Why Lord Ganesha’s left tusk is always missing?

Lord Ganesha is one of the most revered God in Hinduism and is worshipped by all over India, especially Maharashtra. He is always invoked the first before starting any puja or auspicious activity. Therefore, when it comes to starting anything, we say that we did its “Shree Ganesh.”

Ganesha is known by a lot of names like Ganpati, Gajanan, Ganashisha, etc. Another name of his is “Ekdant”, which translates to someone with ‘one tooth’. If you look at any idol or picture of Ganesha, you would always notice that his left tusk or tooth is either broken or missing. There is a story behind this.

It is believed that when the great rishi Ved Vyas wanted to write down the Mahabharata, he approached Ganesha to do the honours. It was decided that Vyas would recite the epic as a form of a poem and Ganesha would jot it down. But Ganesha had one condition that the whole activity should take place in one go, without any interruption or break. Vyas agreed and also put forth his own condition that Ganesha would need to understand each Shloka before jotting it down.

Photo source: Ritsin.com

Thus, Vyas started narrating the Mahabharata and Ganesh started writing it. In the middle of the narration, the tip of Ganesha’s pen broke. He couldn’t get up and get another pen because of the condition put forth by him. Hence, he breaks his left tusk and uses its pointed tip as a pen to write down the remaining part of the Mahabharata.

Hence, Ganesha also came to be known as “Ekdant” since he sacrificed one of his tusks to write it.

There is also another version of the story that goes a bit further. Because of the condition of uninterrupted narration put forth by Ganesha, Vyas was unable to take any rest despite being tired. Hence, he narrated a few Shlokas in a complicated manner. As Ganesha would take time to understand them, as per Vyas’ condition, the latter used that time to rest in between.

Mahabharata goes onto become one of the greatest epics the world ever saw and it continues to awe its readers.

Also read: Watch: Qawwali song on Lord Ganesha

What was Ganesha’s role in the Mahabharata?

Ganesh Chaturthi is about to arrive. This festival is celebrated with a lot of passion in states like Maharashtra, India. People bring an idol of Ganesh or Ganpati and worship Him for a specific number of days before immersing Him. In other words, they do his Visarjan.

Just like last year, this year also Ganeshotsav [the festival of Lord Ganesha] is not the same because of the COVID-19 pandemic that is still active in India, unfortunately.

Stories of Ganesha are known far and wide in India. The most famous being how his head was chopped off by his father Lord Shiva due to some confusion and how he gets it replaced with the head of an elephant. There is also an incident when Ganesha goes around his parents Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati when he is asked to take a round of the world, thereby indicating that his mother-father duo is his world.

Ved Vyasa narrating the Mahabharata to Lord Ganesha [Photo source: Ritsin.com]

Ganesha or Ganpati is worshipped before starting any new or auspicious or important event. Therefore, starting any event is often referred to as doing “Shree Ganesh” of an event in India.

It is also important to know that Ganesha also had a role to play in Mahabharata. No, he wasn’t directly associated with the epic. As in, he wasn’t one of the characters present in the Mahabharata.

Sage Ved Vyasa is credited as the writer of Mahabharata. The story is surely narrated by him but it was written by Ganesha. In other words, he transcribed after Vyasa asked him to do so.

But Ganesha put a condition that Vyasa would need to recite the whole epic without pausing. Vyasa agrees but puts a condition that Ganesha will need to understand each verse before writing it. Hence, through this condition, Vyasa purposely recited verses in a complicated manner so that Ganesha would take his time to understand before jotting it down and this would give Vyasa a break in between talking.

There is also an incident when Ganesha’s feather pen breaks as he was passionately jotting down the verses. In order to keep the momentum going, he breaks one of his two tusks and uses it as his pen. This is the reason why Ganesha’s face only has one tusk.