The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c22.s2: 2. Gaṇapati
The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals c22.s2
- Language
- English
2. Gaṇapati
c22.s2.1
Colour—Red Arms—Twelve
c22.s2.2
Vāhana—Mouse
c22.s2.3
Āsana—Dancing in Ardhaparyaṅka
c22.s2.4
Only one Sādhana in the Sādhanamālā describes the form of Gaṇapati. He is twelve-armed and one-faced and rides his favourite Vāhana, the Mouse. The Dhyāna describes him in the following terms :
c22.s2.5
“Bhagavantaṃ Gaṇapatiṃ raktavarṇaṃ jaṭāmukuṭakiriṭinaṃ sarvābharaṇabhūṣitaṃ dvādaśabhujaṃ lambodaraikavadanaṃ ardhaparyaṅkatāṇḍavaṃ trinetraṃ api ekadantaṃ savyabhujeṣu kuṭhāra-śara-aṅkuśa-vajra-khaḍga-śūlañca ; vāmabhujeṣu mūṣala-cāpa-khaṭvāṅga asṛkkapāla-phaṭkañca raktapadme mūṣikopari sthitaṃ iti”
Sādhanamālā, pp. 592-593
c22.s2.6
“The worshipper should concieve himself as god Gaṇapati of red complexion, bearing the Jaṭāmukuṭa, decked in all ornaments, having twelve arms, a protruding belly and one face. He stands in the Ardhaparyaṅka in a dancing attitude, is three-eyed and has one tusk He carries in his right hands the Kuṭhāra, the arrow, the goad, the Vajra, the sword and the Śūla, and in his left the Mūṣala, the bow, the Khaṭvāṅga, the Kapāla full of blood, the Kapāla of dried meat and the Phaṭka. He rides the mouse on a red lotus.”
c22.s2.7
Fig. 227 is an Indian image of the four-armed Gaṇapati which is described later in this chapter. This image is in the possession of Dr. Moghe of Khar, Bombay. Fig. 228 is another image with twelve arms in the possession of the Dowager Maharani Chimanabai Gaekwad of Baroda. Both the pieces are Buddhist in character.
c22.s2.8
Gaṇapati images are also noticed in China¹ and in painted banners of Tibet.
c22.s2.9
¹ Clark : TLP, II, p. 153
Linked texts (1)
- Sādhanamālā — Sanskrit