Māyūreśvara Kshetra is a sacred kshetra (holy ground) where Bhagavān Gaṇeśa appeared in his peacock-riding form, Māyūreśvara (lord of the peacock), to slay the asura Kāmalāsura. It lies on the Kṛshṇā river, and today it is identified with Morgaon in Maharashtra.

It is also the place where Paraśurāma did tapas (austerity) with the six-syllable Gaṇeśa mantra, as Bhagavān Śiva told him to. He saw Gaṇeśa here and received the divine paraśu (battle-axe) that gave him his name. The Māyūreśvara temple here is the first of the eight Ashṭavinayaka shrines of Maharashtra.

Gaṇeśa slays Kāmalāsura

The kshetra takes its name from one of the great manifestations of Gaṇeśa. In the Kṛta Yuga, the asura Kāmalāsura brought terror to all three worlds. Gaṇeśa defeated him in the form of Māyūreśvara, riding the peacock as his vāhana (vehicle). The victory at this kshetra made it a place of Gaṇeśa’s supreme power, the place where he himself appeared in battle.

Paraśurāma’s tapas at Māyūreśvara

Bhagavān Śiva told Rāma, the son of Jamadagni, who would become Paraśurāma, to worship Gaṇeśa for the power to avenge the death of his parents. Bhagavān Śiva sent him to Māyūreśvara Kshetra. Rāma went to this holy place and chose a spot on the northern bank of the Kṛshṇā river, near the kshetra.

There he stood on one toe, in a posture of the highest austerity, and did the tapas as laid down:

One lakh (100,000) japa of the Shaḍaksharī Gaṇeśa mantra (the six-syllable mantra).
Homa (fire offering) of one-tenth the number of japa.
Tarpaṇa (water offering) of one-tenth the number of homa.
Brāhmaṇa-bhojana (feeding of brāhmaṇas) of one-tenth the number of tarpaṇa.

Through all of this tapas, Rāma’s mind stayed fixed on the four-armed form of Gaṇeśa.

Gaṇeśa appears and gives the paraśu

When the tapas was complete, Gaṇeśa appeared before Rāma in a four-armed form, shining with the radiance of ten million suns. He held the paraśu, the lotus, his own broken tusk (danta) and the modaka (a sweet). Rāma was overwhelmed by the sight and offered a heartfelt stotra (hymn of praise).

Gaṇeśa granted Rāma’s three prayers: victory over Kārtavīrya, steady bhakti (devotion), and Gaṇeśa’s lasting nearness to him. Then he gave Rāma the divine paraśu and said: “From today, because you possess the paraśu given by me, you will be known throughout the worlds as Paraśurāma.”

Rāma set up an image of Gaṇeśa at the spot. He built a shrine with a jewelled pillar and a maṇḍapa (hall), and he walked around the image and bowed to it. In this way he made the kshetra holy for all time.

Present-day Morgaon

Māyūreśvara Kshetra is identified with Morgaon (Morgāv), a village in Pune district, Maharashtra, near the Bhīmā river. The Māyūreśvara Gaṇeśa temple at Morgaon is the first and most important of the eight Ashṭavinayaka pilgrimage places. The image is svayambhū (self-manifested). A pilgrimage round the Ashṭavinayaka shrines traditionally begins and ends at Morgaon.

Sources

Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 82