Four Yuga Avatāras of Gaṇeśa in the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa

An avatāra is a form in which Paramātmā comes down into the world to protect dharma. Time, in the Purāṇas, moves through four yugas (ages): Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali. The Krīḍā Khaṇḍa of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa opens by declaring that Bhagavān Gaṇeśa, the Parabrahman (highest reality), comes into the world in each of the four yugas as a different avatāra. Each has its own form, family of birth, mount, weapon and mission.

The four avatāras are Mahotkaṭa (Kṛta Yuga), Mayūreśvara (Tretā Yuga), Gajānana (Dvāpara Yuga) and Dhūmravarṇa, also called Dhūmraketu (Kali Yuga). This teaching is one of the most distinctive parts of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa. It presents Gaṇeśa as caring for the world in every age, just as the Daśāvatāra (the ten avatāras) presents Viṣṇu.

The Framework

The Krīḍā Khaṇḍa of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa is told by Brahmā to Vyāsa. It begins with a declaration about the order of time: Gaṇeśa’s work in the world does not happen now and then by chance. It follows the rhythm of the ages. In each yuga, when asuras make themselves unbeatable by ordinary divine power and overturn the balance of dharma, Gaṇeśa comes down in a form suited to that age.

This closely matches the Vaiṣṇava teaching of the Daśāvatāra, the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu across time. The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa uses the same pattern for Gaṇeśa, showing that his presence in the world is complete and not just an addition.

The Four Avatāras

1. Mahotkaṭa: Kṛta Yuga

Name of the form: Mahotkaṭa (also called Vināyaka)
Parents: Kaśyapa and Aditi
Mount: not given in the opening declaration; in the story he acts on foot and in other forms
Mission: to defeat Devāntaka and Narāntaka, the asura sons of Raudraketu, who had conquered all three worlds through a boon from Śiva that made them unbeatable

The story of Mahotkaṭa in the Kṛta Yuga fills Chapters 1–72 of the Krīḍā Khaṇḍa. His main deeds are: killing dozens of asuras in Kāśī; setting up the 56 Vināyakas; installing Ḍhuṇḍhirāja; granting Kāśirāja (the king of Kāśī) the journey to Svānandabhuvana (Gaṇeśa’s own world); defeating Narāntaka by showing his Virāṭ rūpa (universal form); and killing Devāntaka with his own broken tusk.

2. Mayūreśvara: Tretā Yuga

Name of the form: Mayūreśvara, “lord of the peacock”
Parents: Śiva and Pārvatī
Mount: Mayūra (the peacock)
Mission: to defeat Sindhu, the daitya born of the ocean, son of Cakrapāṇi and Ugrā, who conquered all three worlds including Indra’s city of Amarāvatī

Mayūreśvara was born to Śiva and Pārvatī in the Tretā Yuga for the purpose of overcoming Sindhu’s boon of being unbeatable. He is described as six-armed, with a shining white-golden colour, riding a peacock and wearing a crest of peacock feathers. The war lasted thirty-eight chapters (Chapters 76–114), in which Sindhu’s generals, brothers-in-law and sons were killed one after another. At last Mayūreśvara showed his sahasraśirā viśvarūpa (thousand-headed universal form) and pierced Sindhu’s navel (nābhi) with his paraśu (axe). The amṛta (nectar of immortality) hidden in Sindhu’s navel flowed out, and with it went his protection. Sindhu attained mokṣa (liberation).

After the war the devas came to Mayūreśvara to thank him. Siddhi and Buddhi, the daughters of Brahmā, chose Mayūreśvara at their svayaṃvara (a ceremony where a bride chooses her husband), and Brahmā performed their marriage. Mayūreśvara then showed his pañcāyatana viśvarūpa (Chapter 126): Gajānana at the centre, Śiva in the south-east, Sūrya in the south-west, Pārvatī in the north-west and Viṣṇu in the north-east. Four devīs of the directions, Mārjārī, Virajā, Āśrayā and Muktā, were set up in the four quarters. The four-day festival of Bhādrapada was started. Mayūreśvara then gave his peacock to Kārttikeya and named him Mayūradhvaja, “the one whose banner is the peacock”, before departing.

3. Gajānana: Dvāpara Yuga

Name of the form: Gajānana, “the one with the elephant face”
Parents: Pārvatī (born in a forest; Śiva is the final source)
Mount: Mūṣaka (the mouse), which he gained in this avatāra
Mission: to defeat Sindūra, the red-bodied daitya born from Brahmā’s yawn, who conquered the earth, destroyed temples and stopped the Vedic rites

Gajānana was born to Pārvatī in the great forest of Paryalī on the Kṛṣṇā river. He had four arms, a red body and an elephant face, and his birth was announced by an ākāśavāṇī (a voice from the sky). Nandī carried the baby to Māhiṣmatī, where he was placed with Queen Puṣpikā, wife of King Vareṇya. Sindūra searched for the baby. When he found him and tried to harm him, the baby became too heavy to move. When Sindūra threw him into the Narmadā, the place became the Gaṇeśakuṇḍa tīrtha (holy bathing place). The ṛṣi Parāśara found the baby and raised him at his āśrama (hermitage).

At Parāśara’s āśrama, the child Gajānana tamed the mūṣaka. This was the gandharva Krauñca, who had been cursed to become a rat. Gajānana threw his pāśa (noose) and caught him, and the mūṣaka became his mount for ever. At the age of nine Gajānana left the āśrama and rode his mūṣaka to Sindūra’s capital, Siddhasindūravādaka (near Ghṛṣṇeśvara). He sent messengers, and Sindūra came out himself. Gajānana seized him by the throat, crushed him and smeared the red blood (sindūra) on his own body. From this come his names Sindūravadhana (“slayer of Sindūra”) and Sindūrapriya (“lover of sindūra”).

Right after the killing of Sindūra, King Vareṇya of Māhiṣmatī asked Gajānana to teach him yoga. Gajānana taught the Gaṇeśa Gītā (Chapters 138–148), a full Vedānta teaching covering karma-yoga (the path of action), jñāna-yoga (the path of knowledge), the practice of yoga, the ātman (true self), the vision of the universal form, pūjā of the divine with form and without form, the three guṇas (qualities of nature) and varṇa dharma. Vareṇya then gave up the world and attained mokṣa.

Note: The name Gajānana is also used in the story of the Kṛta Yuga, as one of Mahotkaṭa’s names. But the Gajānana of the Dvāpara Yuga is a separate avatāra with his own birth, mission and story.

4. Dhūmravarṇa: Kali Yuga

Name of the form: Dhūmravarṇa, “the smoke-coloured one” (the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa also uses the name Dhūmraketu in its opening declaration)
Mount: a blue horse
Weapon: a sword (khaḍga)
Mission: to destroy the mlecchas (those outside the fold of dharma) who take over the earth in the Kali Yuga, to restore dharma and to bring back the Kṛta Yuga

In Chapter 149 of the Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Brahmā foretells the Dhūmravarṇa avatāra to Vyāsa. The Kali Yuga is described as an age of adharma and the breakdown of society. The strong oppress the weak, the Vedic rites are given up and mlecchas overrun the earth. At that time Gaṇeśa comes down as Dhūmravarṇa, smoke-coloured, riding a blue horse and carrying a sword. He destroys the mlecchas, restores dharma and then disappears. With his departure the Kṛta Yuga returns and the cycle of time begins again.

This avatāra is traditionally understood to be still in the future: the avatāra meant for the Kali Yuga, not yet fully come. He mirrors Kalki, the avatāra of Viṣṇu for the Kali Yuga in the Vaiṣṇava tradition.

What This Teaching Means

Gaṇeśa as Protector of Dharma in Every Age

The teaching of four avatāras shows Gaṇeśa not only as the deity called upon at the start of rituals, or the one who removes a person’s obstacles. It shows him as the protector of dharma through all of time. Each avatāra answers a particular disturbance of the world’s order by an asura. These disturbances follow a pattern in which Śiva’s boons are misused, and only Gaṇeśa, the Parabrahman who stands above all boons, can set things right.

The Gap in the Boon

In both the boon of the Kṛta Yuga (to Devāntaka and Narāntaka) and the boon of the Tretā Yuga (to Sindhu), the exception in the grant by Śiva or Sūrya points directly to Gaṇeśa: “one whose toenail contains koṭi-koṭi (countless millions of) universes”. This is no accident. It is built into the teaching of the Purāṇa. Those who give boons cannot grant safety against the Parabrahman, because the Parabrahman is not one kind of being that can be named and left out. He is the source of every kind of being. So the gap in the boon expresses the truth that Gaṇeśa cannot be reduced to any single category.

Sources

Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 1
Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–72 (Mahotkaṭa)
Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 73–126 (Mayūreśvara)
Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 127–150 (Gajānana), including Chapters 130–148
Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 149 (the prophecy of Dhūmravarṇa)