Ganpati festival is incomplete without the his favourite modak. Those delicious dumplings, usually made from jaggery, grated coconut and all-purpose flour, are commonly offered to Lord Ganesha as bhog and later used as prasad after the puja is over.
These homemade bundles of goodness are to die for. But do you ever wonder why modaks are offered to Lord Ganesha? Read further to know.
As the story goes, once Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati and Lord Ganesha visited Anusuya, the wife of Rishi Atri, at her home in the forest. She served all types of delicacies to Lord Ganesha to eat, but Ganesha being extremely hungry at the moment, finished all that was offered to him. He also kept asking for more.
Finally Anusuya served him something sweet to eat. This resulted in him taking a large burp. His stomach was full and needed no more food now. Interestingly, Lord Shiva also burped 21 times. Both of them were full and did not feel hungry anymore.
On being asked by Goddess Parvati later, Anusuya revealed that the sweet that she had offered Ganesha was a modak. This is when Parvati became aware of modaks and expressed the wish that Ganesha’s devotees offer him 21 modaks while worshipping.
Over the years, the recipes for modak has really evolved. There are now several variations to the traditional way of making modaks. People make steaming, frying, multi-coloured, chocolate flavoured and all kinds of modaks nowadays.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)