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Symbolic Aspects of Ganesha in Maori Cosmology

In Point of Origin, we devoted an entire chapter to the discussion of the cosmological symbolism of eight classic incarnations of Ganesha. We referenced a well-known article called “Ganeśa as Metaphor: The Mudgala Purāna,” by Phyllis Granoff of Yale University, whose outlook was that the incarnations represent progressive stages of creation. We argued that this symbolism becomes understandable when it is examined within the context of Dogon discussions of the egg-of-the-world and the processes by which matter forms. The symbolic meanings of various ancient terms used to describe these incarnations are made even more obvious when we interpret them in relation to various correlated words of Dogon and ancient Egyptian cosmologies. However, many of the meanings are also evident in the Tamil and Turkish languages and therefore (given what we see as the likely history of transmission) take on the appearance of representing original information of the tradition, as opposed to later developments. Looked at from this perspective, any later culture such as the Maori who may have emerged from this same tradition also might reasonably have knowledge of key aspects of it.

Our correlations to Ganesha were made in relation to Dogon cosmological drawings of their egg-of-the-world, which include a series of starlike rayed figures enclosed within an oval egg. Essentially, rays of increasing length are added at each new phase of generation of the egg and are shown as emitting from a central point. This progression evokes a figure with seven rayed lines that is interpreted by the Dogon priests from several perspectives. Outwardly, the figure is seen as a seven-rayed star or characterized by the spiral that can be drawn to inscribe its rays. But by one alternate interpretive approach, the rays are considered in two groups, one of four lines that are symbolic in Dogon numerology of the feminine, and one of three lines, considered to be masculine. Numerologically, the combined total of seven rays represents the concept of an individual. By a second approach, the rays are grouped to form two anthropomorphized stick figures whose configurations reflect the two most common representations of Ganesha—one with two arms, two legs, and a single tusk, and one with four arms who dances on a single leg. In accordance with the Dogon numerology, the Maori term for “four” is wha, and the phonetically similar term for “female” is wahine.¹ The Maori word for “three” is toru,² while the phonetically similar word for “male” is tourawhi.³

In India, the elephant god Ganesha was assigned the role of gatekeeper by his mother Sati, to watch the door while she bathed. One of his celebrated roles in the religious traditions of India was to impose or remove obstacles for individuals, in proportion to the degree of their spiritual worthiness. The word pil, or pilu, can mean “elephant” in the various languages of the traditions we study, and from that perspective, the spiraling structures of the po pilu can be seen as the po of the elephant, a term that implies Ganesha. Appropriate to all of that, the Maori term pokai means “to wind in a ball, as string.”⁴

From a cosmological perspective, the suggestion is that Ganesha represented the gateways between the wrapped dimensions of the Calabi-Yau space. The Egyptian term we correlate for the structures and gateways that comprise the po pilu is arit. So it also makes sense that a Maori term for “obstacle” is given as aria.⁵ Likewise, one of the signature icons of Ganesha is his single tusk. Tregear lists a Maori word for “tusk” as rei.⁶ Within one cosmological view, each stage of the egg-of-the-world can be characterized as a ray of a star, or by way of metaphor as a tusk.

In Hindu mythology, Ganesha was described as the son whom Sati created from clay and whom she then breathed life into. Through a misunderstanding of circumstance, Ganesha was beheaded by the god Siva, who (after realizing his mistake) made great effort to procure a new head for Ganesha. It was taken by permission from a wise, aging white elephant, who, being near to death anyway, agreed to donate it. In keeping with these mythic references, the words pil, pilu, or fil carry the meanings of “elephant,” “son,” or “white” in various ancient languages. For the Maori, the term for “white” is pronounced taurei, a word whose phonetics aligns well with arei (“obstacle”) and rei (“tusk”).⁷ However, the word taurei can also mean “pale.” This is a Dogon cosmological term that is closely associated with the formation of matter. In fact, the definitive French study of Dogon cosmology is titled Le Renard Pale, or The Pale Fox.

Myths of India that relate the origin of the elephant god Ganesha tell of how the goddess Sati yearned for a son, and so while her husband Siva was away, she fashioned one from clay and then breathed life into him. These plot details serve to align Sati (through symbolic gender reversal) with the Maori war god Tu, since Best tells us that “Tu made a clay image in human form and endowed it with the breath of life, by the grace of his own magic powers.”⁸ Once again, turning to the Maori dictionary, we find that Tregear defines Tu as “one of the greatest and most widely worshipped Polynesian deities.”⁹ Just as the Sakta goddess Tana Penu (of whom we take Sati to be a surrogate) had a twin sister Dharni Penu, Tu was also understood by some versions of Maori myth to have had a twin brother. This detail again makes sense based on our outlook of symbolic reversals in the cosmological tradition.

Tregear explains that one of Tu’s foremost titles was Tu-Mata-Uenga. The Maori word mata means “face,”¹⁰ and the term uanga refers to “a time or circumstance [period?] of raining” or flooding.¹¹ The combined terms come remarkably close to expressing the biblical notion of “the face of the waters” that, in the view of some traditions we study, represents a starting point for the processes of creation.

We have said that one of Ganesha’s traditional roles in Hinduism is as the imposer and remover of obstacles. This role is made clearer when we consider that the processes of the Dogon egg are compared to that of a sieve (which also likely defined the symbolism of the Hindu god Siva). A sieve represents a set of obstacles that allows us to productively separate two unlike materials from one another. Cosmologically speaking, the Dogon egg works like a sieve in that it effectively separates particles from waves. For the Maori, the concept of a sieve is expressed by the word tatari.¹² The phonetic roots of the word, ta and tari, demonstrate a likely match to Dogon and Egyptian concepts of matter, where the word ta implies the notion of “mass.” One generalized outlook on matter that the Dogon and Egyptian cosmologies share with modern string theory is that matter is the product of woven threads. In keeping with that notion, the Maori word tari refers to “a mode of plaiting,” which is a method of braiding or weaving various strands of a material.¹³ The word can also mean a “noose,” a tool that is woven from rope (bundles of threads) and that is one of the iconic cult objects of Ganesha. Furthermore, we know that, in the symbolic language of the cosmology, the phoneme ta refers to the concepts of “mass” or “matter.” The Maori word tari can also mean “to carry.” Together, they express the combined concept of “to carry or bring mass,” one of the overtly defined functions of the egg-of-the-world. We have also mentioned that on another level of Dogon interpretation, the processes of matter are compared to the workings of an adze, a woodworking tool similar to a planer that can be used to shave wood. Consistent with that metaphor, the Maori term tarei means “to adze.”¹⁴

A likely Maori correlate to Ganesha lies with a deity named Rehua. Tregear defines Rehua as “one of the most powerful and ancient Maori deities: the Lord of Kindness, who dispersed gloom and sorrow from the minds of men.”¹⁵ Support for the supposition that the Maori god Rehua bears a likely symbolic relationship to Ganesha can be found by examining Maori words for various iconic attributes of the elephant god. Many of the meanings center on the previously discussed roots re and rei, which we take to form the phonetic basis of the name Rehua. For example, we know that Ganesha was associated with the concept of a single tusk, and in Point of Origin we used specific comparisons to Dogon cosmology to demonstrate a likely origin for that symbolic assignment. (In our view, it derives from a kind of stick-figure interpretation of the seven rays of the Dogon egg-of-the-world, in which the final ray is interpreted as a tusk.) We have also mentioned previously that the Maori word for “tusk” is rei.¹⁶ Likewise, because Ganesha’s original head was said to have been replaced with the head of an aging white elephant, the color white becomes a symbolic term that relates to him. The color assignment comes to him by association with the Sakti tradition, where white (a color that conceptually subsumes all other colors of the spectrum) is taken to be symbolic of the divine. The Maori word for “white” is tuarei.¹⁷

We have said that, in his role as the cosmological gatekeeper, Ganesha is seen as the imposer and remover of obstacles. The Maori word for “obstacle” is arai.¹⁸ One of the iconic objects Ganesha is seen to be holding in images and sculptures is a noose. The Maori word for “noose” is rore.¹⁹ One possible clue to the symbolism of the noose is found in the phonetically similar Maori word rorerore, which means “entangled.” Quantum entanglement is a term of modern-day astrophysics that applies to pairs of electrons whose quantum states seem to become inherently linked to one another.

From the perspective of the archaic tradition of the cosmology, we have noted that certain complex phonemes are reflected in important cosmological words. For example, the archaic Egyptian term get was interpreted by Budge for later Egyptian words as het. We surmised that the prefix of the name of an archaic Egyptian sanctuary, given as Ga nu sa Ast, survived in India as Ganesha. We interpreted the phonetics that defines the first three stages of the Dogon egg-of-the-world as ga, nu, and sa. These stages are the product of vibrations of matter that are referred to symbolically as breath. So it could make sense that the Maori word ha means “breath.”²⁰ The related term hanene means “blowing softly” or can refer to a “soft breeze.” The term haha means “to ward off,” a definition that might conceivably go along with Ganesha’s role of creating obstacles. Like his theoretic Egyptian surrogate god Hapy, Ganesha was seen as a god of abundance. Perhaps appropriate to that definition, the Maori term hanu refers to “scraps of food.” This definition is given within the context of “gathering things together that are thinly scattered,” a process that could characterize what the egg-of-the-world or Calabi-Yau space accomplishes for mass. Similarly, the Maori term hari, meaning “to dance,” reflects another iconic aspect of Ganesha, arguably combining the phonemes of ha and rei.