Ganesh festivities begin across country with fanfare

Cities in various states wore a festive look as the festivities kicked off amid gaiety and the prayers by devotees. Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra shifted into a festive gear with the arrival at homes and public places of thousands of big, medium and small idols for the annual Ganeshotsav. The festival, initiated in an open public format in 1892 by Mumbai's Bhausaheb Laxman Javale alias Bhau Rangari, enters the 125th year. It was popularised on a mass scale by freedom-fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak from 1893 onwards in Pune to unite the people against the British Rule and in the struggle for Indian Independence.