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Why is Lord Ganesha called Ekdant?

We all know that Lord Ganesha is known as Ekdant because of the reason that he only has one tusk, but many of us do not know the reason why does he only has one tusk. The naming of Lord Ganesha as ekdant has two stories associated with it. These stories are as follows.

According to the first story, once when Lord Parshuram was on his way to Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva, to pay Lord Shiva a visit, he was stopped in the middle of his way by Lord Ganesha. Lord Parshuram asked Lord Ganesha to let him pass, but Lord Ganesha clearly refused. On hearing this from Lord Ganesha, Lord Parshuram got furious and hurled his axe at Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha knew that the mighty axe was given by Lord Shiva to Lord Parshuram and out of respect for his father, he did not attempt to stop the axe and when the axe hit him in the face and one of his tusks broke.

On the other hand according to the second story, once Sage Ved Vyasa approaches Lord Ganesha and to test his intelligence he asked Lord Ganesha to write the epic of Mahabharata which will be dictated by him. Lord Ganesha agreed but put forwards a condition that the sage must not stop dictating or he will stop writing. Sage Ved Vyasa accepted this condition and also put forward a condition that Lord Ganesha must understand each and every verse before writing it down and that he must not stop till Ved Vyasa was dictating. Lord Ganesha agreed on this condition put forward by the sage and then they both started the dictation and writing of Mahabharata. While writing with a simple pen, Lord Ganesha realised that it would take too long as he has to refill the pen again and again and that the nib of the pen also broke after some time. Due to these difficulties, he was not able to match the dictating speed of Sage Ved Vyasa and to overcome such difficulties, he broke one of his tusks and started writing with it. 

In both of the stories as Lord Ganesha was only left with one tusk at the end, so, therefore, he is known as EKDANT or the one with only one tusk. 

Thank You!

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