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Ganesha: His Relationship to Hinduism and Buddhism

The Story Behind Ganesha's Elephant Head

Ganesh is the Indic archetype for the warrior-guardian. In the cosmology of Vedic times, Ganesha is elephant-headed, having had been decapitated by his father, Shiva, during a drunken rage.

Why was Rama angry?

His son Ganesha had been retained by his mother Parvati to guard her door from unwanted intrusions during her bath.

Once he sobered up, Shiva realized his error, and asked the animals who would donate their head to replace Ganesha. Only the loyal war elephant offered her head to replace Ganesha's, seeing as Ganesha was her master. It is said that the elephant reincarnated as Ganesha's consort...

The Myth of Ganesha

In actual fact, Parvati created Ganesha because Shiva was away so much she missed conceiving and giving birth to another son. (See the link in the following URL for more details.)

Here's a link to the etymology and background for Ganesha, who may actually had been a tribal leader of a group of indigenous tribes called the Vināyakas who were conquered by the ancient Aryans of India.

Also, the Vinayaka is mentioned in Buddhist Tantra as the the six-armed form of the Buddhist protector Mahakala (Shadbhuja), which is an emanation of Avalokiteshvara standing atop an elephant headed supine figure.

Relationship between the Vinayakas and Ganesha

Quite possibly then, the Vinayakas were mythologized as demons (psychological manifestations of spiritual evil which creates difficulties and obstacles) in the Veda.

With Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, the psychological aspects of the mind represented by the Hindu god Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles, were spiritually "propitiated" through Buddhist meditation to serve the Buddha.

Thus, the Buddhist Vinayaka represents the emanation of Avalokiteshvara known as the Buddhist protector Mahakala, who represents absolute reality without attribute, form or quality.

Later in East Asian Buddhist history Mahakala becomes one of the Chinese Seven Gods of Fortune, the God of Darkness (in Chinese, Dà hēi tiān (大黒天), and in Japanese, Daikokuten.

Through Daikokuten's relationship with Marici, Vinayaka is related to Bhaisajya Guru Buddha, the Medicine Buddha.

Reference:

Vinayaka's connection to Buddhism: http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=207