Ganesha

 

Ganesha (Gaņeśa) Ganesha God of Obstacles

 

1 Etymology and other names 2 Iconography 2.1 Common attributes 3 Worship and festivals 3.1 Ganesh Chaturthi 4 Associations 4.1 Aum 4.2 Buddhi 4.3 First chakra 4.4 Mouse as vahana 5 Family and consorts 5.1 Buddhi, Siddhi, and Riddhi 5.2 Interpretations of relationships 5.3 Motif of shaktis 6 Rise to prominence 6.1 First appearance 6.2 Possible influences 6.3 Vedic and epic literature 6.4 Puranic period

 

Motif of shaktis

A distinct type of iconographic image of Ganesha shows him with a single human-looking shakti (śakti). According to Ananda Coomaraswamy, the oldest known depiction of Ganesha with a shakti of this type dates from the sixth century AD. The consort lacks a distinctive personality or iconographic repertoire. According to Cohen and Alice Getty, the appearance of this shakti motif parallels the emergence of tantric branches of the Ganapatya cult. Six distinct forms of "Shakti Ganapati" can be linked to the Ganapatyas. Of the thirty-two standard meditation forms for Ganesha that appear in the Sritattvanidhi (Śrītattvanidhi), six include a shakti. A common form of this motif shows Ganesha seated with the shakti upon his left hip, holding a bowl of flat cakes or round sweets, with him turning his trunk to his left to touch the tasty food. In some of the tantric forms of this image, the gesture is modified to take on erotic overtones. Some tantric variants of this form are described in the Śāradātilaka Tantram.

Prithvi Kumar Agrawala has traced at least six different lists of fifty or more aspects or forms of Ganesha each with their specific female consorts or shaktis.In these lists, goddess names such as Hrī, Śrī, and Puṣṭī are found. However, Buddhi, Siddhi, and Riddhi do not appear on any of these lists, which also do not provide any details about the personalities or distinguishing iconographic forms for these shaktis. Agrawala concludes that all of the lists were derived from one original set of names. The earliest of the lists occurs in the Nārada Purāṇa (I.66.124-38), and appears to have been used with minor variations in the Ucchiṣṭagaṇapati Upāsanā. These lists are of two types. In the first type the names of various forms of Ganesha are given with a clear-cut pairing of a named shakti for that form. In the second type, as found in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa (II.IV.44.63-76) and the commentary of Rāghavabhaṭṭa on the Śāradātilaka (I.115), fifty or more names of Ganesha are given collectively in one group, with the names of the shaktis given collectively in a second group. The second type of list poses some problems in separating and properly connecting the names into pairs due to ambiguities in the formation of Sanskrit compound words.