The Mahaganapati Temple, Ranjangaon

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                 The Mahaganapati Temple, Ranjangaon

Shiva is believed to have worshipped Ganesha before fighting the demon Tripurasura here. The temple was built by Shiva where he worshipped Ganesha, and the town he set up was called Manipur which is now known as Ranjangaon.

The idol faces the east, is seated in a cross-legged position with a broad forehead, with its trunk pointing to the left. It is said that the original idol is hidden in the basement, having 10 trunks and 20 hands and is called Mahotkat, however, the temple authorities deny existence of any such idol.

Constructed so that the rays of the sun fall directly on the idol (during the Southward movement of the sun), the temple bears a distinct resemblance to the architecture reminiscent of the 9th and 10th Centuries and faces the east. Shrimant Madhavrao Peshwa used to visit this temple very often and built the stone sanctum around the idol and in 1790 A.D. Mr. Anyaba Dev was authorised to worship the idol.

Temple faces east and has a beautiful and a big entrance. Idols of two door keepers, Jay and Vijay are present near the gateway. The Nagarkhana is situated above the entrance gate. The Temple is constructed in such a way that the sun rays fall directly on Shree Ganesha's idol. The stone pillars of the old temple will be seen in the compound which indicates that the architecture of the original temple shows similarity to 9th or 10th century architecture.
 

Meditating on that idol is called Mahaganapati Dhyan. The original idol is not taken out usually. That Ganesha is called Mahotkata.

Ranjangoan is situated on Pune-Ahmednagar Highway.

From Mumbai one can go to Pune, from Pune one can reach Ranjangoan in the following ways:
State transport buses are available from Pune's Shivajinagar bus stand. On Pune-Ahmednagar Highway,Ranjangoan is at a distance of 50kms from Pune.