At the end of the Ganesha festival the Ganesha idols are immersed in ponds, lakes, wells, rivers or the sea. Mumbai being a coastal area, the sea is preferred for immersion. Idols as huge as 20plus feet are brought for immersion along with thousands of tiny ones. In the picture above, the sand on the beach is flattened to enable facilitate the smooth trasnsfer of the idol from land to sea. This beach is in Dadar or closer to Shivaji Park in Mumbai.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Beach combing
At the end of the Ganesha festival the Ganesha idols are immersed in ponds, lakes, wells, rivers or the sea. Mumbai being a coastal area, the sea is preferred for immersion. Idols as huge as 20plus feet are brought for immersion along with thousands of tiny ones. In the picture above, the sand on the beach is flattened to enable facilitate the smooth trasnsfer of the idol from land to sea. This beach is in Dadar or closer to Shivaji Park in Mumbai.
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Hope they are eco-friendly Ganesha! Not much crowded, these beaches?!
ReplyDeletej'espère que tu prendras des photos du passage des Ganesha de la terre vers l'eau, cela doit être superbe
ReplyDeleteI hope that thou shalt take pictures of Ganesha passage of the earth into the water, it must be superb
HI, magiceye, I'm a little confused here as I dont know so much about immersion, do you mean baptism? and who do you mean by those idols? Sorry if it is a stupid question..
ReplyDeleteHi hzdp... not at all, your question is not stupid at all.
ReplyDeleteidols are statues of gods, in this case the statues of Lord Ganesha which are made specifically to celebrate his birthday every year and then immersed (submerged) in water and left there to disintegrate.
hope this clarifies.
have blogged about the ganesha festival on the 3sep., you may refer to that too.
we expect the idols
ReplyDeleteVery interesting - the mix of the relatively new technology (the bulldozer) with the ancient tradition of immersing the idols!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting end to the celebration. I had expected you to say that the statues were put in water briefly, and then retrieved. Do celebrants think of letting the idols dissolve as joyous, or as sad...? Is there a religious context to this part? It's very intriguing to me because I have no backgrond in it, and I appreciate your taking us through it!
ReplyDelete@deborah.. it is joyous tinged with sorrow and as romeo said to juliet 'Parting is but such sweet sorrow'. parting is sorrowful but it is sweetened with the thought of meeting again. the idols were originally made of clay hence like "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." so clay into clay. it is not only the tiny household idols but also the community idols which are upto a height of 20+feet. the community idol celebration was started by Lokmanya Tilak (freedom fighter) in maharashtra as a means of uniting neighbourhoods during the freedom struggle and ever since they have been part of a glorious community tradition wherein people of all religious denominations participate in the celebration.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture!
ReplyDeleteI notice the beach isn't too crowded. Do people come to watch the immersion?
@carletta... the funa nd games begin in the afternoon around 1500hrs. yes lot of people come to view the immersions and the idols themselves are brought in huge processions!
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating and a lot of my questions were answered by those already asked. Thanks for the thorough answers that you gave. Lovely.
ReplyDeletethis looks like a shallow beach - do people swim in it?? does it have tides?? in hania, our waters do not ebb in and out - perfedct for swimming
ReplyDeleteWow, that is really interesting! I've never heard about this before, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete@mediterranean kiwi... yes it is a shallow beach. no people dont swim here and we have tides ebbing deep out.
ReplyDeleteHI, magiceye, I'm a little confused here as I dont know so much about immersion, do you mean baptism? and who do you mean by those idols? Sorry if it is a stupid question..
ReplyDeletewe expect the idols
ReplyDelete