This year, the Khairatabad Ganesh in Hyderabad has received an offering of a massive laddu, weighing 1,100 kg, on the occasion of Vinayaka Chaturthi on Friday, September 10. The offering was made by J Tanay Rana and his family, who run an air cooler business in the city. On the same day, flagging off the Ganesh festival celebrations, Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan participated in the Ganapati Puja at Khairatabad.
The Khairatabad Ganesh, which stands 40 feet tall this time, has been named as Panchamukha Rudra Maha Ganapati, with the goddess Kaala Nageshwari on the right and goddess Krishna Kaali on the left. Several devotees lined up to pray and give offerings to the idol on Friday. As a part of the ritual, the largest idol gets a huge laddu as prasadam every year. Since 2016, only one family has been offering the laddu to the Khairatabad Ganesh every year. However, with COVID-19, the ritual was halted in 2020, said J Srikanth, a member of the family which offered the massive laddu this year.
Srikanth further added that in 2016, they started with a 62 kg laddu, which became 172 kg in 2017, 271 kg in 2018, 751 kg in 2019, and now 1,100 kg in 2021. For the making of this humongous laddu, it took about 48 hours of continuous effort from 8 people. About 200 kg of besan (gram flour), 400 kg of sugar, 140 litres of oil and ghee with additional amounts of elaichi and dry fruits went into its making. It cost about Rs 1 lakh to make this laddu, including the material and labour cost, according to the family.
Watch how the humongous laddu for the Khairatabad ganesh was made:
Hyderabad’s Khairatabad Ganesh offered 1,100kg laddu: Here’s how it was made
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The laddu is usually distributed to the devotees on the fifth day of the festival, however this time, the date of the distribution has not been fixed yet. According to its makers, this laddu can be preserved for 20-25 days.
The Khairatabad Ganesh is one of the largest idols that is installed during the festival of Vinayaka Chaturthi in Hyderabad. In the past, idols as high as 61 feet have been installed here, and are immersed with a large procession every year.