Sarasbaug

Sarasbaug is a 25-acre garden in Pune, at the foot of Parvati hill and less than a kilometre from Swargate bus station. The ground was once a small artificial lake; after it dried up, the Pune Municipal Corporation turned it into a park in the 1960s. At its heart is a Ganesh temple still called Talyatla Ganapati, the Ganapati of the lake.

Nanasaheb Peshwa began the temple in 1750 at the centre of the lake near the Parvati Temple, and the idol was consecrated in 1784. The Marathas held war councils here against the Nizam and the British, going out by boat, and records say the boatmen were Africans who did not understand Marathi, to keep the talks secret. The temple has been renovated many times, the last major work coming in 1969, and a small museum of several hundred Ganesh idols was added in 1995.