Balapur Ganesh Draws Devotees with Puri Jagannath Temple-Themed Pandal

After the towering Ganesh idol in Khairatabad, Balapur Ganesh is the most famous in Hyderabad. This year, pandal modeled as Puri Jagannath temple was put up to attract devotees. Earlier, the organizers put up the models of temples like Tirupati, Arunachalam, Ayodhya Ram Mandir and others in Balapur.

Hyderabad is synonymously called as Bhagayanagar. The Bhagayanagar Utsava Samithi, which belongs to Bhagayanagar has declared that the Ganesh idols which were worshiped in the villages of Ranga Reddy could be immersed in tank bund.

Balapur Ganesh was first to accept this invitation from Ranga Reddy district in 1980 and was the first to acquire permissions regarding the same. From 1980, Balapur Ganesh is being immersed in Tank Bund of Hyderabad, and is aptly given the name “praramba grama vinayakudu” – ‘The idol which commences the main Ganesh immersion procession in Hyderabad’

From 1980 to 1982, the Balapur Ganesh immersion festival ended peacefully but in the year 1983, it has undergone some communal disputes creating fear in the minds of the people of Hyderabad regarding religious festivals.

Not wanting to break the tradition of the festival, the Ganesh Mandap was setup by the Ganesh Utsav Samithi in 1984, following the curfew in 1983. But this time around, the Hyderabad police provided the village with huge security force with numbers reaching to 400.

And every year, this seems to be increasing proportionately as the number of people visiting the village is increasing. With the help of the police and the blessings of Lord Ganesha, every immersion from 1984 – 2008 has been successful and peaceful.

These features led to the awarding of another name to Balapur Ganesha “Adhi Vinayaka”.

The auctioning of the Laddu began in 1994 with the first winner Kollan Mohan Reddy winning the auction at Rs.450. This tradition continued year after year, and once the auction began reaching thousands, the initial bid amount was set to Rs.1,116 by the Balapur Ganesh Utsava Samithi.

This first auctioning in Balapur led to the ‘Laddu Bidding’ becoming a mandatory procedure in every Ganesh Mandap nationwide.

After the first bidding of Rs.450 was completed by Mohan Reddy in 1994, he also bid and won the auction in 1995 for Rs. 4500. When people asked him why he bought the laddu again, he answered that after buying the Balapur Laddu, his family prospered in health and wealth for the whole year and also his crop improved after he sprinkled the laddu in his farms.

From that year, the competition for the bidding increased based on the good belief that the Laddu holds health, wealth and prosperity for the bidder. And the competition for the bidding is increasing every year.

Religion is not a boundary when it comes to the bidding of the Balapur Laddu. Even Muslims participated in the bidding in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Call it love for the village or the belief in the prosperity the Laddu brings, this is a great thing.

Two persons Ahmed Saadi and Omer Bin Saleh alias Khaisar Bam -who made a strong bid for the laddu and offered to buy it for Rs. 96,000. However, one Madhava Reddy bid Rs.1.05 lakh and clinched the deal.

The two muslim friends said that their main intension of taking part in the auction was to promote the communal harmony and and they also hoped that more muslims would take part in the festivals and strengthen the communal bond.

Real estate boom in the city had helped pickup the price of the Laddu in the last couple of years. But since that boom isn’t ever present, the bidding price in other places varies with the current situation.

But Balapur is not affected by these phenomenons. Whatever the situation in real estate or any other field, the competition to bid for the Balapur Ganesha’s laddu is always on an increasing scale, so is the amount. This is absoulutely true and is proved from the facts shown in the bidding graph given below.