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Lord Ganesha
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- Ganesha
or Ganapati as he is more commonly known is the most worshipped god in
India, though he may not be the most popular. Now that is only apparently a
paradox. Ganesha holds a unique position in the religious culture of India,
a position that has no parallel in any other religion. Any ceremony, ritual,
puja or new undertaking has to begin with invoking the power of Ganapati
first, otherwise it is regarded as futile. Hence he is worshipped almost
constantly round the clock as it were, though he may not be the ishta devta,
the chosen personal god of the person so worshipping. In the late 20th
century however, Ganapati has suddenly become one of the five most important
deities actually in popular worship, and collecting images of Ganapati in
various materials became a popular hobby in its own right independent of any
religious feeling.
Ganapati is however not a Vedic god, not by any means. The tradition that he
has to be invoked before anything is commenced is hardly two thousand years
old, if that, and it has become set as an unchallenged rule for only about a
thousand years. Ganapati is a Pauranic God, a god always of the common
people and of the artisans who delighted on sculpting and painting such an
incongruity, such a resolution of paradox. For he is neither animal nor
human, being more like the gods of ancient Egypt than anything in the usual
Hindu tradition. He is not beautiful in any conventional sense, quite the
contrary, yet every Hindu feels a surge of affection when he gazes upon this
clearly impossible figure. That Ganapati has been a successful Indian export
is not so well known, but from Afghanistan to Japan, you can find ancient
idols that testify to his peculiar popularity. Burma, Cambodia, Java, China,
Vietnam, wherever the Hindus traveled, so too did their beloved Vighneshwara,
the destroyer of obstacles.
Actually Ganapati, like Laxmi and Kubera, is a figure of the Yaksha
religion. This was one of the two ancient religions (the other being the
Naga) that simultaneously coexisted with the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains,
and when they finally faded away, their beliefs and iconography was
seamlessly merged into the surviving religions. (I will explore this point
about the Yakshas and Nagas in another article for the gods and goddesses
section of the website and try to bring out a fascinating aspect of Ancient
Indian religion and how it survives unrecognized into the modern world.) The
Yaksha were the much more dominant, for their chief figures survive as
independent and respected members of the Hindu pantheon. Ganesha is the
supreme example of such borrowing, even more so than Laxmi, the goddess of
wealth in modern Hinduism.
The word Ganesha or Ganapati is probably of pauranic origin, not his
original Yaksha name which seems to have been Dantin, the tusked one.
Ganesha and Ganapati mean the same thing - the Lord of the Ganas, who are
the army-cum-attendants-cum-servants-cum-devotees of the great god Shiva.
His special position even as he is being clearly absorbed into another
religion thus remains constant. Even if he is nominally inferior to Shiva,
he is first amongst the rest. There are no less than eighteen major versions
of the origin of Ganesha and only Ganapati knows how many popular folk
versions. Most of the sorties are concerned with explaining his unusual
physical appearance, so much at variance with the ideal and elegant torsos
preferred by the Indian imagination.
The
usual story is such a bloodcurdling oedipal myth, that it is only now that
it is even beginning to be accepted as such. This is the normal version.
Shiva, holding all conventions of proper behavior at naught with magnificent
yogic contempt used to be a sore trial for his wife Parvati who was a
princess and used to more genteel modes of interaction. She never had any
privacy, for Shiva came and went out of their palace as his meditative whims
dictated. One day he was so distracted that he brushed aside all the guards
and Parvati's personal attendants and blundered into the spot where she was
bathing. In ancient India` bathing was performed in an open inner courtyard,
not behind walls and she was quite upset at this intrusion. Shiva had a good
laugh over it, for he genuinely could not see what was the problem, such
issues being totally alien to his simple and straightforward mind. Parvati,
however, had the bluest blood in all India, she was the daughter of the
Himalayas, as well as the Divine Mother and she was determined such
incidents would not occur again. Out of the sandalwood paste on her body she
fashioned the figure of a tough young boy and breathed life into him.
She armed this young hellion with a stout club and told him to not let
anybody enter the house without her permission. When Shiva returned he found
the way barred by a very firm young man. It is a measure of Shiva's nature
that he calmly accepted Parvati had been creating a son, but he did not see
why that meant he was in the divine equivalent of the doghouse. Parvati
became stubborn, she did not want to feel bullied and the youth announced
that he did not know any Shiva but he had only The Mother's instructions.
Shiva's ganas lost their temper and attacked the boy. The ganas are the most
fearsome warriors in the universe and if there is anyone who is not a
fearful and terrible sight to behold it is entirely by accident and
oversight. The young boy thrashed this army and when the other gods began to
take a part in the battle, he thrashed them too. The situation was clearly
an impossible one. The boy would not fall in a fair fight, and the
reputations of the gods were in tatters. Vishnu, the great Trickster, then
suggested the unchivalrous but effective stratagem, of engaging him from the
front while Shiva sneaked up from behind and cut off his head. This was
done.
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