DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0223
Worship of Ganesa and Su-brahmanya. 211
sickness, famine and disaster, to impede, injure and mar
every good work.
Hence a tutelary god among the Hindus is simply one
that delivers from the calamities, actual and potential, be-
lieved to be due to demons.
Worship of Ganesa (Gana-pali) and Su-brahmanya.
At the head of tutelary village deities I place the two
sons of Siva :—1. Ganesa—also called Gana-pati (commonly
Gan-pati,and in Southern India Puliyar, 'the son'); 3. Skanda
—often called Karttikeya, and still more commonly Su-brah-
manya. But in so placing these two gods I must explain
that my investigations in India have led me to take a view of
their character and functions somewhat different from that
hitherto propounded by European writers on Hindu Mytho-
logy. It is usual for such writers to describe Ganesa as the
god of learning and patron of letters1; whereas the whole
province of speech, language, and literature is really placed
under the presidency of the goddess SarasvatI2. The only
possible ground I have been able to discover for connecting
Ganesa with the patronage of learning is the circumstance
that every Indian book opens with the formula Sri Ganesaya
namah.
But the real explanation of this is that the writing of a
book is among Hindus a very serious and solemn under-
taking, peculiarly liable to obstruction from spiteful and
jealous spirits of evil, and the favour of Ganesa is invoked
to counteract their malignity. It never occurs to any Hindu
writer to suppose for a moment that the failure of his literary
efforts is ever likely to be due to his own incapacity. In this,
1 I find that even M. Barth, in his recent excellent work on the reli-
gions of India, falls into this mistake.
a Thus we find the first verse of the Mahabharata addresses homage
to SarasvatI, not to Ganesa.
P 2
sickness, famine and disaster, to impede, injure and mar
every good work.
Hence a tutelary god among the Hindus is simply one
that delivers from the calamities, actual and potential, be-
lieved to be due to demons.
Worship of Ganesa (Gana-pali) and Su-brahmanya.
At the head of tutelary village deities I place the two
sons of Siva :—1. Ganesa—also called Gana-pati (commonly
Gan-pati,and in Southern India Puliyar, 'the son'); 3. Skanda
—often called Karttikeya, and still more commonly Su-brah-
manya. But in so placing these two gods I must explain
that my investigations in India have led me to take a view of
their character and functions somewhat different from that
hitherto propounded by European writers on Hindu Mytho-
logy. It is usual for such writers to describe Ganesa as the
god of learning and patron of letters1; whereas the whole
province of speech, language, and literature is really placed
under the presidency of the goddess SarasvatI2. The only
possible ground I have been able to discover for connecting
Ganesa with the patronage of learning is the circumstance
that every Indian book opens with the formula Sri Ganesaya
namah.
But the real explanation of this is that the writing of a
book is among Hindus a very serious and solemn under-
taking, peculiarly liable to obstruction from spiteful and
jealous spirits of evil, and the favour of Ganesa is invoked
to counteract their malignity. It never occurs to any Hindu
writer to suppose for a moment that the failure of his literary
efforts is ever likely to be due to his own incapacity. In this,
1 I find that even M. Barth, in his recent excellent work on the reli-
gions of India, falls into this mistake.
a Thus we find the first verse of the Mahabharata addresses homage
to SarasvatI, not to Ganesa.
P 2