The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c23.s2.76

v1.c23.s2.76

In the somewhat late Mānava Gṛhya Sūtra⁷ we have a rite prescribed for one who suffers from possession by the Vināyakas, Çālakaṭaṅkaṭa, Kūṣmāṇḍarājaputra, Usmita and Devayajana, in which a strange variety of deities are invoked, Vimukha, Çyena, Baka, Yakṣa, Kalaha, Bhīru, Vināyaka, Kūṣmāṇḍarājaputra, Yajnāvikṣepin, Kulaṅgāpamārin, Yūpakeçin, Sūparakroḍin, Haimavata, Jambhaka, Virūpākṣa, Lohitākṣa, Vaiçravaṇa, Mahāsena, Mahādeva, Mahārāja. Mahādeva is doubtless Rudra, Mahāsena appears elsewhere⁸ as a disease demon and is an epithet of Skanda, Vaiçravaṇa is Kubera. In Yājñavalkya⁹ we find a single Vināyaka, who is here son of the goddess Ambikā, and appointed by Brahman and Rudra to be the overlord of the Gaṇas, troupes, perhaps akin to those assigned to Rudra’s entourage in the Yajurveda.¹⁰ Doubtless we have here something akin to the later Gaṇeça, who is not Vedic, but it is by no means certain that we are to interpret Vināyaka as denoting ‘leader’, instead of ‘remover of obstacles’,¹¹ or the epithet Vighneça, which later is found applied to Gaṇeça, as lord of Vighnas, conceived as destroyers. The term Yakṣa,¹² which occurs in this list, is far better known in the Buddhist form of Yakkha; we find the term applied to a wondrous thing in the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa;¹³ the Ṛṣis seek to behold something of this kind, and Indra reveals to them the tortoise Akūpāra, of boundless dimension, who is clearly the cosmic tortoise who finds the earth in the ocean. The specification of the term to mean a species of spirit, usually associated with Kubera, is not found until the period of the Gṛhya Sūtras.