Ganeshotsav (Ganesha Chaturthi) is the Hindu festival celebrated in honour of the god Ganesha. The modern festival involves installing clay images of Ganesha in public pandals, which are worshiped for five to ten days with different variety of herbal leaves, plants. These are immersed at the end of the festival in a body of water such as a lake, along with the Idol. It is not known when and how Ga
nesh Chaturthi was first celebrated. Ganesh Chaturthi was being celebrated as a public event in Pune since the times of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire. With the fall of the Peshwas, Ganesh Chaturthi lost state patronage and became a private family celebration again till its revival by Indian freedom fighter and social reformer Lokmanya Tilak. Here at IIT Guwahati we students with faculties celebrate the Ganeshotsav for 5 days with various activities and cultural programmes.
