DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0224
212 Worship of Ganesa and Su-brahmanya.
as in all other enterprises, want of success is attributed not
to want of skill, energy, or persistency, but to negligence
in taking proper precautions against demoniacal jealousy and
obstruction.
So far indeed is Ganesa from being the god of learning, he
is peculiarly the god of the lower orders and uneducated
classes. Hence in a verse said to be extracted from the old
version of Manu he is called the god of the Sudras1.
Again, it is usual to describe Skanda as the god of war,'as
if he were a kind of Hindu Mars, whereas his martial quali-
ties are only displayed in leading the armies of the gods
against the countless host of their enemies the evil demons.
With a view then to a fuller explanation of the history and
character of two gods so generally honoured and propitiated
throughout India, I may begin by pointing out that the cultus
of both Ganesa and Su-brahmanya is a mere offshoot of
Saivism. The very name Ganesa (Gana-Isa) or Gana-pati,
meaning 'lord of hosts,' belonged originally to Siva (see
p. 77), for Siva is, as we have seen, surrounded by countless
troops or hosts (gana) of servants and officers, who are con-
stantly in readiness to traverse earth and air for the execu-
tion of his orders.
And just as Siva is ever engaged in two opposite duties—
on the one hand, as Rudra and Kala, directing and control-
ling dissolution and death, on the other hand, as Siva and
Sambhu, presiding over re-integration and new life—so by a
figment of mythology, those of his emissaries who are charged
with carrying out the former operation are converted into evil
demons, imps, and devils, while those who are agents in the
latter are held to be good angels, ministering spirits, and
beneficent genii.
And hence it is that two entirely opposite classes of de-
moniacal beings are believed to be continually roaming about
1 The verse is—Vipranam daivatam Sambhuh Kshatriyanam tu Madha-
vah Vaisyanam tu bhaved Brahma Sudranam Gana-nayakah.
as in all other enterprises, want of success is attributed not
to want of skill, energy, or persistency, but to negligence
in taking proper precautions against demoniacal jealousy and
obstruction.
So far indeed is Ganesa from being the god of learning, he
is peculiarly the god of the lower orders and uneducated
classes. Hence in a verse said to be extracted from the old
version of Manu he is called the god of the Sudras1.
Again, it is usual to describe Skanda as the god of war,'as
if he were a kind of Hindu Mars, whereas his martial quali-
ties are only displayed in leading the armies of the gods
against the countless host of their enemies the evil demons.
With a view then to a fuller explanation of the history and
character of two gods so generally honoured and propitiated
throughout India, I may begin by pointing out that the cultus
of both Ganesa and Su-brahmanya is a mere offshoot of
Saivism. The very name Ganesa (Gana-Isa) or Gana-pati,
meaning 'lord of hosts,' belonged originally to Siva (see
p. 77), for Siva is, as we have seen, surrounded by countless
troops or hosts (gana) of servants and officers, who are con-
stantly in readiness to traverse earth and air for the execu-
tion of his orders.
And just as Siva is ever engaged in two opposite duties—
on the one hand, as Rudra and Kala, directing and control-
ling dissolution and death, on the other hand, as Siva and
Sambhu, presiding over re-integration and new life—so by a
figment of mythology, those of his emissaries who are charged
with carrying out the former operation are converted into evil
demons, imps, and devils, while those who are agents in the
latter are held to be good angels, ministering spirits, and
beneficent genii.
And hence it is that two entirely opposite classes of de-
moniacal beings are believed to be continually roaming about
1 The verse is—Vipranam daivatam Sambhuh Kshatriyanam tu Madha-
vah Vaisyanam tu bhaved Brahma Sudranam Gana-nayakah.