Karya Binayak Temple

Karya Binayak crowns a wooded ridge between the Newar farming villages of Bungamati and Khokana, in the southern valley below Patan, and is counted among the valley's Char Binayak Ganesh (some tellings substitute it with Ashok Binayak / Maru Ganesh — the set has never been fixed). Its name comes from karya — work, or undertaking — and it is the Ganesh of getting things done: pilgrims come specifically before starting anything important, from a business to a marriage to a journey, to ask that the work be carried through to success.

That character is written into its origin story. During a twelve-year drought over Nepal Mandala, the Bhaktapur king Narendra Dev, the tantric priest Bandhudatta and the farmer Lalit Jyapu together brought the rain-bringing god Rato Machhindranath to the valley to end it; Karya Binayak was established to secure the success of that great undertaking, and the shrine has been bound to Bungamati's Machhindranath tradition ever since. The object of worship is a natural, Ganesh-shaped rock; a silver image is installed for ceremonies — especially on Tuesdays — and carried out during Ghode Jatra, with the god's mushak (mouse) set before the temple.

The shrine is a small pagoda, its main gate carved with sun and moon and its roof corners guarded by the four Chatur Maharaj kings. It was dedicated in 1661 by Purna Singh of Bungamati with a small band of the faithful. Tuesdays and Saturdays are busiest; the reward is as much the ridge-top walk through fields and old villages as the shrine itself.