7,703 public idols and 1.63 lakh domestic idols have been installed this year in Mumbai, an official earlier said.
The Indian Railways, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation and private bus operators are running extra services in view of a substantial surge in the number of travellers to Konkan region for the festival.
In a possible first, thirty inmates of an open segment of Pune's Yerawada Central Jail on Monday played traditional percussion instruments as a band during a Ganesh procession in Maharashtra's second-largest city.
Backed by rigorous training in playing dhol (drum) and tasha (a type of kettle drum), the inmates arrived at Guruji Talim Ganesh Mandal, among the most prestigious in the city, on Laxmi Road here, a large banner proudly proclaiming their identity as 'Yerawada Open Jail Dhol Pathak'.
The festival will conclude with the visarjan, or immersion of the idols into a water body on 12 September.
(With inputs from PTI)
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