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 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.