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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Ganapati – Ekadanta

Lord Ganesha is also known as Ekdanta (one toothed). There are a number of myths associated with him being one-toothed.

The most common one is do with the epic Mahabharata. Since sage Vyasa was going to recite a poem of epic proportions he asked Lord Ganesha to write it for him. But Ganehsa’s condition was that he would write only if it was recited uninterruptedly. The sage countered with his condition that he would do so if and only if Ganesha understood what he wrote. This way, Vyasa would take a breather by reciting a difficult verse! Anyways the dictation began and while writing, his pen broke. To avoid a delay, Ganesha broke off one of his tusk and continued to write.

Down South the prevalent belief is that ploughing first began with Lord Ganesha ploughing with the help of one of his tusks. One more instance of the Lord’s association with harvest.

In some other reference it is said that Lord Ganesha lost one of his tooth in a battle with Parshurama (Vishnu’s avatar), when Parshurama’s axe hit him on one of his tusks.

2 comments:

  1. Hi utkarsh, I know another story about the loss of his tusk (don't know whether it's true or not). Once Ganesha went to some feast and had stomach full of food at night. He was so loaded that he tied a snake to his stomach. Seeing this, the moon laughed. Ganesha got so angry, he broke off his tusk and hit with it to the moon, and a black spot said to be appeared on the moon.

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  2. Yes, this is a well known myth! Thanks for writing in.

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