Fasts of Hindu Gods and Goddesses- Ganesha

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India is a land of unity in diversity. Her underlying eternal force pervades in various walks of life may it be literature, society or culture It has a tremendous capacity to welcome, blend and tolerate various philosophies and life styles. Its deities are no exception to it every deity has its separate identity and still it forms part of one Supreme power.

Lord Ganesha is no exception to it a common man accepts him as a son of Mahadeva Parvati but some consider him as the creator of universe as well as its preserver and destroyer also The Elephant-faced God represents the elephant's power of wisdom and if enraged it can trample the mightiest. Its characteristics are in line with Indian power of wisdom, tolerance and to prove heavy for the enemy.

A lot of literature related to Ganesha is available in Sanskrit and to some extent in Hindi also. But a lot of folk literature is still limited to oral culture. The present work is a blended mixture of Sanskrit, Hindi and folk oral-culture presented to the Non-Hindi speaking population in India and abroad. It will be useful to the Hindi speaking people also because folk oral-culture is not accessible to everybody.

Moreover folk oral-culture is not generally approved by person of so called 'high culture' strata or of pseudoscientific temperament. Here an attempt has been made to present the rationale of each story. These time-tested stories represent certain human instincts and behaviour. In good olden days these stories were developed as a part of oral curriculum of oral-culture. Those who could not follow serious literature found consolance in these simple stories.

This work related to Ganesha has been presented in three parts:

Part-A It contains introductory notes about Ganesha-Its meanings, reference in old literature, symbolic meanings, reasons for popularity, Ganapatya sect, family life, types of fasts, ways of Ganesha's worship etc.

Part-B It contains twelve stories related to Ganesha's various aspects-why he is first laudible, his birth and marriage, his omnipotent and benevolent power, his penance for theft etc. These stories are very popular in Hindi speaking belt of North India including Punjab. The author heard these stories in his home village in Haryana. These stories are very popular in walled and rural area of Delhi State also. The speciality of these stories is that any one of them is related before any main story of any fast. This symbolises remembering Ganesha before starting any work.

Part-C It contains sixteen stories connected with lunar calendar months, starting from Chaitra and ending with Purushottama month i.e., leap year. Most of these stories have their roots in Pauranic literature. It is believed that these stories were related in different ages by different narrators-Ganesha to Parvati, Shiva to Parvati, Lomas to Rishis, Krishna to Yudhishthir etc. This centuries-old tradition gives additional faith to their modern listeners.

**Contents and Sample Pages**