DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75620#0073
CHAPTER IV
INDIA, NEPAL, CHINESE TURKESTAN, TIBET: GANESA IN
BUDDHISM
THE popularity of Ganesa as Siddhidata, Bestower of Success, was not confined
to the Brahman cult, for his adoration was taken over by the Buddhists, who
claimed that a mystic mantra in praise of Ganesa, called the Ganapati-hrdaya,1 was
disclosed to Ananda by the Buddha himself at Rajagrha. They personified the
mantra in the form of a goddess named Ganapatihrdaya, who, according to Bhatta-
charyya,2 was probably looked upon as the sakti of Ganesa. The mantra, however,
refers only to Ganesa and contains a sadhana to be used in his invocation, when he
is to be conceived as being red of hue, standing in a dancing attitude, as having
twelve arms holding Tantric symbols, and as possessed of a third eye as well as of
both his tusks.
In a Nepalese leaf-book of the fifteenth century there is a miniature of Ganesa
as described above, with the sadhana to be used in his invocation.3 The priest, after
contemplating this image (having previously prepared himself for the ceremony
by fasting &c.), should recite the Ganapati-hrdaya-mantra which begins: Namo
Bhagavate Aryaganapatihrdaydya; and after invoking Ganesa, he should put before
him the desiderata of his client. The mantra was believed to be most powerful, and
when recited by the priest or worn as an amulet was said to be infallible in obtaining
all that was desired.
There is, however, no mention of Ganesa in the Nepalese Buddhist leaf-book of
the beginning of the eleventh century which is in the Cambridge University Library,
nor is he represented in the miniatures of the celebrated Buddhist leaf-book of about
this period which is in the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. We know, never-
theless, that he was taken over by the Buddhists before this time.
His image may be found on Buddhist sculptures of the late Gupta period such as
at Sarnath, where, on a small fragment representing the death of the Buddha, he is
figured on his rat among the deities assisting at the parinirvana of the Master.4 He
may not be considered, however, as a Buddhist deity in this instance, since he is
figured in a group with his brother, Karttikeya, the Navagrahas, and other Brahman
deities ; but it is of special interest to find him in this Buddhist sculpture because it
furnishes a transition stage between his Hindu and Buddhist representations.
We find him in later Buddhist art in India, not only in the form of the Buddhist
god Vinayaka, but in a Hindu demon form also called Vinayaka. In the later role
he was not represented in India as in Nepal and Tibet, under the feet of an important
deity, but as crouching on all fours, under the lotus throne of a fighting Buddhist
divinity. Stone images have been found in Bengal where Ganesa, the Hindu demon,
is thus figured under the padmasana of the Buddhist goddess Bhrkuti-Tara5 as well as
1 Nepalese Buddhist Literature, Mitra, p. 89. 4 Iconographie Buddhique de 1'Inde, A. Foucher,
2 I.B.I., p. 157. vol. i, fig. 30.
3 v. Pl. 1 (b). 5 I. of B. and B.S., BhattaSali, Pl. XIX.
INDIA, NEPAL, CHINESE TURKESTAN, TIBET: GANESA IN
BUDDHISM
THE popularity of Ganesa as Siddhidata, Bestower of Success, was not confined
to the Brahman cult, for his adoration was taken over by the Buddhists, who
claimed that a mystic mantra in praise of Ganesa, called the Ganapati-hrdaya,1 was
disclosed to Ananda by the Buddha himself at Rajagrha. They personified the
mantra in the form of a goddess named Ganapatihrdaya, who, according to Bhatta-
charyya,2 was probably looked upon as the sakti of Ganesa. The mantra, however,
refers only to Ganesa and contains a sadhana to be used in his invocation, when he
is to be conceived as being red of hue, standing in a dancing attitude, as having
twelve arms holding Tantric symbols, and as possessed of a third eye as well as of
both his tusks.
In a Nepalese leaf-book of the fifteenth century there is a miniature of Ganesa
as described above, with the sadhana to be used in his invocation.3 The priest, after
contemplating this image (having previously prepared himself for the ceremony
by fasting &c.), should recite the Ganapati-hrdaya-mantra which begins: Namo
Bhagavate Aryaganapatihrdaydya; and after invoking Ganesa, he should put before
him the desiderata of his client. The mantra was believed to be most powerful, and
when recited by the priest or worn as an amulet was said to be infallible in obtaining
all that was desired.
There is, however, no mention of Ganesa in the Nepalese Buddhist leaf-book of
the beginning of the eleventh century which is in the Cambridge University Library,
nor is he represented in the miniatures of the celebrated Buddhist leaf-book of about
this period which is in the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. We know, never-
theless, that he was taken over by the Buddhists before this time.
His image may be found on Buddhist sculptures of the late Gupta period such as
at Sarnath, where, on a small fragment representing the death of the Buddha, he is
figured on his rat among the deities assisting at the parinirvana of the Master.4 He
may not be considered, however, as a Buddhist deity in this instance, since he is
figured in a group with his brother, Karttikeya, the Navagrahas, and other Brahman
deities ; but it is of special interest to find him in this Buddhist sculpture because it
furnishes a transition stage between his Hindu and Buddhist representations.
We find him in later Buddhist art in India, not only in the form of the Buddhist
god Vinayaka, but in a Hindu demon form also called Vinayaka. In the later role
he was not represented in India as in Nepal and Tibet, under the feet of an important
deity, but as crouching on all fours, under the lotus throne of a fighting Buddhist
divinity. Stone images have been found in Bengal where Ganesa, the Hindu demon,
is thus figured under the padmasana of the Buddhist goddess Bhrkuti-Tara5 as well as
1 Nepalese Buddhist Literature, Mitra, p. 89. 4 Iconographie Buddhique de 1'Inde, A. Foucher,
2 I.B.I., p. 157. vol. i, fig. 30.
3 v. Pl. 1 (b). 5 I. of B. and B.S., BhattaSali, Pl. XIX.