Chap. II.]
HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.
37
A.D.
.shipped, particularly in the Deccan, where his temples probably outnumber
those of any god except Siva. The Peisliwa Bajee Rao had an image of him
in solid gold, with eyes of diamonds. Its value was estimated at £50,000. It ^-inesa,
is not thought prudent or safe to commence a journey, or a building, or even
transact any ordinary matter of business, without invoking him, and hence,
both to remind worshippers of this duty and furnish convenient means of
performing it, his statues are set up on the public roads and other open places
of resort. Not unfrequently, too, his image is placed over the doors of houses and
shops, as a guarantee for the prosperity of those who occupy them. The god to
whom all this homage is paid makes no pretensions to a very exalted origin.
He had no father, and in the ordinary sense of
the term, cannot be said to have had a mother,
though that relationship is both claimed and
gloried in by Parvati. The fable is, that while
she was bathing, she collected all the scum and
impurities of the bath, kneaded it into the
human form, and gave it life by pom'ing water
of the Ganges upon it. Accounts differ as to
tlie mode in which he became possessed of the
elephant's head. Some say that ParVati made
him so at first; but the more generally received
account is, that he had originally a human
head, and was deprived of it by Siva, who,
finding him placed as a sentinel at the door of
Parvati's bath, and not knowing who he was,
cut it off at a stroke. Afterwards, on seeing
his wife overwhelmed with grief for the loss
of her child, Siva seized an elephant's head,
which happened to be the first that came in his way, and placed it on Ganesa's
shoulders. One of the most remarkable circumstances connected with the
mythology of Ganesa is the existence of a living incarnation of him at Chincore,
near Poona. This incarnation was first realized in the form of a saint of the
name of Maroba, who was removed to heaven, while Ganesa not only took
his place but undertook to occupy it in the persons of Maroba's descendants
to the seventh generation. This imposture, gross as it is, has found multitudes
credulous enough to be deceived by it, and the Brahmins, who profited by it,
found little difiiculty, even after the seventh generation elapsed, in continuing
the farce of Ganesa's living incarnation. In 1809, Maria Graham paid a visit
to the reputed deity. Her account of it is as follows: — "The whole place
looked dirty, and every window was crowded Avith well-fed sleek Brahmins,
who doubtless take great care of the Deo's revenues. We found his little
godship seated in a mean verandah, on a low wooden seat, not any way
Ganesa. — From idol in British Museum
Living incar- nation of Ganesi.
