“Oh, Ganesa! thou art a mighty lord; thy single tusk[[23]] is beautiful, and demands the tribute of praise from the Indra of song.[[24]] Thou art the chief of the human race; the destroyer of unclean spirits; the remover of fevers, whether daily or tertian. Thy bard sounds thy praise; let my work be accomplished!”
Thus Ganesa is the chief of the Di minores of the Hindu pantheon, as the etymology of the word indicates,[[25]] and like Janus, was entrusted with the gates of heaven [591]; while of his right to preside over peace and war, the fable related affords abundant testimony. Ganesa is the first invoked and propitiated[[26]] on every undertaking, whether warlike or pacific. The warrior implores his counsel; the banker indites his name at the commencement of every letter; the architect places his image in the foundation of every edifice; and the figure of Ganesa is either sculptured or painted at the door of every house as a protection against evil. Our Hindu Janus is represented as four-armed, and holding the disk (chakra), the war-shell, the club, and the lotos. Ganesa is not, however, bifrons, like the Roman guardian of portals. In every transaction he is adi, or the first, though the Hindu does not, like the Roman, open the year with his name. I shall conclude with remarking that one of the portes of every Hindu city is named the Ganesa Pol, as well as some conspicuous entrance to the palace: thus Udaipur has its Ganesa dwara, who also gives a name to the hall, the Ganesa deori; and his shrine will be found on the ascent of every sacred mount, as at Abu, where it is placed close to a fountain on the abrupt face about twelve hundred feet from the base. There is likewise a hill sacred to him in Mewar called Ganesa Gir, tantamount to the Mons Janiculum of the eternal city. The companion of this divinity is a rat, who indirectly receives a portion of homage, and with full as much right as the bird emblematic of Minerva.[[27]]
We have abandoned the temple of the warlike divinity (Devi), the sword of Mars, and the triumphal toran, to invoke Ganesa. It will have been remarked that the Rana aids himself to dismount by placing his hand on one of the columns of the toran, an act which is pregnant with a martial allusion, as are indeed the entire ceremonials of the “worship of the sword.”
Analogies to Western Customs. Oaths by the Sword.
In the Runic “incantation of Hervor,” daughter of Angantýr, at the tomb of her father, she invokes the dead to deliver the enchanted brand Tyrfing, or “Hjalmr’s bane,” which, according to Getic custom, was buried in his tomb; she adjures him and his brothers “by all their arms, their shields, etc.” It is depicted with great force, and, translated, would deeply interest a Rajput, who might deem it the spell by which the Khanda of Hamira, which he annually worships, was obtained.
Incantation
Hervor—“Awake, Angantýr! Hervor, the only daughter of thee and Suafu, doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tomb the tempered sword which the dwarfs made for Suafurlama.
“Can none of Eyvors’[[31]] sons speak with me out of the habitations of the dead? Hervardur,[[31]] Hurvardur?”[[31]]
The tomb at length opens, the inside of which appears on fire, and a reply is sung within:
Angantýr—“Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why dost thou call so? I was not buried either by father or friends; two who lived after me got Tyrfing, one of whom is now in possession thereof [593].”