Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/127

Rh is not at all corroborated by any other authority. If any regard is to be paid to this couplet, then no Brahman can worship Vishnu and no Vaisya can worship Siva, facts which are absurd on their very face, as tested by both the ancient and modern ways of Hindu faith.

Ganesa worship is a prehistoric one and it goes without saying that the couplet sometimes quoted as an authority that Ganesa is the god of the Sudras is most unfounded. On the other hand, he is worshipped by the highest class of Brahmans. There are also special sects who are called Ganapatiyas, whose sole devotion is to this deity. Vinayaka is the deity that rules over good and bad alike—controlling the evil in every case and preventing hindrances and difficulties. As such, he is the embodiment of success and of all those qualities in short which overcome hindrances in every undertaking and of their usual accompaniments—good living, plenty, prosperity, and peace. This is the one great and real reason for the popularity of the worship of this deity.

There is always a small shrine of Vignesvara, attached to all Siva temples. In the Vishnu temples too he is worshipped as Tumbikkaialvar.