Kāśyapa Sṛshṭi

This account closes the Upāsanā Khaṇḍa of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa. After the great pralaya (dissolution), Brahmā told the seven ṛshis to bring forth the orders of beings. Kāśyapa Maharshi kept a thousand years of tapas to Gaṇeśa. Gaṇeśa appeared and gave him two varas (boons). Through Kāśyapa and his wives all the classes of beings were born, and from this account the twelve names of Gaṇeśa, the Dvādaśanāma, are known.

After the pralaya

At the end of the great pralaya, the whole manifest universe had gone back to the unmanifest. Brahmā came forth again to begin creation. He called the seven great ṛshis, the saptaṛshis, and told each of them to bring forth the different orders of beings. In the new cycle, creation goes forward through the saptaṛshis. Each ṛshi, by the power of tapas and the power to beget, is to give rise to the families of beings who will fill the new age.

Kāśyapa Maharshi had the widest task. He is the greatest of the saptaṛshis in the work of begetting, because nearly all the classes of living beings trace their birth through him. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 91)

Kāśyapa’s tapas

Kāśyapa knew that no act of creation can succeed without the anugraha (grace) of Gaṇeśa. Gaṇeśa is Vighneśvara, who both makes and removes obstacles. So Kāśyapa first kept a tapas of a thousand years, directed to Gaṇeśa. He chose the Ekāksharī mantra for it and kept a full, unbroken sādhana. He did one lakh (100,000) japas of the mantra. After this came the prescribed homa (one tenth of the japa count), then tarpaṇa (one tenth of the homa), and then brāhmaṇa-bhojana (one tenth of the tarpaṇa).

He did all this with perfect focus, with his mind fixed on the four-armed divine form of Gaṇeśa, and in full surrender. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 91)

The four-armed form of Gaṇeśa

When the thousand years of tapas were over, Gaṇeśa appeared to Kāśyapa in a four-armed form of great beauty and divine authority.

  • Upper right hand: pāśa (noose), for the binding of cosmic order
  • Upper left hand: aṅkuśa (elephant goad), for divine guidance
  • Lower right hand: danta (his own broken tusk), the mark of giving up for the good of the worlds
  • Lower left hand: akshamālā (rosary of prayer beads), for the power of mantra and tapas

This calm and mighty form, which holds both creating and ruling power, was the form of Gaṇeśa as the overseer of the new creation. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 91)

Gaṇeśa’s two boons to Kāśyapa

Gaṇeśa gave Kāśyapa two great varas.

  1. The power of creation. The power to bring forth, through his fourteen wives, all the classes of beings who would fill the three worlds in the new cycle. Kāśyapa’s own tejas (radiance) was filled by the anugraha of Gaṇeśa to carry the seeds of all kinds of life.
  2. Gaṇeśa as his son. Gaṇeśa gave the vara that he himself would be born as Kāśyapa’s son in the new creation. By this Gaṇeśa would be present in the created world as a person, and not only as a cosmic principle. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 91)

The fourteen wives and the classes of beings

With the boons of Gaṇeśa, Kāśyapa and his fourteen wives together gave birth to all the classes of living beings.

  • Aditi: mother of the Ādityas, the solar devas, among them Indra and Vishṇu
  • Diti: mother of the Daityas (asuras)
  • Vinatā: mother of Garuḍa and the birds
  • Kadrū: mother of the nāgas (serpents)
  • The other wives gave birth to gandharvas, apsarasas, yakshas, rākshasas, siddhas and other orders of beings.

As each class came into being and awareness, it knew that its birth came from the anugraha of Gaṇeśa flowing through Kāśyapa. In thanks, each class set up an image of Gaṇeśa under a name that showed its tie to him and its understanding of his nature. In this way the many names and forms of Gaṇeśa were set up across the three worlds. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 92)

The Dvādaśanāma: twelve names of Gaṇeśa

From the names set up by the various classes of beings, and the names given by Gaṇeśa himself in the accounts of the Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, the tradition gathered twelve chief names. These are the Dvādaśanāma of Gaṇeśa.

  1. Sumukha: the beautiful-faced
  2. Ekadanta: the one-tusked
  3. Kapila: the tawny or golden-coloured
  4. Gajakārṇa: the elephant-eared
  5. Lambodara: the large-bellied
  6. Vikaṭa: the fierce and mighty
  7. Vighnanāśana: the destroyer of obstacles
  8. Gaṇādhipa: the master of the gaṇas
  9. Dhūmraketu: the smoke-bannered
  10. Gaṇādhyaksha: the overseer of the gaṇas
  11. Phālacandra: he on whose brow the moon rests
  12. Gajānana: the elephant-faced

The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa says that one who says these twelve names at dawn or at dusk receives the full puṇya of the protection of Gaṇeśa. No vighna can arise in the life of one who keeps these names in daily remembrance. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 92)

The end of the Upāsanā Khaṇḍa

With the Kāśyapa Sṛshṭi, the Upāsanā Khaṇḍa comes to its end. Sūta Maharshi had told all these accounts to the gathered ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya. He gave the closing instruction (upasaṃhāra). All these accounts, from the slaying of Tripurāsura at the beginning to the Kāśyapa Sṛshṭi at the end, are chapters of one revelation. Gaṇeśa is the Parabrahman. His grace is the ground of all creation, holds up all devotion, and brings every undertaking of humans and devas to its fulfilment.

Sources

  • Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 91–92
  • Chapter 91: after the pralaya, Kāśyapa’s tapas, the four-armed form, the two boons
  • Chapter 92: the fourteen wives, the classes of beings, the Dvādaśanāma