ADILABAD: Many devotees from Adilabad, Nirmal, Nizamabad and Hyderabad districts make a trip to Palaj, a village in Nanded district of Maharashtra, every year during the nine-day Vinayaka Chaturthi festival, to offer puja to a 74-year-old wooden idol of Lord Ganesh.
The villagers install the same idol every year and preserve it safely after a ceremonial sprinkling of water from a nearby river on the last day of the festival unlike the tradition of immersing the deity made of clay or PoP in water.
According to a legend, 30 people of Palaj had died after the outbreak of an epidemic in 1948, prompting the villagers to instal the idol carved by an artist, Palakonda Gundaji from Nirmal. Their faith in the healing power of the idol is said to have strengthened after the disease subsided and they reaped good crops. Since then, the villagers have started installing the same idol year after year during the annual festival.
As Palaj is located close to the Telangana border, many people from these districts visit the village and worship the idol in the belief that their wishes would by fulfilled. Taking a leaf from the Maharashtra villagers, similar wooden idols have been installed at Bhosi village in Nirmal district and Gopal Krishna matt in Adilabad. Most of the devotees while returning from Palaj also make it a point to worship the Ganesh idols at the matt and Bhosi.