The Problem of Ganesa in the Puranas

The Problem of Ganesa in the Puranas [puranavarnita ganesavisayako vimarsah] / By Dr. Juan Roger Riviere ; Professor of Indology, University of Madrid (Spain) / 96-102

[ asmin nibandhe da0 'jumrana rojara rivari ' namna spenadesiyena vidusa mahadevasunoh sriganesasya mulasvarupadivisayaka vicarah prastutah, karttikeyaganapatyosca parasparasambandhasya visaye tayormurtinam pujadinam ca visaye vicarodbodhako vimarsasca krtah | sivasya dvau putrau sruyete - skando ganesasca | khistabdarambhe skando'tra bharate lokapriyo deva srasit | upanisadadisu pracinagranthesvapi tasyollekhah prapyate | parantvadhuna sa 'subrahmanya ' iti namna daksinabharate eva prayasah pujyate | itihasa- puranesu bhagavatah sivasyaparo'pi putro 'ganesa ' iti namna sruyate | taitti- riyaranyake'pi 'vakratunda ' 'danti ' iti ca visesanadvayopetah kasciddevah proktah | parantu mahabharate eva ganesah prathamatah khyatim gatah | sa buddhi- devata vighnesasca manyate | sarvakaryarambhe ca tasya puja vihita | khistiya kalasya dasamyam satyam ganapatyasampradayasya samudaya srasit | asmin sampradaye ganesa eva pradhanadevata, sa eva tatra paramatmeti ca manyate | asya sampradayasya ganapatitapaniyopanisadapyeka varttate, tathaiva ganesapuranam namaikamupapuranamapi prapyate | ganesasya tasya saktesca murttayo'pi 'elora ' prabhrtisthanesu prapyante | tibbatadese ganesanya api murtayah prapyante | kutracit silamandiresu jainairapi sa pujyate | maha- yana bauddhe'pi 'ganapatihrdaya ' namna rahasyatmakena mantrena ganapaterupasana pracalati | mahayana bauddhasyayam ganapatidevatakah sampradayo'dhunapi varma - syama - tibbata - cina japanadidesesu vidyate | evam loke ganesah pujyatame- svanyatamo devo varttate | purananam samyagadhyayanena tasya svarupadivikasa- visayakamanyadapi paramopayogi jnanam prapsyate | ] 11 There is, in Indology, the problem of the origin of Siva's son : Ganesa or Ganapati. I think that some investigations in the Puranas could bring a bit of light on this obscure question. In fact, there is, by one side, the affirmation of the existence of a son of Siva in the Upanisadic period: Kartikeya or Skanda and, on the other, the presence of a second son : Ganesa, in the

Jan. 1962] THE PROBLEM OF GANESA IN THE PURANAS 97 historical period of India both in epics and Puranas. The development of the person and worship of this latter God, the animal-headed God of the Hindu pantheon, is mysterious. > Can we suppose two sons of Siva? Has Ganesa kept some characteristics of his supposed brother? Has he supplanted the last one by an historical evolution ? Without going back to the Sruti and studying the evolution of the concept of Sanatkumara, "the eternal Son", called in the Chandogya Upanisad (VII, 25, 2) "The God of War", as does H Heras¹, we can only note that this beautiful image of the "Son of God" is identified with the God Skanda by Sankara in the Bhasya on the same Upanisad: "this Sanatkumara is called Skanda by the people who know his real character". Narayan Apte, in his commentary on the same Up. affirms also that Sanatkumara is the same as Skanda or Kartikeya." Skanda (root SKAND-to leap) is the God of War-the planet Mars. According to the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, he is the son of Siva. His name is found, for the first time, in the Maitrayani and in the Grhya-sutra. He has there a demoniac character and his servants are "the catchers". Siva-Rudra produced him without the intervention of a woman, casting his seed into fire which was afterwards received by the Ganges; he is called for this reason Agni-bhi and Ganga-ja. Fostered by the Krtikah or Pleiades, hence he has six heads, Sanmukha and the name Karttikeya. Patanjali calls him "he who has two-mothers, three mothers". He was born for the purpose of destroying Tarakasura, a Daitya whose austerities were dangerous for the Gods, according to the Mahabh. He is called also Kumara, the boy. There are many representations of this God seated on one of the knees of Parvati (Mahabalipuram and Madras Museum). He is a Brahmacarin. He is represented riding on a peacock called Parayani, his usual vahana, holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. 1. In The Problem of Ganapati, "Tamil Culture", III, 2 (April, 1954). 2. The Linga Purana considers Sanatkumara as the first born of all the mind-born sons of Brahma. 13

98 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IV, No. 1 He has the appearance of a young man with one, six or twelve heads. The Kumaratantra speaks of sixteen distinct representations. He has many titles: as a warrior, he is called Maha-senu, Sena-pati, Sakti-dhara, Tarakajit; he is Guha "the mysterious one". In the south of India, he is called Su-Brahmanya (see the poems of Tiruppugal by Arungagirinadar) and was the ista-devata of the Calukyas. His cult is very old in the Tamilnadu and worshipped in the mountainous region of the Kuvaras. His main shrine is in Palni. In the northern India, Skanda was very well known, and numismatic evidence shows him a popular God in the beginning of the Christian era (Banerjee, the Development of Hindu Iconography). The Gupta family was much devoted to this deity, as among them two bear names of Kumara and one Skanda. Not. withstanding, at a later period, devotion to him died out in northern India; it is odd that his terrible and fearful aspect predominates: Gopinatha Rao' affirms that in the Bombay State no woman whose husband is alive would ever visit a temple of Kartikeya Svami. He is in fact now almost exclusively a South Indian deity. We have to lay aside the hypothesis of Prof. Kerbaker that Skanda was a popular form of Soma in relation with the mention of Dionysos by Megasthenes. Now, in epics and Puranas, appears another son of Siva : Ganesa and that is the problem. This name appears for the first time in the Rgveda (II, 23,1) where Brahmanaspati is given the title of Ganapati (Gananam tva Ganapatim havamahe). The Gana forms the host of semigods, attendants of Siva. Indra, in the Rg. (X, 112, 9) is also called Ganapati; at a later period, the title went to Siva, for in the epics, Siva is called Ganesa and Ganesvara. The Taittiriyaranyaka (X, i, 5) speaks of a God who possesses a twisted trunk (vakratunda) and is called Dantin (the one having the tusk). But Ganesa appears really in the Mahabharata, 1. Elements of Hindu Iconography, II, 2, p. 415,

Jan. 1962] THE PROBLEM OF GANESA IN THE PURANAS 99 according to Winternitz. Bhandarkar shows that in the Smrti of Yajnavalkya (6th cent.), Ganapati is mentioned as a demon exalted to the rank of a deva and, in the 8th cent, "described as elephant-headed". Notwithstanding in the frieze round the Kantaka Cetinga stupa, near Mihintale, in Ceylon (1st and 2nd cent.), there is a double procession of gana, carrying gifts and converging to a central point, wherein there is another figure with the face of an elephant with his trunk turned to the left, as most of his images of a later period are. Ganesa appears as an attendant of Siva, according to the rock-cut temples of Aiholc. Hopkins notes the affirmation of Manu: "Sambhu is the God of the Brahmanans, while Ganesa is the God of the Sudras". Miss Getty concludes that it seems "to have been known to the uneducated classes upto the sixth century". Ganesa is the God of wisdom and remover of obstacle, being propitiated at the beginning of any special undertaking. His popularity is very extensive; in the 10th century arose the sect of the Ganapatya with the Sankaradigvijaya of Anandatirtha. For them, he was the supreme God, the first Cause, Paramatman. They had an Upanisad, the Ganapatitapaniya (or Varadatapaniya). The mantra of the Ganapatyas was sriganesaya namah, and the sect seems to decay in the 12th century. Bhandarkar thinks that the active period of the sect was between the 5th and the 8th centuries. We find Ganapati in many Puranas; the Agni P. describes a ritual of Ganesa. Others speak of him as a deity above the Trimurti. The Ganesa P., an Upapurana, condenses the theology and the cult of the God. It was the influence of the Ganapatyas that introduced him with his myths into the last editions of the Puranas. The Brahmavaivarta Purana contains 1. Vaisnavism, Saivism and other Minor Sects, pp. 147-148. 2. Getty, Ganesh: A Monograph on the Elephant-faced God, p. 25, pl. 22c (cited by H. Heras, op. cit.) 3. Religions of India, p. 487. A good analysis of this Upapurana is by Stevenson, Analysis of the Ganesh Purana in J.R.A.S., 1846, pp. 319-329.

100 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IV, No. 1 many stories about him and equates him with Krsna; the Vamana P. speaks of the origin of the God; the Varaha P. narrates his birth; the Padma P. describes his cult; the Garuda P. includes him among the five great Gods. The Hindu Architecture shows how his cult is popular; we find him in Tantrism, specially in the Prapancasara Tantra. There are images of this God with his Sakti (Ellora); Miss Getty speaks of a female form of Ganesa, a Ganesani at Bhera ghat, near Jubbulpore, whose left bent leg is supported by a small Ganesa, half kneeling underneath. There are female forms of the God in Tibet, where he represents Mahakala in the lamaic Buddhism. We find Ganapati worshipped by some Jainas in rock Temples. Heras writes that "the Museum of our Indian Historical Research Institute possesses a few metal images of Ganesa which came from places of Jaina worship, among them one is of Maha-Ganapati with his Sakti" (op. cit. p. 182). There is a cult of a mystic mantra, the Ganapatihrdaya, in the Mahayana Buddhism, the mantra said to be given by the Buddha to Ananda and to be used at the time of the dedication of an image of a dancing Ganesa. The cult of the God through the Mahayana can be found in Buddhist countries, Burma, Siam, Nepal, Tibet, China, Japan, where there are many artistic creations of his figure on painting and sculpture. We have seen the twofold aspect of Ganesa as a demon and a god. It is very interesting to find again this character in the Buddhism where he appears as Vinataka under the feet of the goddess Aparajita, who is called Ganapati-samakranta for this reason, or under the feet of the black Manjusri of the lamaic pantheon; but he is also, as in India, Vighnesa, Vighnaharin, the "remover of obstacles". It is evident that this Siva's son has adopted, little by little, many characteristics of his father; he has the urdhva linga, the third eye, three faces (Japan', five heads as Heramba Ganapati (Nepal), riding the lion of Parvati, with his Sakti, wearing a 1. There exists a Ganesa Gita in which the name of the God substitutes that of Krsna.

Jan. 1962] THE PROBLEM OF GANESA IN THE PURANAS 101 jata-mukuta, dancing the Tandava (Nrtta-Ganapati) on one leg like Siva; he holds the trident, the ankusa and the rosary; he is ornamented with skulls, symbol of Siva as Destroyer. In the south his cult is very popular and Srikanta Iyer writes that "Ganesa has become the most popular of all the domestic deities of India"." a Now, if we return to Kumara, his supposed brother, we find that the position of the two brothers is ambiguous. The second son of Siva appears in the puranic and epic periods as an intruder; in the images of the two brothers with Parvati, we find many times Kartikeya seated on the lap of the Goddess and Ganesa playing beside her, as affirms Miss Getty. Sometimes, the two brothers are next to each other in adoration in front of Siva and Parvati (Elephanta). But, in the Puranas, there are many stories "in which Ganesa fought with Skanda and emerged victorious, though with the loss of his tusk", as writes Venkatakrishna Rao. The modern interpretations affirm that Ganesa is the elder and Skanda, the younger; this last one is always war-god and symbolises the brutal, physical forces, the elder represents the spiritual forces which help the man to reach moksa. We can perceive the two ways of the confidence in the efficacy of the personal endeavour or the submission to the divine grace. Heras says that "in Northern India, Skanda, Kumara or Karttikeya is absolutely overlooked in the religious life of the people. For the majority of the people Siva has only one son and that is Ganesa or Ganapati. Accordingly he receives the titles of Sivaputra, Sambhutanaya and Sambhusuta" (op. cit. p. 195). This author quotes the Skunda P. which "depicts the crowds of unworthy people, Sudras and barbarians worshipping Siva at Somnath in order to attain to the heavens of the devas. The minor deities headed by Indra protested to Mahesvara. The latter then created Vinayaka, the Lord of obstacles, to impede those low people to enter heaven" (p. 195). 1. "The Popular view of Ganesa in Madras", in "Indian Antiquary", XXX, p. 255. 2. The Ganapati Cult in Q. J. M. S. XLI, p. 94.

102 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IV, No. 1 The Indologists have advanced some theories to explain the mystery of the origin of Ganesa, this Dvai matura, having two mothers". Miss Getty believes that he was primarily the totem of a Dravidian tribe, though there is no evidence of such a totem. Prof. Foucher thinks of an elephant-spirit of the jungle with a therianthropic evolution. Meyer affirms that it was a spirit of the fecundity and of the deads in connection with the "Mothers"; Grierson and Crooke believe in a solar hero of Dravidian origin. Coomara Swamy supposes that Ganesa was a Yaksa, one of the semigods attending on Kubera, but we do not find any of his names in the yaksa lists, according to Miss Getty. The matter is more complicated, yet, because all the myths of his birth show that Ganesa had originally a man's head which was substituted for the head of an elephant (Brahmavaivarta P., Siva P., Varaha P.). Heras and Zimmer think of a connection with the Naga (the word means also elephant) tribes which were spread all over India; for them, the idea of giving the elephanthead to Skanda, the God of War, is not so extraordinary. In any way, the mystery of Ganesa remains. He has the original characteristics of Siva and Skanda, without any foundation in the Veda. I think that systematical studies of the Puran is could give some light on the problem of his origin. We must not forget that the Purannas were meant especially for the masses and represented the Veda for the laity. The characteristics of Ganesa are eminently popular and his origins are surely humble and perhaps pre-Aryan; I think of a Dravidian or Indus valley origin. The Puranas occupy a very important position in the religious life of the Hindus as they have been, and are still the main sources of remote traditions in spite of the apocryphal character and revisions or modifications of some of them. I am sure that a detailed study of the Puranic references, special terminology and subject-concordance connected with Ganesa could be useful to investigate the obscure origin of this popular God.