Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/129

Rh him as their own. It is for this reason that his shrines are found generally associated with those of other deities—Siva and Vishnu. The largest temple built solely in honour of Ganesa in India is the Uchchippillaiyar temple on the top of the famous and beautiful rock at Trichinopoly.

Though this god is invoked on several occasions during the year, there is a special day in every year which is set apart particularly for his worship, and this day is called the Vinayaka Chaturthi day, which falls on the fourth lunar day of the bright half of the month of Simha. The Tamils term this day Pillaiyar Chavutti day.

Of all the figures in the Hindu Mythology, that of Ganesa or Pillaiyar must be most familiar to every European. In the bathing ghat of every river and underneath the pipal tree will be seen a figure in a sitting posture, short and stout, with a protuberant stomach and four hands, riding a mouse and with the body of a man and the head of an elephant. This is the image Ganesa or Pillaiyar, and there is not a, single village in the whole of India which does-not possess at least half a dozen of these familiar 8