VINAYAKI DEVI

WRITTEN BY: R.HARISHANKAR

INTRODUCTION

Vinayaki is an elephant-headed Hindu goddess. Her details are not clearly defined. Only few details are available about her in Hindu scriptures and very few images of this deity exist.

The goddess is generally associated with the elephant-headed god of wisdom, Ganesha. She does not have a consistent name and is known by various names such as Vinayaki, Vighneshvari and Ganeshani.Vinayaki is sometimes also seen as the part of the sixty-four yoginis. In the Jain and Buddhist traditions, Vinayaki is an independent goddess.

Puranas

Elephant-headed females appearing in the Puranas are demonesses or cursed goddesses. Vinayaki, not related to Ganesha, also appears in the Puranas. In the MatsyaPurana, she is one of the Matrikas, created by the god Shiva to defeat the demon Andhaka. In this connection, she may be considered as a shakti of Shiva, rather than Ganesha. She also figures in a list of shaktis in the LingaPurana.

However, the Devi Purana identifies Gananayakior Vinayaki as the shakti of Ganesha, basedon her elephant head and the capacity to remove obstacles like Ganesha, and includes her as the ninethMatrika. Though generally the number of Matrikas is seven in sculpture, nine Matrikas became popular in eastern India. Apart from the classical seven, Mahalakshmi or Yogeshvari and Ganeshani or Ganesha were added as eighth and ninth Matrika respectively.

Shilparatna describes a female form of Ganesha (Ganapati) called Shakti-Ganapati, who resides in the Vindhyas. The deity has an elephant head and two trunks. Her body is of a young woman, vermilion red in colour and with ten arms. She is pot-bellied and with full breasts and beautiful hips. This icon probably belongs to Shaktism, the Hindu Goddess-worshipping sect. However, this form is also interpreted as a composite of Ganesha and his shakti, due to the presence of the twin trunks.

In a Buddhist text, the goddess is called the siddhi of Vinayaka. She contains many of Lord Ganesha’s characteristics. Like Ganesha, she is the remover of obstacles and has an elephant’s head with only one tusk. She is also called the daughter of the god Ishana, an aspect of Shiva.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded, that Goddess Vinayaki, whether relates to Vinayaka or Parvathi, is a powerful goddess possessing all the features of Lord Vinayaka. She is having the power equivalent to that of Lord Vinayaka. Let us pray to Goddess Vinayaki and be blessed. Let us chant the nama‘OM SREE VINAYAKIYE NAMAHA’.

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