Historical development of Ganesha

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5th century marble Ganesha found at Gardez, Afghanistan now at Dargah Pir Rattan Nath, Kabul. The inscription says that this "great and beautiful image of Mahāvināyaka" was consecrated by the Shahi King Khingala.^[1]

Ganesha (Sanskrit: गणेश; Gaṇeśa; listen (help·info)) is an elephant-headed Hindu deity who rose to prominence over a period of several centuries. He emerges as a distinct deity in clearly-recognizable form beginning in the fourth and fifth centuries, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors.^[2] His popularity rose quickly, and he was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the ninth century. A sect of devotees, called the Ganapatya, (Sanskrit: gāṇapatya) who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity arose during this period.^[3] The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

[edit] First appearance

Ganesha appears in his classic form as a clearly-recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early fourth to fifth centuries.^[4] Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known cult image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period.^[5] His independent cult had come into existence by about the tenth century.^[6] Narain sums up controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

[W]hat is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.^[7]

[edit] Possible influences

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

In this search for a historical origin for Gaņeśa, some have suggested precise locations outside the Brāhmaṇic tradition.... These historical locations are intriguing to be sure, but the fact remains that they are all speculations, variations on the Dravidian hypothesis, which argues that anything not attested to in the Vedic and Indo-European sources must have come into Brāhmaṇic religion from the Dravidian or aboriginal populations of India as part of the process that produced Hinduism out of the interactions of the Aryan and non-Aryan populations. There is no independent evidence for an elephant cult or a totem; nor is there any archaeological data pointing to a tradition prior to what we can already see in place in the Purāṇic literature and the iconography of Gaņeśa.^[8]

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that:

Although by the second century AD the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut.^[9]

Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century BCE.^[10]

[edit] Vinayakas

Main article: Vinayakas

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vināyakas.^[11][12] In Hindu mythology the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties^[13] but who were easily propitiated.^[14] The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras.^[15] Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha that "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century B.C.) who cause various types of evil and suffering."^[16]

[edit] Vedic and epic literature

Ganesha as we know him today does not appear in the Vedas.^[17] The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati according to commentators. ^[18] While there is no doubt that this verse refers to Brahmanaspati, the verse was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is used even to this day.^[19][20] In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati - who is the deity of the hymn - and Bṛhaspati only."^[21] The second passage (RV 10.112.9) equally clearly refers to Indra^[22], who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)". ^[23] However, Roucher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to accord Ganesha Vedic respectability.^[24]

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) ^[25] and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), ^[26] appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification.^[27] The description of Dantin; possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club ^[28] is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin."^[29] However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions.^[30][31] Thapan reports the view that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated" and Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".^[32][33]

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. There is a late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata saying that the sage Vyāsa asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he orated it to him. Ganesha agreed but with the caveat that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed to this but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata,^[34] in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix.^[35] The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted in preparation of the critical edition.^[36] Ganesha's association with cognitive dexterity, mental agility and learning furnish the rationale why he is subsumed as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation to the text.^[37] Richard L. Brown dates the story to the eighth century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it had not yet been added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend.^[38] The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations.^[39] A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.^[40]

[edit] Puranic period

A statue of Ganesha carved in wood.

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering," the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, circa 600–1300.^[41] Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he came to acquire an elephant's head are in the later Puranas composed from about 600 onwards and that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas are later interpolations made during the seventh to tenth centuries.^[42]

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.^[43]

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the ninth century when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The ninth-century philosopher Śaṅkarācārya popularized the "worship of the five forms" (pañcāyatana pūjā) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smārta tradition.^[44][45] This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devī, and Sūrya.^[46][47] Śaṅkarācārya instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

[edit] Ganesha scriptures

Further information: Ganesha Purana and Mudgala Purana

Statue of Ganesha with a flower

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some brāhmaṇas chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.^[48]

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana, and their dating relative to one another, has sparked academic debate. Both works developed over periods of time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews different views on dating and provides her own judgement. She states that it appears likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana came into existence around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries but was subject to interpolations during succeeding ages.^[49] Lawrence W. Preston considers that the period 1100–1400 is the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana because that period agrees with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.^[50]

R.C. Hazra suggested that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400 A.D.^[51] However Phillis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha because, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) that deal at length with Ganesha.^[52] While the kernel of the text must be old, it continued to receive interpolations until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions.^[53] Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries A.D.^[54]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Bhandarkar, Ramakrishna (1913), Vaisnavism, Śaivism, and Minor Religious Systems (Third AES Reprint ed.), Delhi: Asian Educational Services 
• Bhattacharyya (Editor), Haridas (1956). The Cultural Heritage of India. Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture.  Four volumes.
• Brown, Robert (1991), Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, Albany: State University of New York, ISBN 0-7914-0657-1 
• Courtright, Paul B. (1985). Gaṇeśa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN ISBN 0-19-505742-2. 
• Grimes, John A. (1995). Ganapati: Song of the Self, SUNY Series in Religious Studies. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-2440-5. 
• Heras, H. (1972). The Problem of Ganapati. Delhi: Indological Book House. 
• Krishan, Yuvraj (1981-1982). "The Origins of Gaṇeśa". Artibus Asiae 43 (4): 285–301. doi:10.2307/3249845. 
• Krishan, Yuvraj (1999), Gaņeśa: Unravelling An Enigma, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, ISBN 81-208-1413-4 
• Krishna, Murthy, K. (1985), Mythical Animals in Indian Art, New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, ISBN 0391032879 
• Nagar, Shanti Lal (1992). The Cult of Vinayaka. New Delhi: Intellectual Publishing House. ISBN 81-7076-043-9. 
• Pal, Pratapaditya (1995). Ganesh: The Benevolent. Marg Publications. ISBN 81-85026-31-9. 
• Ramachandra Rao, S. K. (1992). The Compendium on Gaņeśa. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications. ISBN 81-7030-828-3. 
• Thapan, Anita Raina (1997). Understanding Gaņapati: Insights into the Dynamics of a Cult. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers. ISBN 81-7304-195-4. 
• Wilson, H. H. (1990). Rgveda-Samhita, Text in Devanagari, English translation Notes and indices by H. H. Wilson, Ed. W.F. Webster. New Delhi: Nag Publishers,11A/U.A. Jawaharnagar.