Vadodara: That freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak pioneered the public Ganesh festival in India is known across the country. But few know that it was Gujarat where the first public Ganesh festival was celebrated 15 years before Tilak organized the first Ganesh Utsav in Maharashtra.Tilak began the movement to popularize public Ganesha in 1893 with an aim to unite the Indians and instil the sense of patriotism among them. But 15 years before the movement, the Sarvajanik Ganesh festival had already begun in Patan that was a part of the erstwhile state of Baroda. A group of Marathi community families formed Shri Gajanan Mandali 1878 and installed Sarvajanik Ganpati for the first time. And, this year the oldest public Ganesha will go online to bless his devotees.“We have decided to show Ganesh aarti live on our Facebook page on the occasion of Anant Chaturdashi. Ours is the oldest public Ganesha started even before Tilak’s movement and it is popular not just in Patan but many parts of the country. We want the devotees to see the lord live and seek his blessings,” said Sunil Pagedar, managing trustee of Shri Gajanan Mandali.“When the public Ganesh festival was started in Patan the 19th century, we had hundreds of Marathi community families here. Now the number of families have reduced but we still organize the festival with same enthusiasm. Our Gujarati community brothers too have always taken part in this festival,” Pagedar told TOI.The public Ganesh festival was started in Mahadeo Govind Joshi who was an administrator in the Gaekwadi state. “The idea was to instil a sense of unity and integrity among people. Many programmes were organized during the festival that was also attended by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III,” Pagedar added. He, in fact, believes that Tilak may have got inspiration to organize public Ganesh festivals from Patan.Another historian, Dr Damodar Nene too claimed that Tilak got inspiration and idea to organize public Ganesha from Patan’s Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav that drew huge crowd. “The concept of eco-friendly Ganesha may have become popular in recent years but here we have always installed Ganesha idol made of clay with the same size and design since its inception,” Pagedar said.

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