Ganapati

Bappa Morya

the story, in five short pages

Why we bring
him home

Once a year, for a few days, the god who removes obstacles comes to stay. This is why, and how it came to be that way.

Ganesha Reduced to Circles
No. 019Ganesha Reduced to Circles
I

A guest in the house

once a year, for a day and a half, or five, or ten

Every year, in the month of Bhadrapada, Lord Ganesha comes home. Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates his birth. It falls on the fourth day of the waxing moon, somewhere between late August and the middle of September.

For the days that follow he is not a distant figure in a temple. He is a guest in the house. Families bring a murti home and give him the best place in it. Some keep him for a day and a half, some for five days, some for the full ten. The length is rarely chosen. It is simply what your family has always done.

He is Vighnaharta, the remover of obstacles, and his is the first name spoken at every beginning. He is easy to love: fond of sweets, fond of his small companion the mouse, fond of the people who come to him.

also called
Vinayaka Chaturthi
falls on
Shukla Chaturthi in Bhadrapada, late August to mid September
kept for
a day and a half, or five, seven or ten days
ends with
visarjan; Anant Chaturdashi for the full ten
he brings
buddhi, siddhi, riddhi
II

How it travelled

from home and temple, to the street, to a whole city

Nobody invented Ganesh Chaturthi. The worship is ancient, and even the public celebration is older than the familiar story suggests. What changed, across these years, is how many people it gathered and how far it reached.

  1. long before
    An old and deep devotion

    Loved and worshipped across India for centuries, in temples and in the daily habit of speaking his name first; celebrated in public in Shivaji's Pune and under the Peshwas long before the modern festival.

  2. 1892
    The first sarvajanik Ganeshotsav, in Pune

    Bhau Rangari installs the first public Ganesha idol, at his wada in Shalukar Bol.

  3. 1893
    Lokmanya Tilak takes up the idea

    And gives it a purpose: a gathering the whole city could share.

  4. early 1900s
    The festival arrives in Bombay's mill neighbourhoods

    Girangaon, the village of mills: Lalbaug, Parel, Worli and Byculla. The neighbourhood Ganpati gave newcomers a way to belong.

  5. 12 september 1934
    Lalbaugcha Raja is installed

    The story on the next page.

  6. today
    Carried forward with care

    Shadu clay returning in place of plaster, gentler colours, and a growing tenderness towards the water he returns to.

III

Lalbaugcha Raja

navsacha ganpati, the ganpati of the vow

In the early 1930s, Lalbaug was a working neighbourhood in the truest sense: mill hands, Koli fishermen, hawkers and small traders. In 1932 the market at Peru Chawl was closed, and the people who sold there lost the one thing their living depended on, which was simply a place to stand.

As the community tells it, they turned to Ganesha and made a navas, a solemn vow: a permanent place for their market, and an idol in return. The market was built. On 12 September 1934, in gratitude, they installed him. From 1935 the Kambli family took up the making of the idol, and has shaped him ever since.

Two lines form for his darshan. The Navsachi line, for those who come to make a vow or to complete one. And the Mukh Darshan line, for those who come simply to see his face. Many wait through the night. They do not call it waiting.

The Lalbaugcha Raja murti, crowned and richly ornamented, seated before a carved backdrop.

the prayer that began it was for a place to work

Lalbaugcha Raja · NatePowell · CC BY-SA 4.0
IV

The hundred and eight names

why that number, and what we call him

A japa mala has 108 beads, so a prayer said once on each bead is said 108 times. Tradition counts 108 Upanishads, 27 nakshatras with four padas each, and twelve rashis crossed by nine grahas: every road to the number ends at the same place. It is the count of completeness, the number you reach when you have gone all the way round.

So when his names are gathered into a hymn, an ashtottara shatanamavali, there are 108 of them, and there are 108 drawings in this book. These are the names, in the order they are usually recited, each with what it means.

  1. 001Akhurathawhose chariot is drawn by the mouse
  2. 002Alampatathe ever eternal
  3. 003Amitbeyond compare
  4. 004Anantachidrupamayaminfinite consciousness, given form
  5. 005Avaneeshlord of the whole world
  6. 006Avighnathe unobstructed
  7. 007Balaganapatithe beloved child
  8. 008Bhalchandramoon-crested
  9. 009Bheemathe huge
  10. 010Bhupatilord of the earth
  11. 011Bhuvanpatilord of the worlds
  12. 012Buddhinathlord of wisdom
  13. 013Buddhipriyagiver of knowledge
  14. 014Buddhividhatawho ordains knowledge
  15. 015Chaturbhujthe four-armed
  16. 016Devadevagod of gods
  17. 017Devantakanashakarindestroyer of the demons' end
  18. 018Devavratawho accepts every vow
  19. 019Devendrashikaprotector of the gods
  20. 020Dharmikthe righteous, the giver
  21. 021Dhoomravarnathe smoke-hued
  22. 022Durjathe invincible
  23. 023Dvaimaturawho has two mothers
  24. 024Ekaaksharathe single syllable
  25. 025Ekadantathe one-tusked
  26. 026Ekadrishtathe single-minded
  27. 027Eshanputrason of Shiva
  28. 028Gadadharawho bears the mace
  29. 029Gajakarnathe elephant-eared
  30. 030Gajananathe elephant-faced
  31. 031Gajananetiwhose face is an elephant's
  32. 032Gajavakrawith the elephant's trunk
  33. 033Gajavaktrawhose mouth is an elephant's
  34. 034Ganadhakshyachief of the ganas
  35. 035Ganadhyakshinawho presides over the hosts
  36. 036Ganapatilord of the ganas
  37. 037Gaurisutason of Gauri
  38. 038Guninamaster of all virtues
  39. 039Haridrathe golden one
  40. 040Herambahis mother's beloved son
  41. 041Kapilathe tawny
  42. 042Kaveeshamaster of poets
  43. 043Kripaluthe merciful
  44. 044Krishapingakshathe tawny-eyed
  45. 045Krtilord of music
  46. 046Kshamakaramthe home of forgiveness
  47. 047Kshipraquick to please
  48. 048Lambakarnathe long-eared
  49. 049Lambodarathe pot-bellied
  50. 050Mahabalathe enormously strong
  51. 051Mahaganapatithe great lord of the ganas
  52. 052Maheshwaramlord of the universe
  53. 053Mahodarathe great-bellied
  54. 054Mangalamurtiauspiciousness in a form
  55. 055Manomaywinner of hearts
  56. 056Mrityuanjayaconqueror of death
  57. 057Muktidayagiver of liberation
  58. 058Mundakaramathe abode of happiness
  59. 059Musikvahanawho rides the mouse
  60. 060Nadapratithishtawho delights in music
  61. 061Namasthetuwho ends every vice
  62. 062Nandanason of Shiva, the delight
  63. 063Nideeshwaramgiver of treasures
  64. 064Omkarathe form of Om
  65. 065Pitambaraclothed in yellow
  66. 066Pramodalord of all abodes
  67. 067Prathameshwarafirst among all
  68. 068Purushthe omnipotent person
  69. 069Raktathe red-bodied
  70. 070Rudrapriyabeloved of Shiva
  71. 071Sarvadevatmanwho accepts every offering
  72. 072Sarvasiddhantagiver of skill and wisdom
  73. 073Sarvatmanthe soul of everything
  74. 074Shashivarnamof the moon's complexion
  75. 075Shoorpakarnawhose ears are winnowing fans
  76. 076Shubanthe all-auspicious
  77. 077Shubhagunakananmaster of every virtue
  78. 078Shwetaas pure as white
  79. 079Siddhidhatagiver of accomplishment
  80. 080Siddhipriyagiver of boons
  81. 081Siddhivinayakagiver of success
  82. 082Skandapurvajaelder brother of Skanda
  83. 083Sumukhaof the auspicious face
  84. 084Sureshwaramlord of all lords
  85. 085Swarooplover of beauty
  86. 086Tarunthe ageless
  87. 087Uddandanemesis of evil
  88. 088Umaputrason of Uma
  89. 089Vakratundathe curved-trunked
  90. 090Varadavinayakagiver of success
  91. 091Varaganapatigiver of boons
  92. 092Varapradawho grants wishes
  93. 093Veeraganapatithe heroic lord
  94. 094Vidyavaridhithe ocean of knowledge
  95. 095Vighnahararemover of obstacles
  96. 096Vighnarajaking over hindrances
  97. 097Vighnarajendrasovereign over obstacles
  98. 098Vighnavinashanayadestroyer of every impediment
  99. 099Vignahartademolisher of obstacles
  100. 100Vigneshwaralord of obstacles
  101. 101Vikatthe gigantic
  102. 102Vinayakathe remover, the guide
  103. 103Vishwamukhamaster of the universe
  104. 104Vishwarajaking of the world
  105. 105Yagnakayawho accepts the sacrifice
  106. 106Yashaskargiver of fame and fortune
  107. 107Yashvasinthe beloved, the ever popular
  108. 108Yogadhipalord of meditation
V

We bring him home, and we let him go

clay becomes form, form becomes presence, then returns to the water

The murti is carried home through the traffic, held steady on somebody's lap. Then comes pranapratishtha, the invocation: from that moment he is not an image in the room, he is a guest in the house. He is bathed, dressed and garlanded, and offered modak, durva grass and red hibiscus. There is arti in the morning and arti again in the evening. Children tell him things they have not told anyone else.

On the final day there is uttarpuja, a last worship. Then the same hands that carried him in carry him out again, to the water. The clay softens and dissolves and becomes the river once more. Nothing is truly lost.

Ganpati Bappa Morya,
pudhchya varshi lavkar ya

o beloved Bappa, come again soon, next year. sung out loud by thousands, feet already in the water.