Ganapathi lost his one tusk
April -3 - 2012         (Tuesday)
The most popular story as to how Ganapathi lost his tusk is as follows. Veda Vyasa decided to compose the huge epic Mahabharata. He needed some body to write down his composition, as soon as he composes it. Ganapathi, being the God of knowledge, was requested to do this job. Ganapathi agreed on one condition. Veda Vyasa should dictate all he wants to write at one stretch and without break. Vyasa agreed but he put a condition that Bhagavan (Lord) Ganapathi should write a verse only after understanding it. After agreeing to this Ganapathi broke one of his tusks and used it as a pen. Veda Vyasa composed extremely difficult to understand verses, whenever he wanted time to think. This was the reason why Ganapathi become the one tusked God.

Padma Purana ascribes a completely different reason for this. It seems once Bhagavan (Lord) Parasurama went to Kailasa to see Bhagavan (Lord) Shiva. Bhagavan (Lord) Shiva was at that time asleep. Bhagavan (Lord) Ganapathi, who was guarding the room of Bhagavan (Lord) Shiva, did not allow Parasurama inside. A war ensued between Ganapathi and Parasurama and in this war Ganapathi lost one of his tusks because of the axe of Parasurama which had been gifted to him by Bhagavan (Lord) Shiva.

There is yet another story connecting moon to the loss of one tusk of Ganapathi. This is as follows. Once on a Vinayaka Chathurthi, Ganapathi got very large offering of very tempting Modhaks. He ate all that was offered and being unable to walk with a heavy belly, mounted on his steed, the mouse. Suddenly a snake appeared from the forest. The mouse on whom, Ganapathi was riding was terrified at the sight of a snake and started running away. Naturally Ganapathi fell from his steed and his belly broke slightly. Not loosing his presence of mind Ganapathi caught hold of the snake and tied his belly tightly. Chandra, who was seeing all this laughed at Ganapathi. The short tempered Ganapathi became very angry, broke one of his tusks and threw it at the moon. The Moon broke in to pieces. Ganapathi also cursed the moon, that, he would become a dark globe within 15 days, daily loosing one crescent and whosoever sees him on a chathurthi day (Fourth day of the waning moon) would be laughed at. Later Bhagavan (Lord) Shiva brokered a peace between Ganapathi and the moon. He said Moon will get reduced to dark as per Ganapathi’s curse and later regain his brilliance in another 15 days. (Some people ascribe the moon’s downfall due to a curse by Daksha, when he saw that out of his 27 daughters married to moon, he was showing partiality to only one girl Rohini).-----------------Compiler : Prof. Komaragiri Venkata Ramana Rao. Ph.D., (Retired Professor; Andhra University College of Engineering); Astrologer-Scienitst. Durham. NC; U.S.A.: (Tatayya = Grand-father). My e-mail address : pandit@jyothishi.com---------- I dedicate all these stories in the blog to Sri Parama  Paalakas (Supreme Rulers of this entire Universe): Bhagavan Sri Siddhi Vinayaka,  Sri Lakshmi Narayana and Sri Gouri Sankara and Sri Saraswathi and Bhagavan Sri Venkateswara !