DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75620#0071
INDIA: GANESA IN HINDU SCULPTURES AND PAINTINGS 35
standing to the right, is the child Ganesa, four armed, who is grasping with his two
normal hands the end of a garland of human skulls which Siva, in this form, usually
wears.1 Siva is stringing the heads while Karttikeya is handing him a head from a
pile of human skulls which are yet to be strung.
A Rajput drawing owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts represents Siva as
Gangd-dhara, 'Upholder of the Ganges'.2 He is in his form of Maha-yogi: naked to
the waist, smeared with ashes, a serpent around his neck, and his matted hair drawn
up in a high chignon. He is seated on a tiger-skin on the border of a cliff with
Parvati to the left. Out of his head-dress flows the river Ganges; and Ganesa and
Karttikeya, at his right, are holding out vessels to collect the sacred water. Underneath
the cliff is the Saint Bhagiratha. According to puranic myth, the heavenly goddess
Gahga-Bhattarika was drawn down against her will from the heavens by the prayers
of the Saint Bhagiratha, who had remained for a whole year with upraised arms,
refusing all nourishment and standing continually on one toe. In great wrath at
being drawn down to earth, she warned the gods of the great disaster that would
result from the shock of her fall ; but Siva 'caught the river on his brow and checked
its course with his matted hair', hence his name: Upholder of the Ganges.
It is interesting to note here that the water-vessel (kalasa) which is sometimes
carried by Ganesa3 is believed to contain, according to the Mahdnirvdna-tantra, the
sacred water collected from the river Ganga. Ganesa is represented in paintings rather
than in sculptures when carrying the kalasa ; but there is a small bronze image in the
British Museum where he holds the water-vessel in his trunk.
In the Kangra paintings Ganesa was, as a rule, represented in attendance on Siva;
but there is a Rajput miniature in the British Museum where Siva is only indicated
by his mount, the bull, beside which is Ganesa, while Parvati is seated under a tree
with Karttikeya beside her.4 Ganesa was rarely represented in the Kangra miniatures
as an independent deity, but in the Bibliotheque Nationale there is a Rajput minia-
ture of the eighteenth century in a scroll manuscript of the Bhdgavata-purdna5 where
he is represented without other deities. He is seated on a throne and is four-armed.
He wears a crown, and his head is painted red, but his ears and neck are pink, giving
the impression that the elephant-face is a mask. Behind his head is a sirascakra.
To the right, seated on a lotus, is a female playing on a vind ; and to the left, another
female attendant is standing, holding a fly-whisk. There is a Kangra miniature,
also in the British Museum, representing Ganesa seated with a female attendant on
either side of his throne, while in the India Museum of London there is a plaster
cast from a seventeenth-century mould where he is flanked on both sides by female
attendants. Are these two attendants to be looked upon as his consorts, Buddhi and
Siddhi?
According to ancient tradition, Ganesa was a Brahmacarin, that is, an unmarried
deity; but legend gave him two consorts, personifications of Wisdom (Buddhi) and
Success (Siddhi). In ancient representations he was never figured with his two
!v. P1. 9 (a). 4 v. Pl. 10 (b).
2 v. P1. 10 (a). 5 v. Pl. 11.
3 v. Pl. 1 (a).
standing to the right, is the child Ganesa, four armed, who is grasping with his two
normal hands the end of a garland of human skulls which Siva, in this form, usually
wears.1 Siva is stringing the heads while Karttikeya is handing him a head from a
pile of human skulls which are yet to be strung.
A Rajput drawing owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts represents Siva as
Gangd-dhara, 'Upholder of the Ganges'.2 He is in his form of Maha-yogi: naked to
the waist, smeared with ashes, a serpent around his neck, and his matted hair drawn
up in a high chignon. He is seated on a tiger-skin on the border of a cliff with
Parvati to the left. Out of his head-dress flows the river Ganges; and Ganesa and
Karttikeya, at his right, are holding out vessels to collect the sacred water. Underneath
the cliff is the Saint Bhagiratha. According to puranic myth, the heavenly goddess
Gahga-Bhattarika was drawn down against her will from the heavens by the prayers
of the Saint Bhagiratha, who had remained for a whole year with upraised arms,
refusing all nourishment and standing continually on one toe. In great wrath at
being drawn down to earth, she warned the gods of the great disaster that would
result from the shock of her fall ; but Siva 'caught the river on his brow and checked
its course with his matted hair', hence his name: Upholder of the Ganges.
It is interesting to note here that the water-vessel (kalasa) which is sometimes
carried by Ganesa3 is believed to contain, according to the Mahdnirvdna-tantra, the
sacred water collected from the river Ganga. Ganesa is represented in paintings rather
than in sculptures when carrying the kalasa ; but there is a small bronze image in the
British Museum where he holds the water-vessel in his trunk.
In the Kangra paintings Ganesa was, as a rule, represented in attendance on Siva;
but there is a Rajput miniature in the British Museum where Siva is only indicated
by his mount, the bull, beside which is Ganesa, while Parvati is seated under a tree
with Karttikeya beside her.4 Ganesa was rarely represented in the Kangra miniatures
as an independent deity, but in the Bibliotheque Nationale there is a Rajput minia-
ture of the eighteenth century in a scroll manuscript of the Bhdgavata-purdna5 where
he is represented without other deities. He is seated on a throne and is four-armed.
He wears a crown, and his head is painted red, but his ears and neck are pink, giving
the impression that the elephant-face is a mask. Behind his head is a sirascakra.
To the right, seated on a lotus, is a female playing on a vind ; and to the left, another
female attendant is standing, holding a fly-whisk. There is a Kangra miniature,
also in the British Museum, representing Ganesa seated with a female attendant on
either side of his throne, while in the India Museum of London there is a plaster
cast from a seventeenth-century mould where he is flanked on both sides by female
attendants. Are these two attendants to be looked upon as his consorts, Buddhi and
Siddhi?
According to ancient tradition, Ganesa was a Brahmacarin, that is, an unmarried
deity; but legend gave him two consorts, personifications of Wisdom (Buddhi) and
Success (Siddhi). In ancient representations he was never figured with his two
!v. P1. 9 (a). 4 v. Pl. 10 (b).
2 v. P1. 10 (a). 5 v. Pl. 11.
3 v. Pl. 1 (a).