Ganesha in the Purana

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The majority of the legends about Ganesha are contaneid in the Shiva Purana,

Linga Purana, Brahmavaivarta Purana, Skanda Purana and in the Padma Purana

and also in the two Upa Purana, the Ganesha Purana and the Magdala Purana.

In these two last texts Ganesha is considered as Absolute God, to whom

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva must obey and from whom they receive the necessary

help to save the world from evil.

They are the reflex of the primitive totemic cult of the elephant, that was

absorbed from Induism.

The assimilation was very slow but was certanly helped from the diffusion of

the ancient legends about the elephant God.

For the philosophers Ganesha represents the OM, symbol of the Brahma , the

sound from which the world was generated.

For the theologians Ganesh is the incarnation of Vaak, the Verb. But for

commun people he is the protagonist of fantastic stories that since

centuries in India are told to children to make them sleep.