My son said he feels the same way, but I think he was being sarcastic.

November 20, 2006 5:45 PM

How can I find a particular Hindu scripture verse about Ganesha and Parvati?

I am looking for a story I have heard:
People ask Ganesha why he doesn't marry, and he says something like, "bring me a woman as beautiful as Parvati and I will marry her."
Many thanks if you can show me the Sanskrit and English translation side-by-side.

posted by Methylviolet to religion & philosophy (3 comments total)

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but seeing as there aren't any answers yet...

It looks like this is a regional story about Ganesha that not all Hindus believe. I did find it referenced in a few places though. Anyway, here's the story and some variations in it, and here's another story about his relationship with his mother that fits in well with the one you mentioned. Near the bottom of that wikipedia page is there are external links that contain some Sanskrit documents, but I can't read Sanskrit, so I have no way of knowing what they're about (aside from the fact that they're presumably about Ganesha). One of the links supposedly contains English translations, but I'm too lazy to research this much further.
posted by Humanzee at 7:49 PM on November 20, 2006

Yeah, thank you -- I have been through the links in the Wikipedia article. I read a little Sanskrit, but even so, browsing through all the texts in which the story could be would be a mammoth undertaking -- I don't know where to look.

If we could get the Hindu version of a chapter-and-verse Bible-thumper in here, that would be the very thing.
posted by Methylviolet at 8:18 PM on November 20, 2006

Yes but that would very hard: there are too many scriptures to memorize. I was intrigued by your question and spent an hour looking around the net (i'm indian and have studied sanskrit) but I couldn't find reliable clues. I'll email a friend who is as close to a bible thumper as they get and let's see. The problem with Hindu myths is that there are many local variants and it's really hard to get them to agree.
posted by dhruva at 8:41 PM on November 20, 2006