page_title: Vinayaki
section_title: Texts
hierarchical_section_title: Vinayaki / Texts
caption_attribution_description: 38 pregnant Ganeshani or Vinayaki on burro
context_page_description: Vināyakī is an elephant-headed Hindu goddess. Her mythology and iconography are not clearly defined. Little is told about her in Hindu scriptures and very few images of this deity exist.
  She does not have a consistent name and is known by various names — Vainayaki, Gajanani, Vighneshvari and Ganeshani. These identifications have resulted in her being assumed as the shakti of Ganesha.
  Vinayaki is sometimes also seen as the part of the sixty-four yoginis or the matrika goddesses. However, scholar Krishan believes that Vinayakis in early elephant-headed matrikas, the Brahmanical shakti of Ganesha, and the Tantric yogini are three distinct goddesses.
  In the Jain and Buddhist traditions, Vinayaki is an independent goddess. In Buddhist works, she is called Ganapatihridaya.
context_section_description: The Devi Purana identifies Gananayika or Vinayaki as the shakti characterized by her elephant head and ability to remove obstacles, and includes her as the ninth Matrika. Though generally the number of Matrikas is seven in sculpture and literature, nine Matrikas became popular in eastern India. Apart from the classical seven, Mahalakshmi or Yogeshvari and Ganeshani or Ganeshā were added as eighth and ninth Matrika respectively.
  The Medieval text Gorakshasamhita describes Vinayaki as elephant-faced, pot-bellied, having three eyes and four arms, holding a parashu and a plate of modaks.
  Srikumara's sixteenth century iconographical treatise Shilparatna describes the goddess Shakti-Ganapati, who resides in the Vindhyas. The deity has an elephant head and two trunks. Her body is of a young woman, vermilion red in colour and with ten arms. She is pot-bellied and with full breasts and beautiful hips. This icon probably belongs to Shaktism, the Hindu Goddess-worshipping sect.
  In a Buddhist text called Aryamanjusrimulakalpa, the goddess is called the siddhi of Vinayaka. She is the remover of obstacles and has an elephant's head with only one tusk.
  Vainayaki, not explicitly related to Ganesha, also appears in the Puranas. In the Matsya Purana (compiled c. 550 CE), she is one of the Matrikas, created by the god Shiva - Ganesha's father - to defeat the demon Andhaka. In this context, she may be considered as a shakti of Shiva, rather than Ganesha. Only the name "Vainayaki" may suggest an association. She also figures in a list of shaktis in the Linga Purana. The Agni Purana (compiled in the 10th century) is the first Purana that lists the shaktis of Ganesha; however, Vainayaki is not one of them, nor are any of them elephant-faced. Vainayaki figures in a list of sixty-four yoginis in the same Purana.
  However, elephant-headed goddesses appearing in the Puranas were also reduced to demonesses or cursed goddesses. In a tale about Ganesha's birth, the elephant-headed goddess Malini, branded 'demoness' in the texts, gives birth to Ganesha after drinking the bath-water of the goddess Parvati. In Skanda Purana, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, is cursed with an elephant head which she gets rid of through penance. These versions of the goddess bear no relation to the goddess Vinayaki but are remotely linked to Ganesha as a mother (Malini) or a consort (Lakshmi in some icons). The Harivamsa, Vayu Purana and Skanda Purana also describe elephant-faced Matrikas ("Mothers"), grahas (seizers) and ganas, who bear names like  Gajanani ("elephant-faced"), Gajamukhi ("elephant-faced") and Gajasya ("elephantine"). However, Krishan relates these Matrikas to Jyeshtha, the goddess of misfortune who is described as elephant-faced.
caption: Vinayaki, one of the 64 yoginis in Chausathi Jogini Temple.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:09:16 12:06:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "200", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1144", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4689", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:01:20 07:10:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:01:20 07:10:29", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "193557/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "76085/16384", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "41", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "669", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1435", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1067", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1600", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "996", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "409600/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "768000/223", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "b27679f3360fe2ce6423292de14f1546"}