Dairāsada and the 56 Vināyakas

Dairāsada was an asura, the son of Bhasmāsura. He attacked Kāśī, the holy city under the care of Mahotkaṭa (Gaṇeśa in the Kṛta yuga). Mahotkaṭa answered by making fifty-six forms of himself, the Vināyakas, and placing them in seven rings around the city. In the centre he set Ḍhuṇḍhirāja. The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa tells this in Chapters 39–43 of the Krīḍā Khaṇḍa.

Dairāsada attacks Kāśī

Dairāsada was the son of Bhasmāsura, the asura who received from Śiva the vara (a boon) of reducing to ash whatever he touched. Bhasmāsura was destroyed in the end through the action of Bhagavān Vishṇu. His son Dairāsada took on both his father’s line and his fierce nature.

Dairāsada attacked Kāśī, the holy city under Mahotkaṭa’s care. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 39)

The attack was an attack on the field of moksha (liberation) itself, the city that Śiva holds dear for all time. Mahotkaṭa’s answer did not stop at defeating Dairāsada’s army. It changed the sacred plan of Kāśī for ever.

The fifty-six Vināyakas appear

To meet Dairāsada’s attack, Mahotkaṭa drew on his own tejas (divine radiance and energy) and made fifty-six forms of himself at the same moment. These were not outside beings or things made by magic. They came directly from Gaṇeśa’s own light. Each was fully Gaṇeśa, each had full power, and each stood at a fixed point in a direction. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 39–40)

They were set in seven rings (āvaraṇa) around Kāśī, with eight Vināyakas in each ring. One stood at each of the eight directions: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west and northwest. Seven rings of eight make fifty-six.

The Vināyakas as lasting guardians

The fifty-six Vināyakas did not vanish after Dairāsada was beaten. They stayed as the permanent ring of guards around Kāśī. A person who enters Kāśī from any direction, at any time, passes through the guarding field of the fifty-six Vināyakas before reaching the inner holy places. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 41)

The Krīḍā Khaṇḍa lists their names and places in Chapter 43. Among them are:

• the Pañcamukha Vināyaka (five-faced), at the door of Viśveśvara
• the Eka-pāda Vināyaka (one-footed), at Tuṇḍana-pura

Ḍhuṇḍhirāja set as the central guardian

At the centre of all seven rings stands Ḍhuṇḍhirāja, the highest Vināyaka of Kāśī. Mahotkaṭa made the fifty-six Vināyakas as the outer rings and set Ḍhuṇḍhirāja at the centre. This completed the guarding plan that has protected Kāśī ever since. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 42)

The name Ḍhuṇḍhirāja

Chapter 43 explains the name Ḍhuṇḍhirāja. It comes from the Sanskrit root dhuṇḍh, which means “to search, to seek, to look into”.

Gaṇeśa wanted the most auspicious place in all three worlds for his lasting home. He searched every loka (world), every tīrtha (holy place of pilgrimage), every sacred mountain and river. He looked through the whole of creation. At the end of this search he decided that Kāśī, the eternal city of his father Śiva, was the most auspicious place in all creation. He therefore set himself there as its lasting guardian, the one who searched and found. So the name Ḍhuṇḍhirāja means “the ruler who searched”. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43)

The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa (Chapter 57), also gives the name from the same root, from Gaṇeśa’s search that ended at Kāśī.

The stotra of Ḍhuṇḍhirāja

Chapter 43 also holds a stotra (hymn of praise) to Ḍhuṇḍhirāja. It praises his names, his nature and his place as the eternal guardian of Kāśī. It joins the setting of Ḍhuṇḍhirāja to the whole plan of the fifty-six Vināyakas, and shows Ḍhuṇḍhi as the source point from which all fifty-six go out. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43)

Where the Ḍhuṇḍhirāja account sits

The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, tells of Ḍhuṇḍhirāja’s setting in the Kṛta yuga, in the time of Dairāsada’s attack and Mahotkaṭa’s answer. The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, tells of it at the time of Śiva’s return to Kāśī after Divodāsa gave up his kingdom.

Sources

• Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 39–43
• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 57