[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.573 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.573 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.573 - **Language:** English ### [c5.573](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.573) GANESA (Gana + Īsa), GANA-PATI. Lord of the Ganas or troops of inferior deities, especially those attendant upon Siva. Son of Siva and Pārvatī, or of Pārvatī only. One legend represents that he sprang from the scurf of Pārvatī’s body. He is the god of wisdom and remover of obstacles; hence he is invariably propitiated at the beginning of any important undertaking, and is invoked at the commencement of books. He is said to have written down the Mahā-bhārata from the dictation of Vyāsa. He is represented as a short fat man of a yellow colour, with a protuberant belly, four hands, and the head of an elephant, which has only one tusk. In one hand he holds a shell, in another a discus, in the third a club or goad, and in the fourth a water-lily. Sometimes he is depicted riding upon a rat or attended by one; hence his appellation Akhu ratha. His temples are very numerous in the Dakhin. There is a variety of legends accounting for his elephant head. One is that his mother Pārvatī, proud of her offspring, asked Sani (Saturn) to look at him, forgetful of the effects of Sani’s glance. Sani looked and the child’s head was burnt to ashes. Brahmā told Pārvatī in her distress to replace the head with the first she could find, and that was an elephant’s. Another story is that Pārvatī went to her bath and told her son to keep the door. Siva wished to enter and was opposed, so he cut off Ganesa’s head. To pacify Pārvatī he replaced it with an elephant’s, the first that came to hand. Another version is that his mother formed him so to suit her own fancy, and a further explanation is that Siva slew Āditya the sun, but restored him to life again. For this violence Kasyapa doomed Siva’s son to lose his head; and when he did lose it, the head of Indra’s elephant was used to replace it. The loss of one tusk is accounted for by a legend which represents Parasu-rāma as coming to Kailāsa on a visit to Siva. The god was asleep and Ganesa opposed the entrance of the visitor to the inner apartments. A wrangle ensued, which ended in a fight. “Ganesa had at first the advantage, seizing Parasu-rāma with his trunk and giving him a twirl that left him sick and senseless. On recovering, Parasu-rāma threw his axe at Ganesa, who, recognising it as his father’s weapon (Siva having given it to Parasu-rāma), received it with all humility on one of his tusks, which it immediately severed; hence Ganesa has but one tusk, and is known by the name of Eka-danta or Eka-danshtra (the single-tusked). These legends are narrated at length in the Brahma Vaivartta Purāna. - [Previous: c5.572](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.572) - [Next: c5.574](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.574) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5) ## Cites (1) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.573](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.573) · Pramāṇa