Ganatyakshar

 

Dhoomaketur-ganatyaksha: in the 16 names after dhoomaketu comes ganatyakshar. Gana-atyakshar. Atyakshar means the person who supervises, or leader or head (with the head only even the westerners call head of government, head-priest and so on!). Until recent times, vice chancellors were called upa-atyakshar.

 

What we mean by Gana-pathy, ganesar (gana-esar), ganatipathy (gana-atipathy) gana-nathar is the nothing else but the meaning for ganatyakshar.

 

Lord Siva appointed lord vigneswarar as the head of his ghost-like servants and the younger son lord subramanian as the head of his angel-like servants. We say "gajananam bhutaganathi sevitham". We call the younger son, deva senathipathy. He is so in two ways: he is the lord of the servants of the angels; he is also the husband of the daughter of indra, devasena. It is more difficult of course to supervise and manage the ghosts, than boss over the angels. The elder son is delivering this difficult responsibility with ease and happiness.

 

The angels and human beings all know his great powers, and his kind heart, and therefore perform prayers to him in obeisance. Therefore, when he is called ganatyakshar we can say that he is indeed the supervisor for all the beings.