DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0227
Worship of Ganesa and Su-brahmanya. 215
elephant to denote shrewdness or wisdom, and with four
arms, holding an elephant-hook, a noose, a mace1, and a
cake, one in each of his hands. Not unfrequently he is
represented riding on a rat, and is always associated with
images of that animal, probably as emblematical of sagacity.
In Southern India I occasionally found his idols in company
with those of Nagas or snakes. Sometimes he has a garland
round his neck, sometimes the sacred Brahmanical cord.
Unlike Su-brahmanya or Skanda, he is not generally repre-
sented as married; though according to some he has two
wives called Riddhi and Siddhi2, 'Prosperity' and 'Success.'
Contrasting Ganesa then with Su-brahmanya, we must
always bear in mind that Ganesa is not the commander
and leader, but rather the king and lord of the demon-host,
ruling over both good and bad alike, and controlling those
malignant spirits who are ever plotting evil and causing
hindrances and difficulties. But he controls them, not as
Skanda does, by the exercise of bravery and physical energy,
but by artifice and stratagem, very much after the manner of
some indolent, wily Brahman who, skilled in the Mantras, sits
comfortably at home and by the simple repetition of a few
texts, spells and cabalistic words, compels good and evil
spirits to obey his behests.
Nor is it out of harmony with this theory of the true
character- of the god that the Ganesa of modern mythology
is thought by some Pandits to be a development of the
Vedic Brahmanas-pati or Brihaspati, ' lord of prayer'—once
the personification of religion and devotion—who by the
simple force of his supplications protects the pious from
the machinations of the impious. It is certain that the
1 Instead of a mace he has sometimes a lotus, and sometimes a frag-
ment of one of his own tusks which he once broke off in a fit of uncon-
trollable passion.
2 Others make his two wives Buddhi and Siddhi,' Intelligence' and
'Success.'
elephant to denote shrewdness or wisdom, and with four
arms, holding an elephant-hook, a noose, a mace1, and a
cake, one in each of his hands. Not unfrequently he is
represented riding on a rat, and is always associated with
images of that animal, probably as emblematical of sagacity.
In Southern India I occasionally found his idols in company
with those of Nagas or snakes. Sometimes he has a garland
round his neck, sometimes the sacred Brahmanical cord.
Unlike Su-brahmanya or Skanda, he is not generally repre-
sented as married; though according to some he has two
wives called Riddhi and Siddhi2, 'Prosperity' and 'Success.'
Contrasting Ganesa then with Su-brahmanya, we must
always bear in mind that Ganesa is not the commander
and leader, but rather the king and lord of the demon-host,
ruling over both good and bad alike, and controlling those
malignant spirits who are ever plotting evil and causing
hindrances and difficulties. But he controls them, not as
Skanda does, by the exercise of bravery and physical energy,
but by artifice and stratagem, very much after the manner of
some indolent, wily Brahman who, skilled in the Mantras, sits
comfortably at home and by the simple repetition of a few
texts, spells and cabalistic words, compels good and evil
spirits to obey his behests.
Nor is it out of harmony with this theory of the true
character- of the god that the Ganesa of modern mythology
is thought by some Pandits to be a development of the
Vedic Brahmanas-pati or Brihaspati, ' lord of prayer'—once
the personification of religion and devotion—who by the
simple force of his supplications protects the pious from
the machinations of the impious. It is certain that the
1 Instead of a mace he has sometimes a lotus, and sometimes a frag-
ment of one of his own tusks which he once broke off in a fit of uncon-
trollable passion.
2 Others make his two wives Buddhi and Siddhi,' Intelligence' and
'Success.'