The Chinatamani temple of Theur is the fifth temple in the Ashtavinayak circuit and is temple dedicated to Lord Ganesha, the God of Wisdom. It is one of the largest and popular temples among the ashtavinayak temples. The temple is 25 kilometres away from the city of Pune in Maharashtra and situated in the Haveli Taluk of Pune district. The Theur Ganapati temple is near the confluence of river Bhima and river Mula-Mutha. This is where Ganesha retrieved the wish giving jewel Chintamani for his devotee, sage Kapila from the greedy hands of King Gana. This is also where Ganesha pacified the mind of Lord Brahma, who meditated on Ganesha. ACCORDING TO THE Mudgala Purana, King Gana was the son of King Abhijit and Gunavati. Gana was a strong but greedy and hot headed warrior king and with his worship for Shiva he pleased Lord Shiva and Shiva granted him the kingship of the three worlds and also gave him a boon which said that he cannot be killed by anything which possessed any of the three gunas.
Once, Gana and his entire entourage reached the hermitage of Sage Kapila, who owned the wish granting jewel Chintamani. With the help of the precious jewel, the sage served the prince and his army delicious food and the prince wanted the jewel from the sage. He sage refused to part with the jewel but the jewel was taken by force by Gana and his men. Kapila being a devotee of Ganesha, prayed to Ganesha and Ganesha appeared in Gana’s dream and in the dreamone of the soldiers cut Gana’s head. Gana woke up from the sleep and marched towards the hemitage of Kapila in order to kill him. Gana started destroying the hermitage and Ganesha’s shakti, Siddhi appeared and created a thousand armed warrior Laksha. Laksha destroyed the entire army and Ganesh himself killed Gana. Ganesha retured the jewel to the sage but he wanted the Lord to stay with him Theur. Ganesha agreed and stayed in Theur and was called Chintamani Ganesha.
