You know that humans are gregarious beings. There are some living beings who live in groups or clans, and some who live in isolation. In very olden days, human beings lived in clans, and the leader of such a clan would invariably be a lady then known as the gotramátrká [clan-mother]. But subsequently this system was replaced by another system in which the leader of the clan would be a man, known as gotrapitá [clan-father]. When the leadership of a clan was vested in the clan-mother, there was both a matrilineal order and a matriarchal system of inheritance.

An example of the matrilineal order: Suppose a person asked your name. You would reply, “My name is such-and-such, my mother’s name is such-and-such, and my grandmother’s name is such-and-such.” No one bothered to know who the father was, and in fact, there was no system of marriage prior to Shiva. Shiva was the first person to marry, and the oldest system of marriage is known as the Shiva system of marriage. This introduction of the system of marriage raised human beings one step higher than the animals.

But everyone knew who the mother was, so the order was a matrilineal order. Often the sons were named after their mothers. For instance, if the mother’s name was Maodgalii, the son would be named Maodgalyáyan; if her name was Rúpasári, the son would be named Sáriputta. If the mother’s name was Mahápát́alii, obviously the son’s name would be Pat́aliiputra – the one who built the city of Patna. Thus the sons would be known to the society through their mothers. If the mother’s name was Prthá or Prthu, the son’s name would be Pártha. One of the names of Arjuna was Pártha. Arjuna’s mother’s name was Kuntii, so Arjuna was also known as Kaonteya. In those days of matrilineal order, the mother’s name was very important.

And the system of inheritance was matriarchal, that is, the daughters would inherit the property. From the mother, the daughter would receive the property; from her, her daughter; and so on. This sort of matriarchal system of inheritance is still found in Meghalaya, among the Nayars of Kerala and also partly, not fully, among the people of Bengal.

Later the matrilineal order was replaced by the patrilineal order. If you asked people about their gotra, they would at once mention the name of the first gotrapitá. Gradually the system of inheritance changed to a patriarchal one. The son would inherit his father’s property; from him, his son would inherit the property; and so on. The daughters were almost completely deprived of ancestral property.

In some places there is a mixed system, as in Bengal, where both the sons and daughters inherit paternal property. In Bengal a sister’s sons are entitled to inherit their maternal uncle’s property after his death. This is in contrast to the system practised in other parts of India, where the property is not transferred to a different gotra because the system is a totally patriarchal one. Anyway, in those days of matrilineal order, women enjoyed unlimited freedom and influence in society, while men had practically no rights at all. I say that this was not an ideal system. In the patriarchal social system, men enjoy unlimited freedom, which is not an ideal arrangement either.

Sabái mánuśa, sabáikár
Niktir ojane samán adhikár.

[All are human beings, All are entitled to equal rights.]

The way women are being deprived of their rights today is something criminal.

In those days of matrilineal order, people introduced the system of mother worship, and from that emerged the custom of cańd́ii pújá, the worship of cańd́iká shakti, the power of the group-mother. In those days the leader of a clan would invariably be a woman, a clan-mother.

Yá devii sarvabhúteśu Matrrúpeńa saḿsthitá
Namastasyae namastasyae namastasyae namo namah.
Yá devii sarvabhúteśu Shaktirúpeńa saḿsthitá
Namastasyae namastasyae namastasyae namo namah.

[I offer my deepest salutations to that goddess who is in all created beings in the form of the Universal Mother. I offer my deepest salutations to the goddess who is immanent in all created beings in the form of the Supreme Force.]

Thus the people, being inspired by this idea, developed the system of mother worship in early stages of the Puranic Shakti Cult, in the last phase of Post-Shiva Tantra. Alongside this developed the custom of kumárii pújá [virgin worship], just to please the future clan-mothers. So the custom of cańd́ii pújá gave rise to the custom of virgin worship. One who is a maiden today will be a clan-mother in due course; so it was wise to please these clan-mothers-to-be by offering them something.

Thus we see that cańd́ii pújá or kumárii pújá was essentially a social affair, but in Post-Shiva Tantra and in the first phase of the Puranic Shakti Cult, a religious tinge was added to it. This is how the worship of virgins originated. Now this system has almost disappeared.

The situation changed a great deal in subsequent periods. The matrilineal order was stopped, and the supremacy of gotramátá came to an end. Then came the age of the patriarchal system, and along with it the leadership of the clan vested in the gotrapitá.

The same tradition perpetuated itself even in the patriarchal system; that is, the head of the clan had to be kept in good humour with gifts and offerings. He enjoyed unlimited power, as the clan-mother did in the heyday of the matrilineal order.

Cańd́iká shakti is the cańd́a shakti, the great power exercised by the clan-mother. This cańd́ii shakti or cańd́a shakti reached its climax during the days of Post-Shiva Tantra and the Puranic Shakti Cult. We shall say more about the Puranic Shakti Cult later. So you understand how the concept of cańd́ii originated.

Now, unless related to Shiva, no one will be given any recognition or status; so there was no other way than to declare Cańd́ii to be the wife of Shiva, although the idea of cańd́ii represents the social history of collective living of prehistoric human beings. The prehistoric age has also its own history – of course, unwritten history. Many things happen which remain unrecorded; often people suffer from agonies which remain unexpressed. The sufferers have to endure silently, suppressing their inner pains. Similarly, the prehistoric age carries its unrecorded history silently.

In the case of Cańd́ii, an attempt was made to find some relationship between Cańd́ii and Shiva, and it was given a religious and social colour. During the days of the supremacy of the clan-mothers, they were approached with folded hands and flattered in all respects, and people requested everything from them – food, clothes, etc. The subservient people would pray to them, Rúpaḿ dehi, jayaḿ dehi, yasho dehi, dviśo jahi – “Give me beauty, give me victory, give me fame and kill my enemies.” Without the express approval of the clan-mother, the other members of the clan would not fight for victory. Hence the prayer, “Kill my enemies.”

The days of cańd́iká shakti in this world passed, and the males became the heads of clans: the patriarchal system came into being. Now both the patrilineal order of society and the patriarchal system are found everywhere in the world.

The members of a tribe used to live in a group, and each group had its leader. All the members of the society used to obey his orders. He was always given the highest honour and the first preference, and was honoured first in all social functions. In Sanskrit the word for group is gańa, so gańesha or gańapati means the group leader, the head of the clan. The Bengali or Sanskrit equivalent for gańapati is dalapati. From dalapati, it becomes da-la-a-i or dalai; in Bengali dalui. There is a surname Dalui in Bengali.

The idea of Gańesha is a prehistoric one: it proves the supremacy of the group leader, or the head of the clan, of prehistoric days. With the decline of the matrilineal order, and with the increasing growth of the patrilineal order, the group leader became more and more powerful. Thus Gańesha precedes all other entities in order of preference. Some people humorously say that since the worship of Gańesha precedes the worship of all other gods, Gańesha must have been worshipped just before Shiva’s marriage was solemnized.⁽¹⁾ This may be true, perhaps he was worshipped. But such worship may indeed not have been performed, because though Shiva was not an Aryan, the marriage was held at the residence of the father of Gaorii, who was an Aryan girl.⁽²⁾

This Gańesha was the son neither of Shiva nor of Párvatii nor of Durgá, because he was a group deity, a social deity of prehistoric times. His worship has nothing to do with dharma: the worship of a group leader is in no way related to dharma. That is why the Sanskrit equivalents for gańesha are gańapati and vináyaka. Vináyaka means an ideal leader, a very powerful leader.

So when we reflect on the prehistoric stage of human society, we find that Gańesha has no relation to Shiva or His wife Párvatii, far less to Durgá, a Puranic goddess who came later than Shiva by many thousand years. Now people may ask two things about Gańesha: Why is he so fat? And why does his face resemble that of an elephant?

There must be some reasons for this. In my childhood days, when I was reluctant to eat rice, my aunt would psychologically try to make me eat it. She would say, “Why don’t you like to eat rice? Look, Brother Gańesha is so fat because he eats a lot of rice!” Then she would recite,

Gańesha Dádá pet́t́i nád́á
Bhát kháy gádá gádá.

[Brother Gańesha has a belly like a pot;
The reason is, he eats a lot.]

On hearing this, I would burst into laughter, and taking advantage of this opportunity, she would push morsels of rice into my mouth.

Why is he so fat? All people want their leader to be a stout, strong personality. With this end in view, when they started making images of Gańesha, they created a powerfully-built figure. This is the secret behind Gańesha’s heavy build. The members of a particular clan would naturally desire their group leader to be a strong and stout person: “Our leader – is he an ordinary person? No, he is not just like any Tom, Dick or Harry. The face of our leader is like that of the biggest animal in the world!” So an elephant’s head was placed on the body of Gańesha. Thus the primitive humans have struggled up to the present day; and that is why they portrayed Gańesha as a fat god with the face of an elephant.

But then he was elevated to the status of a god of religion in the days of the Puranic Gańapati Cult. What is this Gańapati Cult? There is a story in the Puranas that the mother of Gańesha was Durgá. Now when Gańesha was born, his maternal uncle, Shani, came to pay a visit to his nephew. In mythology, Shani is the name of a god and a planet also: Shani, or Saturn, is one of the planets of the sun. However, when Shani’s eyes fell on the newborn babe, the child’s head disappeared. What was to be done in that predicament? So the severed head of an elephant was grafted onto the child’s body, and since then Gańesha’s face has resembled that of an elephant. This is just a mythological story, and the story has nothing to do with Shiva and Párvatii, for Gańesha is the son neither of Shiva nor of Párvatii. According to mythology, he is the son of Durgá, a Puranic goddess.

Thus far we have discussed the physical appearance of Gańesha. But this is not all; one more interesting thing should be mentioned here, which concerns the collective psychology of human beings. You know that the ancient environment in which human beings lived was fraught with danger on all sides. Not only that, there were frequent severe clashes among individuals and also among clans. Thus in those days the growth in the number of members of a society was very important; and this is the reason why ancient humans started phallic worship. Now, pigs and mice multiply faster than other animals, but pigs are dirty creatures – they eat dirty things – so pigs could not be considered as a fit mount for the group leader. For that reason mice were considered: they also multiply by leaps and bounds. People wanted their leader’s mount to be a creature whose numbers increased in the shortest possible time; then naturally their numbers would also multiply, giving them an edge over their enemies.

Even today, in those areas of India, particularly the western areas, where there is the influence of Gańapati or Gańesha, the mice are not killed. There are temples in many parts of India where the mice are worshipped. Thousands and thousands of mice are heartily fed there; nobody kills them. Some people say humorously, “Gańesha is such a corpulent person, he must be very wealthy also. He must be the owner of warehouses, and wherever there is a warehouse there must be mice. That’s why mice are selected as mounts for Gańesha.” This is just a joke, not a fact.

Now, it is necessary to say something here about Gańesha’s wife. You will understand later why it is necessary. By now you must have understood the origin of the idea of Gańesha. He represents the group leader of the prehistoric humans. But in the age of the Puranas, many, many stories were created about the different gods and goddesses. According to one story, the wife of Gańesha is Tulasii, but according to some Puranas, Śaśt́hii is the wife of Gańesha. In Puranic society, the goddess Śaśt́hii is worshipped once a month after a child is born. According to other Puranas, Śaśt́hii is the wife of Kárttika, while in some local Puranas in certain parts of India, the wife of Gańesha is the goddess Santośii. So there is a tremendous difference of opinion among the Puranas. Now the question arises, “What about Kalábao, who is beside Gańesha? Is she not then the wife of Gańesha?”

The prehistoric human beings were completely unaware of chemistry. They would procure medicines mostly from plants and herbs. They considered those plants and herbs having medicinal values as gods. In fact, all the important áyurvaedik treatises mentioned that almost all trees and plants have some kind of medicinal value. But of those trees and plants, the few that have greater medicinal value are more loved and respected by the people. They take special care to plant those species.

The prehistoric human beings did not know the science of pharmacology; they directly used the plants and herbs to cure diseases. In those days people, particularly in India, came in contact with nine kinds of special plants having special values, such as medicinal value, food value, etc. They worshipped these nine kinds of plants not as gods and goddesses of religion, but as very useful things. Of course godhood was imposed on trees afterwards, and I will mention later, when I describe the teachings of Shiva, what Shiva said in this connection. These nine kinds of plants, in which the people discovered special medicinal and food values, were kadalii, kacu, haridrá, jayantii, ashoka, bilva, dád́imba, mán and dhánya.⁽³⁾

Kadalii is a very nutritious food item. In case of intermittent fever, kadalii [plantain] is a very good medicine. Moreover, it helps the liver, pancreas, and kidneys to function smoothly, and it is also a good medicine for dysentery. Moreover, it is an ideal food for those mothers whose children die young. Overripe bananas (preferably with black patches) are a very good medicine for children who develop rickets because of the scarcity of milk after their mother’s death. If you make a paste of them, this has even greater value than mother’s milk. In the case of calves who lose their mothers, they too become healthy if they are fed one part paste of overripe bananas to two parts chátu.⁽⁴⁾ Thus plantains and bananas have numerous qualities, and hence the people of those days began to worship them.

The second plant is kacu, arum. Arum has less food value, but it is very good for the kidneys.

The third plant is haridrá, turmeric. Turmeric is a good spice and is highly antiseptic also. Here haridrá does not mean dry turmeric, but green turmeric (káncá halud) taken fresh from the earth. The turmeric which is dried in the sun is called shuńt́ halud, which people buy in the market for cooking purposes. Green turmeric is not used in cooking; it has a poisonous effect. People may die if they consume much of it. But it is antiseptic; it cures skin diseases and purifies the blood. However, it is so poisonous in large amounts that even crocodiles die of it.

When many people gather together in one place, there is every possibility of the spread of disease. So there was a practice in ancient Bengal and India that before any social festival, people would bathe, applying a paste made from green turmeric. And this practice continues to some extent even today; normally it is done before weddings.

Next is jayantii. Its roots have great medicinal value, especially for white leprosy. In fact, jayantii is a medicine for four out of the seven kinds of discolouring skin diseases. That is why the people used to worship jayantii.

Next is ashoka, which is called in Hindi siitá ashoka. Simply ashoka, in Hindi, is devaduru [pine-tree]. But the ashoka which has medicinal value is siitá ashoka. It is an ideal medicine for all kinds of female diseases. The wine made out of ashoka is ashokariśt́a or ashokásava. Thus ashoka has great medicinal value.

Next is bilva, bel-fruit. Unripe bel is the best medicine for all stomach diseases. Unripe bel should be eaten after roasting; ripe bel is not very good. Bil means “minute hole”: the fruit which enters the minute holes and does good to the stomach is called bilva. Because of its extraordinary qualities, it has another name – shriiphala [“a fruit with excellent qualities”].

Next is dád́imba. Its bark, roots and fruits are all very good medicines for all kinds of female diseases. In áyurvaedik schools of medicine, as practised both in India and in China, these qualities of dád́imba are recognized. Next is mán. Of all the varieties of starchy food that help in building flesh in the human body, mán is unique. It has better qualities than potatoes or even jackfruit seeds.

Jackfruit seeds have two-and-a-half times more food value than potatoes. Prior to the arrival of potatoes in India, people here used to eat jackfruit seeds. And mán is even higher in food value than jackfruit seeds. Besides this, mán has a cooling effect on the body. It is a good medicine in the summer, when the body becomes very heated and people get nosebleeds. It is both food and medicine.

Next is dhánya, paddy. It has numerous qualities. One of the common uses of rice is this: one can easily prepare wine from it, and from the wine, various types of medicine can be prepared. People often utilized this quality of rice in those days.

Because of the special qualities of these nine kinds of plants, people had great reverence for them. They used to worship these plants by putting vermilion marks on them. Later, during the days of Post-Shiva Tantra, these nine plants were considered to be the nine types of expression of the internal powers of cańd́iká shakti, which we are discussing. Otherwise, how could they have so many qualities? This is how people thought at that time.

These special powers of cańd́iká shakti, as manifested in kadalii (in fact, these things are all the imagination of the authors of the Puranas) were known as Brahmáńii shakti. The divine power latent in arum was called Káliká shakti. The one in turmeric was Durgá shakti. The power in jayantii was Kárttikii shakti. The one found in ashoka was named Shokarahitá shakti. The one in bilva was Shivá. The power in dád́imba was named Raktadantiká. The power in mán was called Cámuńd́á. And finally, the divine power in paddy was named Lakśmii. Even to this day, illiterate villagers, and sometimes literate people also, say “O Mother Lakśmii,” and salute in reverence when their feet accidentally trample grains of rice.

Now the collective name of all nine kinds of divine power of cańd́iká shakti latent in the aforesaid plants is Navadurgá, and the collective name of these nine kinds of plants is Navapatriká.⁽⁵⁾ When the concept of Durgá developed in the days of the Puranas, about 1300 years ago, the worship of this Navapatriká was introduced simultaneously. Idols came later, idols having eight or ten hands.

Of these nine plants, the plantain plant was dressed in a sari and placed at the side of Gańesha. Now the plant thus dressed looks like a woman standing beside Gańesha, a woman with a veil on her head. People started thinking that she was the wife of Gańesha and the daughter-in-law of Durgá. But it was not so. Actually the plantain plant represents the Brahmáńii shakti, one of the supposed divine powers of cańd́iká shakti, not anyone’s wife.

Let me give you one more proof that Brahmáńii shakti has no relation to Gańesha. According to the ancient Aryan and non-Aryan Tantric system, wives should take their position on the left side of the husband. So one of the Sanskrit equivalents of “wife” is vámá. Vámá means one who stands on the left. The famous Bháratacandra has written in one of the poems,

Annapúrńá uttarilá gáuṋganiir tiire
“Pár kara” baliyá d́ákilá pát́aniire.
Sei ghát́e kheyá dey Iishvarii pát́anii
Tvaráy ánilá naoká vámásvar shuni.

Vámá means a woman, but this Kalábao, the plantain tree, is located on the right side. Were she the wife of Gańesha, how could she be on his right? She would certainly be on the left. But since other gods and goddesses are on the left, where is there room for her? So it is not true that she is the wife of Gańesha, or the daughter-in-law of Durgá. In fact, the name of Gańesha’s wife is Tulasii.

According to some Puranas, Śaśt́hii is Gańesha’s wife, while according to other Puranas, Śaśt́hii is the name of Kárttika’s wife.

Now let us return to Gańesha. Gańesha was the group leader of prehistoric days. Some time after Post-Shiva Tantra, in the Puranic Age, a special cult, the Gańapati Cult, arose centring around Gańapati. You should remember that some five cults arose following the Puranic doctrine that had its origin some 1300 or 1400 years back: Shaevácára, Sháktácára, Vaeśńavácára, Gáńapatyácára and Saorácára.

Let us throw some light on Shaevácára [the Shiva Cult]. The main goal of human beings is Shivasamádhi [final enlightenment]. Human beings should direct all their outer expressions of life towards the inner world, and finally merge in Paramátmá [Supreme Soul]. This is the sum and substance of the Shiva Cult.

Yacched váunmanasi prájiṋastad yacched jiṋánamátmani;
Jiṋánamátmani mahati niyacched tad yacchecchántátmani.

This shántátmá [referred to in tad yacchecchántátmani of the shloka] means Shivátmá [Supreme Entity]; one who merges in the Supreme Entity attains Shivasamádhi, which is the goal of every spiritual aspirant.

Next is Sháktácára [the Shakti Cult]. According to Sháktácára, the static principle contained in támasikii shakti has to be merged in Bhavánii shakti, or Káliká shakti (the acoustic root for Káliká shakti is saḿ). And then the mutative principle has to be withdrawn from Káliká shakti and merged in Bhaeravii shakti (the acoustic root of Bhaeravii shakti is shaḿ).

Bhaeravii shakti means energy in action. All people want to come into contact with the mutative force. The acoustic root of energy is raḿ and that for the mutative principle is shaḿ. People want energy supported by the mutative force so that they might enjoy name and fame. So they crave for sha + ra = shra (in the feminine gender, shrii, beauty). Thus there was a custom in olden days for people to prefix their names with the word shrii. The old custom has fallen into some disuse: shrii is used less nowadays. But I hope that these days people will not become vishrii [ugly]! Then the sentient forces [or principles] have to be withdrawn from Bhaeravii shakti, and merged in Kaośikii shakti, or Mahásarasvatii, the spiritual effulgence.

These are the successive phases of the Puranic Shakti Cult. This cult begins with Káliká shakti, but Káliká is not Kálii, the wife of Shiva, nor the Káliká Shakti of Buddhist Tantra or Post-Shiva Tantra, nor Káliká the Puranic goddess. Rather, this Káliká is a philosophical term, the inner spirit of a system of sádhaná.

Next is Vaeśńavácára [the Viśńu Cult].

Vistárah sarvabhútasya Viśńorvishvamidaḿ jagat;
Draśt́avyamátmavattasmádabhedena vicakśańaeh.

Viśńupuráńa –Trans.

Viśńu pervades each and every thing of this universe, and because He is all-pervading, He is called “Viśńu”. And the inner spirit of Vaeśńavácára is to realize this all-pervading Viśńu.

Viśńuparistitah Viśńuh Viśńuh khádati Viśńave;
Kathaḿ hasasi re Viśńuh sarvaḿ Viśńumayaḿ jagat.

A devout Vaishnavite is seeing Viśńu in everything. Then he sits down to eat rice from a plate. He has a dog on his lap who partakes of food from the same plate. Another scholar who happens to discover that the Vaishnavite gentleman and his dog are eating from the same plate bursts into laughter. He asks how a devout Vaishnavite can eat food from the same plate as a dog. The Vaishnavite replies, “Viśńu in the form of a dog is sitting on the lap of a man, another manifestation of the same Viśńu. Viśńu the man and Viśńu the dog are eating rice, another manifestation of Viśńu. And why are you, another manifestation of Viśńu, laughing? Everything in this universe is Viśńu.” This is the Puranic Viśńu Cult.

The fourth is Gánápatyácára [the Gańesha, or Gańapati, Cult]. When the ancient custom of group leadership – gańapativáda, vináyakaváda or gańeshaváda – became converted into a cult during the Puranic Age, the idea was adopted that the group leader was the leader of the universe. “The Supreme Entity is the leader of our group. We will try to satisfy Parama Puruśa.” With this sort of outlook, the Gánápatya Cult evolved during the Puranic Age. They are worshippers of gańapati, the group leader. This is the Gańapati Cult.

Last is the Saora [Sun] Cult. This cult was propagated by the Brahmans who came from Shákadviipa. Shákadviipa was the southern part of Russia, with its capital at Tashkent. The original Greek name of this area was Sacdonia. These Brahmans who migrated to India from Sacdonia did not recognize the Vedas or anything else; they were astrologers and teachers of áyurveda. Since they cultivated the science of astrology and astronomy, they used to worship the sun-god, Súrya. The word saora is derived from súrya plus the suffix śńa, giving the sense of “offspring”; saora means “one who is the worshipper of the sun-god”. When it developed into a full-fledged cult, the idea behind it was that the sun-god, who was the creator of this world, was also the creator of the solar system; that is, all the planets – earth, Mars, Mercury, etc. – have come from the sun. The sun is their father. Similarly, the father of this universe is the sun-like Parama Puruśa; so the sun is worshipped as the Supreme Progenitor of this universe. This is the inner essence of the Súrya Cult, which was spread by the Sacdonian Brahmans. But it was not well accepted anywhere in India; it was only accepted to a moderate extent in some places.

These were the five main cults of the Puranic Age. None of them became widely established. Some enjoyed a limited popularity, while some barely existed at all. Some have a philosophical basis, while others do not.

I told you previously about Gauṋgá. Párvatii had a son, Bhaerava. He used to practise Tantra, and was a favourite of Shiva. Kálii had a daughter Bhaeravii. She also used to practise Tantra and was also a favourite of Shiva. But Gauṋgá’s son, Kárttika, was very extroversive in outlook. He was more fascinated with the external world, with less interest in the subjective world. This did not please Gauṋgá. So in order to remove Gauṋgá’s sorrow, Shiva was very affectionate towards her, and for that reason, people used to say jokingly that Shiva was dancing with Gauṋgá on His head.⁽⁶⁾ The fact was different, as I have explained.

Then later on, during the days of the Puranic Shakti Cult and the Shiva Cult, this incident was symbolized by tying Gauṋgá to Shiva’s matted locks of hair, and from Gauṋgá’s mouth, the flow of the River Gauṋgá, or Ganges, originated. This was merely the imagination of the authors of the Puranas.

It has been said, Shauṋkaramaolinivásini vimale, and Haripadapadmavihárińi Gaunge, himavidhumuktádhavalatrunge – “The flow of the Ganges is the water which washed the feet of Náráyańa in heaven, and this water ultimately flowed into Shiva’s matted locks. Then, piercing through the snow-white moon, it spread in all directions in a bright cascade.” Shauṋkaramaolinivásini vimale – “The clear water that dwells in Shiva’s matted locks”. This means the water of the Ganges.

In any case, this is all the imagination of the authors of the Puranas.

Now, the story goes that this son of Gauṋgá was Kárttika, and as I have said earlier, Kárttika was of extroversive nature.

The author of the Purana has said something more about Kárttika which does not seem to be reasonable: he imagined that Kárttika was the son of the River Gauṋgá, or Ganges. Now the question is, how can a river be the mother of a human baby? Common sense does not accept this view, but the Puranas clearly state that Kárttika was the son of the River Ganges, and that while floating in the current, he got stuck on a sandbar. In that situation, the boy started crying bitterly, and the six stars in the sky took pity on the crying child. As the boy sucked the breast milk of these six stars, he was called Śad́ánana [Having Six Faces], or Murugam, or Balasubrahmanyam or Kárttikeyam. According to the Purana, since the boy sucked the breast milk of the star Krttiká with his principal face, the boy was named Kárttika. Krttiká is one of the twelve stars after which the months of the Bengali calendar are named.

Though a little off the subject, let us mention that the name of the star is Krttiká, with double “t”. Krttiká + sna = Kárttika, so in the spelling of Kárttika, there should be two “ta’s”. According to the rules of Sanskrit grammar, the consonant after r may be double; that is, r may be followed by one consonant or two consonants. For instance, in the spelling of dharma and karma, one is at liberty to use either one “m” or two “m’s”. But in the spelling of Kárttika, two “ta’s” must be there, because the original word was Krttiká, not Krtiká. Had the mother’s name been Krtiká, then one “t” would have been permissible. There are some words like Kárttika, Varttika, where there is a double “t”.

So regarding Kárttika, we find that he is Shiva’s son, no doubt, but not the son of Párvatii nor of Durgá. He is definitely the son of Gauṋgá, another wife of Shiva; but he is not the son of the River Gauṋgá. And in this human frame he can by no means have six faces; he can have only one face.

There is a popular belief that Kárttika was a bachelor. In the folk-songs current in the districts of Hooghly, 24 Parganas, etc., Kárttika is referred to as unmarried. This is wrong. According to some Puranas, his wife’s name is Śaśt́hii, but according to other Puranas, his wife’s name is Devasená. (In ancient times the ladies had names like Vasantasená, Sharatsená, Devasená, etc. So in that sense, Kárttika was “Devasenápati”, that is, the “Husband of Devasená”. People wrongly interpret “Devasenápati” to mean “the Commander-in-Chief of the Devas”.⁽⁷⁾ But actually, it means that Kárttika was the husband of Devasená.) So this proves that Kárttika was not a bachelor.

These are all stories of the Puranas. In our younger days, we would recite,

Kárttik t́hákur hyáḿlá
Ekbár áse már saunge
Ekbár áse eklá.

[Ill-bred Kárttika Thakur
Once comes with his mother, Durgá
Once comes alone.]

But this was wrong, for Kárttika’s mother was not Durgá; he was the son of Gauṋgá. So by now you are fairly well-acquainted with the details of Shiva’s family.

According to different Puranas and other anecdotes, Kárttika was a man of extroversive nature. That is why the author of the Puranas selected the most beautiful bird, the peacock, as his mount; there is no other mount: there is no other reason behind this selection. That is all about Kárttika.

Of all the gods and goddesses who are claimed to be related to Shiva, we have found that Durgá was not Shiva’s wife, and the concept of Durgá came five thousand years after Shiva. Neither Lakśmii nor Sarasvatii is the daughter of Shiva. Gańesha is much more ancient that Shiva because the custom of worship of the group leader is a very ancient one. Kárttika is Shiva’s son, no doubt, but he is the son neither of Párvatii nor of Durgá, but of Gauṋgá. And we have also discussed their mounts in a fairly detailed way.

An attempt was made in the past and is being made in the present to relate these gods and goddesses to Shiva. The only reason for this is the unrivaled and unparalleled influence of Shiva on the minds of the masses. Those gods and goddesses who are said to be related to Shiva acquire some prestige, because all bask in the glory of Shiva.

Footnotes

(1) Gańesha is considered mythologically to be the son of Shiva. –Trans.

(2) The Aryans did not worship Gańesha. –Trans.

(3) Kadalii – plantain or banana; kacu – arum, Colocasia antiquorum Schott.; haridrá – turmeric; jayantii – Sesbania aegyptiaca Pers.; ashoka – Saraca indica Linn.; bilva – bel, wood-apple; dad́imba – pomegranate; mán – Alocasia indica Schott.; dhánya – paddy, unhusked rice. –Trans.

(4) Flour made from roasted gram (also called chick-pea or garbanzo) or sometimes roasted wheat or corn. –Trans.

(5) Nava means “nine”, hence, “nine Durgás” and “nine plants”. –Trans.

(6) “To dance with someone on the head” meant to dote on someone. –Trans.

(7) Senápati means “commander-in-chief.” –Trans.