Today's quote is a mangalashloka (मङ्गलश्लोक) or couplet of prayer/benediction placed at the beginning of an official land-grant document from the Vijayanagara Empire (14th-17th century). My source is the book Prachina-Lekha-Mala (प्राचीनलेखमाला) Vol. I published by the Nirnaya Sagara press in 1892 (available here; see page 178).
Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:कारणं जगतां वन्दे कण्ठादुपरि वारणम्|मातामहमहाशैलं महस्तदपितामहम्||
kAraNaM jagatAM vande kaNTHAdupari vAraNam|
mAtAmahamahAzailaM mahastadapitAmaham||
mAtAmahamahAzailaM mahastadapitAmaham||
Loose
translation: I eulogize the powerful entity that is the origin of all
worlds, is an elephant above the throat, has a great mountain for a
maternal grandfather, and has no paternal grandfather at all.
Aside: I admit that this is one of those writings that lose their charm in translation. This is because it relies mainly on wordplay for effect :)
Notes:
1. Anupraasa (the repetition of sounds) appears again: the first half-verse begins and ends with the rhyming words कारणम् and वारणम्, and the second is strewn with copies of the sequence mah (मह्)!
2. Ganesha's matrilineal connection with Himaalaya -- or more properly Himavat (हिमवत्), the personification of the majestic Himalayas -- has seldom been the subject matter of art, the above composition being an exception, of course. There are also quite a few colonial-era paintings from Bengal depicting Himavat's wife Menakaa, or very rarely the Mountain King himself, receiving Parvati (identified with Durga) with open arms while an infant Ganesha couched in his mother's lap seems eager to jump into the embrace of his grandparent. Called Agamani (Bengali: আগমনী, Devanagari: आगमनी) paintings, they are based on the local belief that Shiva's wife visits her parents along with her children during Durga Puja (I mentioned this in my post White, yellow, and red). In this regard, I am also reminded of a popular yet anonymous Bengali Agamani song, "Giri, Gonesh aamaar shubhokaaree!" ("O Mountain, Ganesha is beneficial to me!") in which Menakaa pours her heart out to her husband in praise of Ganesha. But as in most other songs of this genre, Menakaa here has merged with the common Bengali mother: she goes from admitting to having worshiped the elephant-headed god for her daughter's safe arrival to expressing her grandmotherly yearning for a glimpse of Ganesha!
Himavat in Mughal attire greets daughter Uma and grandson Ganesha in front of his Georgian mansion. Oil on canvas.
Bengal c. 1890-1900.
3. The word used for elephant here -- vaarana (वारण) -- literally means 'warding off', 'preventing' or 'opposing', and is used to refer to the mighty pachyderm for 'its power of resistance' (according to Indologist Monier-Williams). Ironically, vaarana is also another name for the hooked goad, more commonly called an ankusha (अङ्कुश), traditionally used by Indian mahouts to control elephants and carried by Ganesha in most depictions as one of his attributes! You will be treated to several other Sanskrit words for elephant in future posts, for obvious reasons.Bengal c. 1890-1900.
4. Yet again, the deity is not mentioned by name, and is indirectly addressed as 'महस् तत्' or 'that power'!
5. The stanza under consideration captures within its tiny scope the fluid and chaotic notion of divinity that is generally (but debatably) celebrated as the hallmark of Oriental thought. Ganesha is the source of all creation ('कारणं जगतां') but he is also the grandchild of the spirit of a mountain range that is obviously part of creation. On top of that, the reference to the non-existence of Ganesha's paternal forebears implies that the author believes Shiva to be an uncreated (or self-created) primordial being! Such seemingly self-inconsistent snippets are a dime a dozen in Indic religious literature, and date all the way back to the Rigveda itself!
The renowned philologist Max Müller had to coin the tongue-twister 'kathenotheism' in order to describe the peculiar Vedic practice of extolling one god, say Agni, as all-powerful and supreme in one hymn, and then promptly demoting them while conferring their powers and titles on another god, say Indra, in another hymn. In later ages, it became fashionable for religious encomiasts to equate their object of adulation (whether an established high god or a deified human being) with the all-encompassing mystical entity called Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) that reveals itself in multiple illusory forms in spite of being formless in reality. At the same time, they would also allude to popular myths and beliefs associated with said object of adulation, so that their opuses would often end up being potpourris of inconsistencies, ambiguities, exaggerations, conflations, and other such things with nice big names.
Here, the basic principle is that Brahman is beyond the scope of thought and words, so human logic does not apply to it. Hence, human logic was forgone with complete creative abandon by many a writer of sacred poetry. The useful theory of absolute and partial incarnations of divinities also provided a convenient justification for such writings which might otherwise be deemed nonsensical. Finally, it is worthwhile to mention here that the display of religious pluralism in the above verse is very much in keeping with the spirit of tolerance that is said to have prevailed in the empire where it was produced. A staunch Shaivite, while revering Ganesha deeply as the chief of Shiva's ganas (गण) or minions, would probably not go to the extent of addressing him as the source of creation!
The renowned philologist Max Müller had to coin the tongue-twister 'kathenotheism' in order to describe the peculiar Vedic practice of extolling one god, say Agni, as all-powerful and supreme in one hymn, and then promptly demoting them while conferring their powers and titles on another god, say Indra, in another hymn. In later ages, it became fashionable for religious encomiasts to equate their object of adulation (whether an established high god or a deified human being) with the all-encompassing mystical entity called Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) that reveals itself in multiple illusory forms in spite of being formless in reality. At the same time, they would also allude to popular myths and beliefs associated with said object of adulation, so that their opuses would often end up being potpourris of inconsistencies, ambiguities, exaggerations, conflations, and other such things with nice big names.
Here, the basic principle is that Brahman is beyond the scope of thought and words, so human logic does not apply to it. Hence, human logic was forgone with complete creative abandon by many a writer of sacred poetry. The useful theory of absolute and partial incarnations of divinities also provided a convenient justification for such writings which might otherwise be deemed nonsensical. Finally, it is worthwhile to mention here that the display of religious pluralism in the above verse is very much in keeping with the spirit of tolerance that is said to have prevailed in the empire where it was produced. A staunch Shaivite, while revering Ganesha deeply as the chief of Shiva's ganas (गण) or minions, would probably not go to the extent of addressing him as the source of creation!
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