Ganesh Chaturthi:
Tomorrow is Ganesh Chaturthi which is also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi. It is a festival celebrated on the auspicious occasion of arrival of Ganesh on the earth from Kailash Parvat – Mountain with his Mother Goddess Parvati/Gauri.
The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesh Clay Idols in homes, or publicly on elaborate Pandals (Temporary Abode of Shri Ganesh). Observations include chanting of Vedic Hymns and texts such as, prayers and brata (fasting). Offerings and Prasadam from the daily prayers, that are distributed from the Pandal to the community, include sweets such as modaka as it is believed to be a favourite of Lord Ganesh.
The festival ends on the tenth day after start, when the idol is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or sea.
In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 statues are immersed annually. Thereafter the clay idol dissolves and Ganesh is believed to return to Mount Kailash to Parvati and Shiva. The festival celebrates Lord Ganesh as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the God of Wisdom and intelligence and is observed throughout India.
The earliest mention of Ganapati is found in the Rigveda. It appears twice in the Rigveda, once in hymn 2.23.1, and thereafter in hymn 10.112.9. Both of these hymns imply a role of Ganapati as “the seer among the seers, abounding beyond measure in food presiding among the elders and being the lord of invocation”, the hymn in mandala 10 states that without Ganapati “nothing nearby or after is performed without Ganesha.”
It is unknown when the festival started. It became a major social and public event with sponsorship of Shivaji after Mughal-Maratha wars. It became popular again in the 19th century after public appeal by Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak, who championed it as a means to circumvent the colonial British government ban on Hindu gatherings through its anti-public assembly legislation in 1892 in post-Vedic texts such as the Grhya Sutras and thereafter ancient Sanskrit texts such as the Vajasaneyi Samhita, the Yajnavalkya Smriti and the Mahabharata mention Ganapati as Ganesvaras and Vinayak. Ganesh appears in the medieval Puranas in the form of “God of success, obstacle remover”. The Skanda Purana, Narada Purana and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, in particular, profusely praise him. Beyond textual interpretations, archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggest Ganesh had become popular, was revered before the 8th century CE and numerous images of him are traceable to the 7th century or earlier.
Although it is unknown when (or how) Ganesh Chaturthi was first observed, the festival has been publicly celebrated in Pune since the era of Shivaji (1630–1680, founder of the Maratha Empire). After the start of the British Raj, the Ganesh festival lost state patronage and became a private family celebration in Maharashtra until its revival by Indian freedom fighter and social reformer Lokmanya Tilak.
I followed with the greatest curiosity crowds who carried in procession an infinite number of idols of the God Ganesh. Each little quarter of the town, each family with its adherents, each little street corner I may almost say, organises a procession of its own, and the poorest may be seen carrying on a simple plank their little idol or of papier mâché… A crowd, more or less numerous, accompanies the idol, clapping hands and raises cries of joy, while a little orchestra generally precedes the idol.
– Angelo de Gubernatis, Bombay Gazette
According to others such as Kaur, the festival became a public event later, in 1892 when Bhausaheb Laxman Javale (also known as Bhau Rangari), installed the first sarvajanik (public) Ganesh idol in Pune. In 1893, the Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak praised the celebration of Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav in his newspaper, Kesari, and dedicated his efforts to launch the annual domestic festival into a large, well-organised public event. Tilak recognised Ganesh’s appeal as “the God for everybody”, and according to Robert Brown, he chose Ganesh as the God that bridged “the gap between Brahmins and non-Brahmins”, thereby building a grassroots unity across them to oppose British colonial rule.
Other scholars state that the British Empire, after 1870 out of fear of seditious assemblies, had passed a series of ordinances that banned public assembly for social and political purposes of more than 20 people in British India, but exempted religious assembly for Friday mosque prayers under pressure from the Indian Muslim community. Tilak believed that this effectively blocked the public assembly of Hindus whose religion did not mandate daily prayers or weekly gatherings, and he leveraged this religious exemption to make Ganesh Chaturthi to circumvent the British colonial law on large public assembly. He was the first to install large public images of Ganesh in pavilions in Bombay Presidency, and other celebratory events at the festival.
Why shouldn’t we convert the large religious festivals
into mass political rallies?
—Lokmanya Tilak, Kesari, 8 September 1896
According to Richard Cashman, Tilak recruited and passionately committed himself to God Ganesh after the 1893 Hindu-Muslim communal violence in Bombay and the Deccan riots, when he felt that the British India government under Lord Harris had repeatedly taken sides and not treated Hindus fairly because Hindus were not well organised. In Tilak’s estimate, Ganesh worship and processions were already popular in rural and urban Hindu populations, across social castes and classes in Baroda, Gwalior, Pune and most of the Maratha region in the 18th century. In 1893, Tilak helped expand Ganesh Chaturthi festival into a mass community event and a hidden means for political activism, intellectual discourse, poetry recitals, plays, concerts, and folk dances.
In Goa, Ganesh Chaturthi predates the Kadamba era. The Goa Inquisition had banned Hindu festivals, and Hindus who did not convert to Christianity were severely restricted. However, Hindu Goans continued to practice their religion despite the restrictions. Many families worship Ganesh in the form of patri (leaves used for worshiping Ganesh or other Gods), a picture is drawn on paper or small silver idols. In some households Ganesh idols are hidden, a feature unique to Ganesh Chaturthi in Goa due to a ban on clay Ganesh idols and festivals by the Jesuits as part of the Inquisition.
Ganesh Chaturthi is known as Ganeshotsav. Families install small clay statues for worship during the festival. The Murti is worshiped in the morning and evening with offerings of flowers, durva (strands of young grass), karanji and modaks (jaggery and coconut flakes wrapped in rice flour dumplings). The worship ends with the singing of an aarti in honour of Ganesh, other Gods and Saints.
In Maharashtra the Marathi aarti “Sukhakarta Dukhaharta”, composed by the 17th century saint, Samarth Ramdas is sung. Family traditions differ about when to end the celebration.
Domestic celebrations end after 1-1⁄2, 3, 5, 7 or 11 days. At that time the Murti is ceremoniously brought to a body of water (such as a lake, river or the sea) for immersion.
In Maharashtra, Ganeshotsav also incorporates other festivals, namely Hartalika and the Gauri festival, the former is observed with a fast by women on the day before Ganesh Chaturthi whilst the latter by the installation of statues of Gauris. In some communities such as the Chitpavan, and the CKP, pebbles collected from river bank are installed as representations of Gauri.
In Goa, Ganesh Chaturthi is known as Chavath in Konkani and Parab or Parva (“auspicious celebration”); it begins on the third day of the lunar month of Bhadrapada. On this day Parvati and Shiva are worshiped by women, who fast. Instruments such as ghumots, Crash cymbals (ताळ(taal) in Konkani) and pakhavaj (an Indian barrel-shaped, two-headed drum) are played during the rituals. The harvest festival, Navyachi Pancham, is celebrated the next day; freshly harvested paddy is brought home from the fields (or temples) and a puja is conducted. Communities who ordinarily eat seafood refrain from doing so during the festival.
In Karnataka the Gowri festival precedes Ganesh Chaturthi, and people across the state wish each other well. In Andhra Pradesh, Ganesh Murti’s of clay (Matti Vinayakudu) and turmeric (Siddhi Vinayakudu) are usually worshiped at home with plaster of Paris Murti’s.
Public celebrations of the festival are popular, and are organised by local youth groups, neighbourhood associations or groups of trade people. Funds for the public festival are collected from members of the association arranging the celebration, local residents and businesses.
The Ganesh idols and accompanying statues are installed in temporary shelters, known as mandaps or pandals. The festival features cultural activities such as singing, theatre and orchestral performances and community activities such as free medical checkups, blood-donation sites and donations to the poor. Ganesh Chaturthi, in addition to its religious aspects, is an important economic activity in Mumbai, Surat, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kurnool.
Many artists, industries, and businesses earn a significant amount of their living from the festival, which is a stage for budding artists. Members of other religions also participate in the celebration.
In Tamil Nadu, the festival, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Pillayar Chaturthi, falls on the fourth day after the new Moon in the month of Āvaṇi in the Tamil calendar. The idols are usually made of clay or papier-mâché, since Plaster of Paris idols have been banned by the state government, but violations of this rule are often reported, Idols are also made of coconuts and other organic products. They are worshiped for several days in pandals, and immersed in the Bay of Bengal the following Sunday.
In Kerala the festival is also known as Lamboodhara Piranalu, which falls in the month of Chingam.
In Thiruvananthapuram a procession marches from the Pazhavangadi Ganapathi Temple to Shankumugham Beach, with tall statues of Ganesha made from organic items and milk immersed in the sea