YesAnesha is, in all likelihood, the single most popular deity in India. He may not command huge shrines to Shiva and Vishnu, but his annual festivals still garner millions across the subcontinent. But Ganesha’s popularity is new in scale, not in concept. As the remover of obstacles, his history spans some 2,000 years – and encompasses astonishing historical and religious developments throughout Asia.
Long History of the ‘Sacred Elephant’
Despite his popularity, it is unclear what exactly Ganesha’s origins are. He appears suddenly in Puranic Hinduism from around 3third-4th century CE, with a recognizable statuette of an elephant’s head and a bowl full of sweets. He also appears in very familiar myths of the Indians, as the son of Shiva and Parvati, with colorful interpretations for his elephant head. This sparked much debate: why was this particular elephant-headed form chosen for Ganesha? Why was he considered the remover of obstacles? Why do legends call him the son of Shiva? What was the origin of India’s most popular deity?
Some signs can be derived from texts, and others from art and numismatics. Archaeologist AK Narayan of Banaras Hindu University comprehensively reviewed the evidence published in the volume Ganesha: Study of an Asian God. If the Harappan seals are any indication, in the northwest of the subcontinent, elephants were considered important, if not sacred, as early as 2000 BCE. But Narayan notes that Ganesha is absent Ramayanaand his presence MahabharataAs for the authorship of the text, it belongs to a later edition. Title ‘Ganapati’, Lord of Ganas, appears in early Vedic literature, but applied to other deities. One of Ganesha’s other names, ‘Vinayak’ or the god of obstacles, is first mentioned in Vedic texts from around 500-600 BCE. But there, it is used for a group of four fearsome spirits that create obstacles until they are pacified. Deities associated with elephants are also mentioned in Vedic literature: Hastimukh, elephant-faced; curved proboscis; and the single (or unique) dentition. But they do not seem to have been absorbed into a single god, and were not a major part of the Brahmanical religion.
However, there was much more happening in the background, which is not visible to us through the Vedic texts. Elephant-shaped deities were worshiped in northern India for centuries before the proper emergence of Ganesha. And other powers were very willing to accept popular deities even though the Vedic schools did not. For example, Buddhists claimed that a white elephant pierced the womb of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha’s mother. in their native According to legends, Buddha was an elephant in many previous lives. In the Pali texts, worshipers of the ‘sacred elephant’ are also mentioned, along with worshipers of Vasudeva (the future Krishna), Indra, Surya and various other nature deities. and around 250 BC, when Mauryan Emperor Ashoka Issuing edicts in the Gangetic plains, he mentioned some of the festivals gazetameor ‘supreme elephant’.
Meanwhile, in the northwest, an elephant-headed deity was beginning to take on an iconic form. Near present-day Kabul, a hill deity was worshiped by the name of Pilushara, or Elephant-Sar. In form of Indo-Greek After consolidating their power there in later centuries, they came to regard elephants as symbols of success, depicting themselves wearing elephant helmets. And when they are attacked by the Yuezhi-future Kushan Empire-In about 50 CE, he tried to appeal to the popularity of the sacred elephant. The last Indo-Greek king, Hermeus, issued a series of coins bearing himself on the obverse and the enthroned Zeus – king of the Hellenic gods – on the reverse. In one very important coinage, Zeus is replaced by an elephant-headed deity: possibly the earliest depiction of the future Ganesha ever found.
Symbol of Ganesha on a coin of King Hermeus, the last Indo-Greek king, who ruled the region around B50 CE and near present-day Kabul. pic.twitter.com/VO2KoNLVj7
– Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (@BhandarkarI) 27 January 2021
Around 200-250 B.C. Till then, in Mathura, idols of the god with elephant head and pot belly were being made. Within another century, an elephant-headed deity was called both the Lord of Obstacles and the Lord of Obstacles Ganas described as the son of Shiva Puranas, and makes attendance at temples. This new Ganesha was one of several neo-liberal composite deities that appeared in this time of political and religious creativity, as the Kushan Empire gave way to the Gupta Empire. He embodied the power over obstacles that the earlier Vinayakas had; helped in Reinventing the ascetic Shiva As a royal, family deity, and absorbed the exuberance and popularity of ancient sacred elephant worship, it brought all these elements into the rich, temple-based mythological Hinduism. Similar ‘Divine Bhadrikaran’ also took place skandaand with fierce ladies called saptamatrikas, The Ganesha we recognize today had crystallized, but his story was just beginning.
Read also: From Mahabharata War to Dasaratha Sacrifice – Tripura’s Manikya Dynasty Used Religion as a Force
Ganesha in Southeast Asia
With Ganesha originating in India, it is unclear how exactly he arrived in Southeast Asia. Very suddenly, 550-600 B.C. In 1600, statues of Ganesha appeared in Cambodia and Thailand. Around this time, Ganesha spread throughout South Asia, laying the foundation for its current popularity. There appears to have been an exchange of mythological Ganesha-related ideas between South and Southeast Asia at an early stage. But thereafter, the development of gods followed very different trajectories in these regions, which calls into question the notion of Southeast Asia following only ‘Indian’ innovations.
as different forms of Hindu religion Developed in mainland Southeast Asia, Ganesha was appeased at the beginning of all rituals. So his role as the god of obstacles firmly took root. In Cambodia, in particular, Ganesha was regarded as a major deity capable of granting salvation, the ultimate salvation for his devotees – something that, in the Indian subcontinent, was mostly associated with Shiva and Vishnu. In Cambodia, temples were also built specifically for Ganesha, while in medieval India, he was usually depicted as a minor deity in sculpture. Mainland Southeast Asians also did not adopt Ganesha’s rat vehicle, which they acquired in India. He is never shown dancing, or in family scenes with Shiva and Parvati – although both of these forms became popular in India during the medieval period.
In the islands of Southeast Asia, the dancing Ganesha was known – although not in the form we might expect. till 14th-15th centuries CE, Java saw the development of a truly unique religion: a mixture of Tantric Buddhism and Shaivism. King Kritnagar, who was an ardent Tantric practitioner, mentions in his inscriptions that he performed an esoteric ritual called Ganchakra, a night ritual in a graveyard. In this context, Ganesha as a tantric deity who removes obstacles in magical rituals Dance in Javanese reliefs, He is also depicted wearing a crown of skulls and sitting on a throne of skulls – both symbols of his initiation into Tantric religion.
Pre-modern deities were not static and constantly evolved in response to the society to which they belonged. The story of Ganesha in particular has been linked to many fields, many innovations and many ways of looking at the world. What we have seen so far was only one part of Ganesha’s evolution, the southern trajectory of this ever-creative deity. In Tibet and China, he assumed a fully dark tantric form, while in Japan, he evolved into a unique ‘twin’ form with male and female aspects. We’ll see more of these in future versions medieval thought.
Anirudh Kanisetty is a public historian. He is the author of Lords of the Deccan, a new history of medieval South India, and hosts the Echoes of India and War podcasts. He tweets @AKanisetti. Thoughts are personal.
This article is a part ofmedieval thinking‘series that delves deep into the medieval culture, politics and history of India.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)