Ganesha's Origin Story
Ganesha's Birth
Hey, it is Ganesha here, and welcome to my stories! I would like to start things off by addressing the most frequent question that is asked about me, "Why do you have the head of an elephant?" The truth is that I am not sure that I know myself! However, I will inform you of the stories that my parents told me, for I have it written down somewhere.
The story that I have heard the most about my birth is the one where my precious mother Parvati created me. She told me that one day she was lonely and desired for a child to give her company, but my father Shiva did not want to have any children. Probably something they should have thought about before getting married, but that is another story.
Still wanting to have a child my mother Parvati took it into her own hands. She went to take a bath to cleanse herself while Shiva was gone. While she was bathing, the dirt from her body came off and began to clump together in the bathtub. Being bored she began to form the dirt into the shape of a person, and, you guessed it, that person is soon to be me! She formed the most perfect, handsome, strong, dashing, smart, intelligent, friendly (...I must have gotten carried away writing this piece...) person she could imagine and breathed life into the earth, giving birth to yours truly.
Being the modest woman that she is my mother asked me to leave the bathroom and stand guard at the door to prevent anyone from seeing her while she was bathing. Being loyal to my own mother, I did so without question. This was when a strange man came up to me and tried to push me out of the way to get in to see Parvati, but I did not let him for Parvati had told me not to let anybody in. I did not know this at the time, but the man was actually my father Shiva, and he sure was mad that some kid was telling him what he could and could not do. All I really remember from there was him yelling at me and then blacking out as he swung his trishula at me…
Eventually I came through, but everything seemed different. I could hear everything – whispers from the other room, birds outside, and mice roaming under the house. I woke up in the same bathroom I was born in and looking around I saw myself in the mirror, but my head was that of an elephant!
Shiva with Parvati and Ganesha (Source)
From what my mother Parvati told me, Shiva was so mad to have an intruder in his house that he cut my head clean off. Any mother would be angry at the death of her son. No more so than my mom Parvati, as she had desired for years to have a child, only to have me die within hours of my birth. She ordered Shiva to fix this and to bring me back to life, and boy am I glad that she was so stubborn about it. Shiva sent out his army to bring back the head of the first creature that they saw near our house. It just so happened to be one of Indra’s elephants that they saw first. They attached the head to me and brought me back to life as an immortal god.
And that is how I came to be. The son of a loving mother, murdered by his father, and merged with an elephant to be brought back to life...all in the same day! Some might be concerned as to why Parvati is still with Shiva after he killed me. As it turns out Shiva has actually warmed up to the idea of having a family. By showing a desire to have a family my mother forgave Shiva and they stayed together! In the next story, I will talk about my brother Kartikeya.
Author's Notes
In regards to the birth of Ganesha, there are several stories that are each deemed the ‘correct’ story about how Ganesha was born. For this storybook page, I focused on the version that I found to be most prevalent and agreed upon.
My version of the story stays true to the original story that I based it on. Ganesha is made from dirt by Parvati, sent to guard the door, and is then killed by Shiva to have his head replaced by an elephant. However, I did not simply want to retell the story verbatim as I felt that would have been no different from reading the stories yourself, so I wrote this story how I felt Ganesha would have experienced it. Given that his birth was such an event, it is very likely that Parvati and Shiva would have told Ganesha about it, maybe even around the dinner table for a good laugh. The use of a first person narrative allowed me to establish the personality behind Ganesha. Going forward it will allow me to describe his family member as Ganesha views them.
The Tales of Ancient India link provides a different story of how Ganesha was born if you would like to see a different story. However, it would have been too long for me to include it here.
Bibliography
Tales of ancient India. Cox, Edmund Charles, Sir, bart., 1856 (Online Source)
7 Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art - Chapter 1 Ganesha's Secret (Online Video Source)
Parvati Wikipedia about Ganesha's Birth (Source)