Kārtavīryārjuna Janana
Kārtavīryārjuna was the king of Māhishmatī who had a thousand arms. The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, in its Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, tells how he came to have them. He was born with no limbs at all, and Gaṇeśa gave him a thousand arms after twelve years of tapas (austerity).
Kṛtavīrya’s imperfect vrata
Kṛtavīrya was the king of Māhishmatī and the father of the future Kārtavīryārjuna. He had tried to keep the Saṅkashṭa Caturthī vrata (a vow of fasting and worship), but he had kept it imperfectly. The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa does not blame him. It shows this as the cause of what followed.
When a son was born to him, the child had no limbs. He had no arms and no legs, and he could not move or act in the world. This brought great grief to Kṛtavīrya and his household. A king’s son without limbs was a trouble for the whole royal line. (Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 72)
Dattātreya’s visit and the mantra
Bhagavān Dattātreya came to Kṛtavīrya’s house. He is the ṛshi in whom Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva appear together, and he is the supreme guru of the Āvadhūta tradition. He saw the limbless child with divine sight and understood both the cause and the cure. He spoke kindly to the family, and then he spoke to the limbless child himself.
Dattātreya gave the child the Ekākshari Gaṇeśa mahāmantra. This is the one-syllable bīja mantra (seed mantra), the most concentrated form of Gaṇeśa’s presence. He told the child to do tapas for twelve years, to chant this mantra without a break, and to give himself fully to Gaṇeśa. (Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 72)
The twelve years of tapas
The child could not do any of the ordinary acts of life, but his inner being was strong. He began his tapas with great focus. For twelve years he sat in perfect stillness, since he could not stand or move, and he chanted the Ekākshari mantra without stopping. No outer ritual act was possible for him. His tapas rested only on the power of the mantra and on one-pointed devotion. The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa teaches that Gaṇeśa answers the devotion of the heart, not the ability of the body.
The place of this tapas was in the holy region that came to be called Pravāḷa-kshetra. (Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 73)
Gaṇeśa appears from the lake
At the end of the twelve years, Gaṇeśa appeared in a wonderful new form. He rose from the surface of a holy lake near the place of the tapas. The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa describes him in the colour of pravāḷa (coral red), glowing with a deep red like the fire of dawn. This coral-red form was very beautiful and very powerful.
Gaṇeśa entered the body of the limbless child. Where there had been no limbs, one thousand arms now appeared, each fully formed and strong. The limbless child became Kārtavīryārjuna, the king with a thousand arms, and his body showed the grace of Gaṇeśa. (Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 73)
Pravāḷa Gaṇapati and Pravāḷanagara
Kārtavīryārjuna was full of thanks. At the place where he had done his tapas, and where the lake had given up Gaṇeśa’s coral-red form, he set up a sacred mūrti (image) of Gaṇeśa. He named it Pravāḷa Gaṇapati, the coral-red Gaṇeśa, to remember the form in which Gaṇeśa had appeared. The city that grew around this holy place was named Pravāḷanagara, and Kārtavīryārjuna ruled from there.
Śesha, the great serpent who bears the earth, also did tapas at this same kshetra (holy place). He asked for strength to carry the earth. The image of Gaṇeśa that he set up was called Dharaṇīdhara, the earth-bearer. So Pravāḷa-kshetra became holy through the tapas of two great beings. Kārtavīryārjuna received his thousand arms there, and Śesha received his thousand hoods and the strength to bear the earth. (Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 73)
Sources
- Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 72–73