With barely days left for Ganesh Chaturthi, the country can be seen gearing up to welcome the elephant-headed god Ganesha with loud cheers of 'Ganapati Bappa Morya'. A 10-day festival, it will see chanting of Vedic hymns, prayers, vratas and offerings or prasadams being offered to the god of intellect and wisdom. As per Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Ganesha was fond of sweetmeats and that is one of the reasons that a wide array of sweets are offered to Vinayaka during the festival to impress him and seek his blessings. One of Lord Ganesha's favourite sweet is undoubtedly the humble modak — a creamy delicious sweet dumpling made using rice flour, jaggery and other delicacies.
Lord Ganesha's love for modak has also earned him the moniker Modakpriya. According to myths and legends, it is believed than once when a visitor came to Kailash Parvat, Goddess Lakshmi asked her sons Ganesha and Kartikeya to offer the person a share of their modaks or sweet dumplings. However, none of them agreed. Thus, the goddess decided to test her sons, where they were both asked to complete three circles of the galaxy to claim the sweet.
While Lord Kartikeya quickly mounted his peacock and set off to circle the world, Lord Ganesha took three rounds of his parents, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, expressing that to him, they represented his entire world. Touched by the gesture, Goddess Parvati gave the sweet to Lord Ganesha and ever since it has become an integral part of his festive rituals.
While modak is basically of two types, the Ukadiche modak, which is handmade and steamed and the fried modak, which sees the dumpling being deep fried, innovations have seen modaks being made from mava, kesar, moon dal, chocolate etc over the years.
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