Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings
by Paul B. Courtright
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Book Summary Information
Author: Paul B. CourtrightEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-03-30
ISBN: 0195057422
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings
Book Review: Must read
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a must read book. As a Hindu I know what the book says is all true. For several thousand years, the brahmins are in total control of Hinduism. From the history books we all learn that periodically arrogant countries invade and rule other countries. The brahmins went one step further - they came to India from Iran and took over both the land and its religion. They made their writings arranged into four books called Vedas, as the religious books of Hinduism. They also created additional religious literature. Their control of the Hindu religion was so complete that no body knows what they have written in those books; they were written in Sanskrit, and other non-brahmin hindus were prevented from learning Sanskrit. Common Hindus were not even allowed to go near brahmins while they were memorizing the hymns from the Vedas. If anyone was caught listening to them they were punished with molten lead in their ears! So Hinduism became the only religion in the world where its majority of followers don't even know what their religion teaches them. Under such Sanskrit-Screen they wrote whatever they wanted - vulgarity, racial epithets, Aryan supremacist ideas, manushastra etc. When these writings are translated, the truth is coming out. One of the reviewers (Kartik) wrote that caste also created Kshatrias (warrior caste). But who was controlling them and who were their ministers? The brahmins were very clever. They created them so that they will fight for them and die. Even if some Kshatrias didn't want to fight, they had no escape. Because of their caste they had to fight and die. Coming to the present, did the brahmins do anything to abolish the caste system? Slavery was abolished because a white man (Abraham Lincoln) fought against it.
Summary of Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings
Part animal and part intellectual, an image found in virtually every Indian home, Ganesa, the elephant-headed god, is one of the most important and popular gods throughout India and Hindu Southeast Asia. In this, the first comprehensive, full-length study of Ganesa, Courtright covers not merely the mythology but also the ritual, the political uses, and the modern as well as the Vedic manifestations of the god. The book begins with a consideration of the various myths of Ganesa, stories of his birth, his beheading by his father Siva, and his subsequent restoration as the lord who gives, or withholds, success in undertakings. In the end, the author turns to the role Ganesa has played in recent Indian history as the patron deity of some formulations of neotraditionalist values and ideology. Throughout the book, Courtright portrays both the complexity of the deity's many roles and stories and the integrated manner in which they come together.Excerpt from the Preface by Wendy O'Flaherty:
"Ganesa has everything that is fascinating to anyone who is interested in religion or India or both: charm, mystery, popularity, sexual problems, moral ambivalence, political importance, the works. One can start from Ganesa and work from there in an unbroken line to almost any aspect of Indian culture."
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