DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75620#0044
CHAPTER II
INDIA: GANESA IN ICONOGRAPHY FROM HINDU
TEXTS AND IMAGES
THERE is no trace of a Ganesa cult in India before the fifth century A.D.,
although, as we have seen above in the Vedic mantra addressed to the 'One
with the Curved Trunk' (Vakra-Tunda), a deity with the face of an elephant was
known long before the Gupta period. Nor is there reason to put faith in the tradi-
tion according to which his worship was carried from India to Nepal in the third
century B.C. by the daughter of the Buddhist king Asoka.1 There would seem, how-
ever, to be conclusive evidence of his having been known under the epithet of
'Ganesa' at least as early as the beginning of our era, if the peculiar characters on
a Huviska coin in the India Museum of Calcutta are, as Vincent Smith believed,
old Brahmi for 'Ganesa'.2 The image on the coin, however, is that of Siva and the
epithet may possibly refer to him ; but it may also illustrate Przyluski's theory that
Siva and Ganesa were originally one and the same deity. The name 'Ganapati' is
found as early as the middle of the fourth century, in a Gupta inscription on the
Allahabad Pillar,3 where the king Samudragupta mentions, among the kings that
he has 'exterminated', the king Ganapati Naga. This is the earliest instance of a
king being called 'Ganapati' and does not occur again until after the tenth century.
As this name was particularly associated with Ganesa,4 may it therefore be inferred
that the god Ganapati was known as early as the fourth century ? There is sculp-
tural evidence of his popularity from the fifth century onwards, although no inscrip-
tion has been found referring either to Ganesa or to Ganapati as a god until after
the Gupta period.
It was possibly because of his early popularity as 'Remover of Obstacles' that
he was attached to different groups of deities such as the Navagrahas (the Nine
Planets) and the Saptamatrkas (the Seven Divine Mothers), whose origins are as
ancient as they are obscure. The Navagrahas were believed to direct the destinies
of men, and in order not to offend any of the group by the special worship of one of
the grahas, they were appealed to as a group; but before addressing their supplica-
tions to the Navagrahas the worshippers considered it propitious to implore the
‘ Remover of Obstacles', Vighnantaka, to intervene in their favour. It is probably
for this reason that Ganesa figured in the group ; and that, as he was to be addressed
first before the others, he was represented standing at the extreme right of the
Planets, where he was figured of equal size with them. In all the Navagraha slabs
yet discovered they are imaged standing in a row.5
At this same period Ganesa, when in attendance on Siva and Parvati, especially
1 v. S.I.I., Sastri, p. 168, note iii, and Anti-
quities of Mayurabhanja, by Nagendra Natha Vasu.
2 From the plate given in the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, this reading hardly seems
possible. Part I, 1897, p. 3, pl. I, 6.
3 Gupta Inscriptions, ed. by J. F. Fleet, p. 6.
4 p. 3.
5 'Two Saura Images', R. Datta, The I.H.Q,
vol. ix, no. i, March 1933, pl. opp. p. 204.
INDIA: GANESA IN ICONOGRAPHY FROM HINDU
TEXTS AND IMAGES
THERE is no trace of a Ganesa cult in India before the fifth century A.D.,
although, as we have seen above in the Vedic mantra addressed to the 'One
with the Curved Trunk' (Vakra-Tunda), a deity with the face of an elephant was
known long before the Gupta period. Nor is there reason to put faith in the tradi-
tion according to which his worship was carried from India to Nepal in the third
century B.C. by the daughter of the Buddhist king Asoka.1 There would seem, how-
ever, to be conclusive evidence of his having been known under the epithet of
'Ganesa' at least as early as the beginning of our era, if the peculiar characters on
a Huviska coin in the India Museum of Calcutta are, as Vincent Smith believed,
old Brahmi for 'Ganesa'.2 The image on the coin, however, is that of Siva and the
epithet may possibly refer to him ; but it may also illustrate Przyluski's theory that
Siva and Ganesa were originally one and the same deity. The name 'Ganapati' is
found as early as the middle of the fourth century, in a Gupta inscription on the
Allahabad Pillar,3 where the king Samudragupta mentions, among the kings that
he has 'exterminated', the king Ganapati Naga. This is the earliest instance of a
king being called 'Ganapati' and does not occur again until after the tenth century.
As this name was particularly associated with Ganesa,4 may it therefore be inferred
that the god Ganapati was known as early as the fourth century ? There is sculp-
tural evidence of his popularity from the fifth century onwards, although no inscrip-
tion has been found referring either to Ganesa or to Ganapati as a god until after
the Gupta period.
It was possibly because of his early popularity as 'Remover of Obstacles' that
he was attached to different groups of deities such as the Navagrahas (the Nine
Planets) and the Saptamatrkas (the Seven Divine Mothers), whose origins are as
ancient as they are obscure. The Navagrahas were believed to direct the destinies
of men, and in order not to offend any of the group by the special worship of one of
the grahas, they were appealed to as a group; but before addressing their supplica-
tions to the Navagrahas the worshippers considered it propitious to implore the
‘ Remover of Obstacles', Vighnantaka, to intervene in their favour. It is probably
for this reason that Ganesa figured in the group ; and that, as he was to be addressed
first before the others, he was represented standing at the extreme right of the
Planets, where he was figured of equal size with them. In all the Navagraha slabs
yet discovered they are imaged standing in a row.5
At this same period Ganesa, when in attendance on Siva and Parvati, especially
1 v. S.I.I., Sastri, p. 168, note iii, and Anti-
quities of Mayurabhanja, by Nagendra Natha Vasu.
2 From the plate given in the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, this reading hardly seems
possible. Part I, 1897, p. 3, pl. I, 6.
3 Gupta Inscriptions, ed. by J. F. Fleet, p. 6.
4 p. 3.
5 'Two Saura Images', R. Datta, The I.H.Q,
vol. ix, no. i, March 1933, pl. opp. p. 204.