First appearance '', a 7th-century marble Ganesha found in
Gardez, Afghanistan, and once displayed at Dargah Pir Rattan Nath,
Kabul. Some scholars have proposed an elephant–headed anthropomorphic figure on
Indo-Greek coins from the 1st century BCE to be an early representation of Ganesha, but this has been strongly contested. Others have suggested Ganesha may have been an emerging deity in India and southeast Asia around the 2nd century CE based on the evidence from archaeological excavations in Mathura and outside India. The first
terracotta images of Ganesha are from 1st century CE and were found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram, and
Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with an elephant head, two arms, and endomorphic physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd–3rd centuries CE). Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly-recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries CE. Some of the earliest known Ganesha images include two images found in eastern Afghanistan. The first image was discovered in the ruins north of
Kabul, along with those of
Surya and
Shiva and is dated to the 4th century. The second image found in
Gardez, known as the
Gardez Ganesha, has an inscription on the pedestal that has helped date it to the 5th century. Another Ganesha sculpture is embedded in the walls of Cave 6 of the
Udayagiri Caves in
Madhya Pradesh. This is dated to the 5th century. An early iconic image of Ganesha with elephant head, a bowl of sweets and a goddess sitting in his lap has been found in the ruins of the
Bhumara Temple in Madhya Pradesh, and this is dated to the 5th-century
Gupta period. Other recent discoveries, such as one from Ramgarh Hill, are also dated to the 4th or 5th century. An independent cult with Ganesha as the primary deity was well established by about the 10th century. Narain summarises the lack of evidence about Ganesha's history before the 5th century as follows: The evidence for an even more ancient Ganesha, suggests Narain, may reside outside Brahmanic or Sanskritic traditions, or outside geocultural boundaries of India. Ganesha appears in
China by the 6th century and his artistic images in temple settings as the remover of obstacles in South Asia appear by about 400 CE. He is, states Bailey, recognised as goddess Parvati's son and integrated into
Shaivism theology by early centuries of the common era.
Possible influences ,
Java, Indonesia Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way: Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed '''' form exists it cannot be presumed to represent . There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. had yet to make his debut." The
Pashupati seal (c. 2300 BCE - 2000 BCE) depicts 4 animals including an elephant around a deity who is claimed by some to be
Shiva. Brown notes that this seal indicates the sacredness of elephants before Vedic period. One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four
Vinayakas (). In the
Yajurveda, the were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the and in Buddhist Tantras. Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in
Indian art and
coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of
Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.
Vedic and epic literature I manuscript of the
Mahabharata depicting
Vyasa narrating the
Mahabharata to Ganesha, who serves as the scribe The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: ''
) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda
, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to —who is the deity of the hymn—and only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet , translated "Lord of the companies (of the
Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent
Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha. The Sangam period Tamil poet
Avvaiyar (3rd century BCE), invokes Ganesha while preparing the invitation to the three Tamil Kingdoms for giving away in marriage of Angavay and Sangavay of
Ceylon in marriage to the King of
Tirucovalur (pp. 57–59). Two verses in texts belonging to
Black Yajurveda, '
(2.9.1) and ' (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th-century commentator
Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk () and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the '''' have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity". Ganesha does not appear in the
Indian epic literature that is dated to the
Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem
Mahabharata (1.1.75–79) says that the sage
Vyasa () asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on the condition that Vyasa recites the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the
Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during the preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for 's dictation of the
Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and
Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the
Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in
South Indian manuscripts of the
Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term '
is found in some recensions of the ' and '
that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to ' ("Creator of Obstacles") in
Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.
Puranic period Stories about Ganesha often occur in the
Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed of c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th-10th centuries. In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in
Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that: Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of
Smartism.
Adi Shankara popularised the "worship of the five forms" (
Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha,
Vishnu, Shiva,
Devi, and
Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalised the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.
Second Millennium CE Scriptures ,
Central Vietnam|left In the
Ganapatya tradition founded in the
Ganesha Purana and the
Mudgala Purana, Ganesha is worshipped as one of the five principle deities along with Siva, Vishnu, the Sun, Ganesha, and the Goddess. The date of composition for the
Ganesha Purana and the
Mudgala Purana—and their dating relative to one another—has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comment about dating and provide her own judgment. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the
Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text. R.C. Hazra suggests that the
Mudgala Purana is older than the
Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the
Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the
Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the
Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the
Brahma, the
Brahmanda, the
Ganesha, and the
Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture in the
Ganapatya tradition, the Sanskrit
Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th century. The
Ganesha Sahasranama is part of the Puranic literature, and is a litany of a thousand names and attributes of Ganesha. Each name in the
sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. Versions of the
Ganesha Sahasranama are found in the
Ganesha Purana. == Beyond India and Hinduism ==