File:The popular religion and folk-lore of northern India (1896) (14781107595).jpg

Identifier: popularreligionf01croo (find matches)
Title: The popular religion and folk-lore of northern India
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Crooke, William, 1848-1923
Subjects: Folklore -- India Religion, Primitive Mythology, Hindu India -- Religion
Publisher: (London) A. Constable & co.
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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f guardian, and this, as we have already seen, probablymarks a stage in his promotion. He has, according to the last census, only five thousandfollowers in the Panjab, as compared with one hundred andand seventy-five thousand in the North-Western Provinces. Worship of Ganesa. On pretty much the same stage as these warden godlingswhom we have been considering is Ganesa, whose namemeans lord of the Ganas or inferior deities, especiallythose in attendance on Siva. He is represented as a short,fat man, of a yellow colour, with a protuberant belly, fourhands, and the head of an elephant with a single tusk.Parvati is said to have formed him from the scurf of herbody, and so proud was she of her offspring that she showedhim to the ill-omened Sani, who when he looked at himreduced his head to ashes. Brahma advised her to replacethe head with the first she could find, and the first she found > Sherring, Sacred City, iig. 2 Panjab Notes and Queries, i. 35. 3 Central Provinces Gazetteer, 259.
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r r The Heroic and Village Codlings. hi was that of an elephant. Another story says that Ganesashead was that of the elephant of Indra, and that one of histusks was broken off by the axe of Parasurama. Ganesa isthe god of learning, the patron of undertakings and theremover of obstacles. Hence he is worshipped at marriages,and his quaint figure stands over the house door and theentrance of the greater temples. But there can be littledoubt that he, too, is an importation from the indigenousmythology. His elephant head and the rat as his vehiclesuggest that his worship arose from the primitive animalcultus. The Worship of the Great Mothers. From these generally benevolent village godlings we passon to a very obscure form of local worship, that of theGreat Mothers. It prevails both in Aryan and Semeticlands,^ and there can be very little doubt that it is foundedon some of the very earliest beliefs of the human race. Nogreat religion is without its deified woman, the Virgin, Maya,Radha, Fa

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