Ganpati Visarjan ends Ganeshotsav with processions in Mumbai, Pune

Millions of devotees across India prepared to bid farewell to Lord Ganesha on Saturday as the ten-day Ganeshotsav culminated in Ganpati Visarjan on Anant Chaturdashi, a ritual immersion that drew large processions, heavy traffic and stepped-up security in major cities including Mumbai and Pune. The immersion fell on September 6, with ritual muhurats running from early morning into the night and some communities carrying on into the early hours of September 7.

Ritual guides and calendar providers listed multiple auspicious windows for visarjan, with commonly cited muhurats including a morning Shubh period from about 07:36 to 09:10, afternoon Chara and Labh periods around 12:19 to 17:02, an evening Labh window 18:37 to 20:02, and late-night Shubh and Amrit periods beginning around 21:28 and extending past midnight. Calendar sources gave differing start times for the Chaturdashi tithi, ranging from roughly 01:42 to 03:12 on September 6, reflecting variations in traditional panchang calculations.

The immersion ritual followed customary steps: morning aarti, Uttarpuja farewell rites, offerings of modak, coconut and grains, tying of a red cloth packet of symbolic food, and the final...