Telangana’s Kubheer: Celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi since 1905

According to locals, Kubheer was the first village to have installed a pandal and to worship Lord Ganesha in the Telangana region way back in 1905.

Nirmal: The sleepy Kubheer mandal centre in Nirmal district has a rare distinction, that of installing a Ganesh pandal for 119 years now. According to locals, Kubheer was the first village to have installed a pandal and to worship Lord Ganesha in the Telangana region way back in 1905.

“My brother Nagnath told me that Yashwanth Rao Deshmukh, a a local landlord and others initiated the festivities in Sri Vittaleshwara Swamy temple of Kubheer mandal headquarters after being influenced to do so by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak 119 years ago. A clay idol of Ganesh was installed and the idol was immersed in a nearby stream for the first time,” Bodke Vaijyanath, a 90-year old trader of Kubheer told ‘Telangana Today.’

Vaijyanath further recounted that Tilak, who heralded the festivities in order to unite people of the country to fight against British rulers at Pune in Maharashtra 1893, had on April 2 in 1905 toured Nanded district, of which Kubheer was part of then. Kubheer later became part of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, and later, of Telangana. Tilak had discussed the need to conduct festivities with his relative Yashwanth Rao, and another landlord of Bhainsa Narayanrao Waghe and active local freedom struggle activists such as Babu Rao Joshi, Adellu, Ramulu and Nagnath.

“After being influenced by Tilak’s ideologies, Yashwanth Rao and others began worshipping Lord Ganesh. The then officials of the Nizam government and British used to impose many restrictions on the celebrations. They were causing obstructions to the procession of immersion of the idol. They were denying permission to install the idol. Despite curbs, the village witnessed colorful festivities,” he recalled.

Vaijyanath said he had still preserved multiple monochrome photographs of the maiden immersion on which the date and year was printed in support of his claim. He stated that while Yashwanth Rao migrated to Aurangabad of Maharashtra, Nagnath died in 2018.

Locals said that they were worshipping the wooden idols of Ganesh and were carrying them on bullock carts for immersion, while dancing to drum beats till 1988. They, however, shifted to idols made of plaster of Paris and have been taking out the immersion procession on vehicles for the last 35 years.