Finally, in India we have Hanuman, originally the deified ape, about
whose identity there can be no doubt as he still retains his monkey's
tail in all sculpture. Bhairon, the watchman of Mahadeo's temples,
rides on a black dog, and was perhaps originally the watch-dog,
or in his more terrible character of the devourer of human beings,
the wolf. Ganesh or Ganpati has the head of an elephant and rides on
a rat and appears to have derived his divine attributes from both
these animals, as will be explained elsewhere; [355] Kartikeya,
the god of war, rides on a peacock, and as the peacock is sacred,
he may originally have been that bird, perhaps because its plumes
were a favourite war emblem. Among his epithets are Sarabhu, born
in the thicket, Dwadasakara and Dwadasaksha, twelve-handed and
twelve-eyed. He was fostered by the maidens who make the Pleiades,
and his epithet of twelve-eyed may be taken from the eyes in the
peacock's feathers. [356] But, like the Greek gods, the Hindu gods
have now long become anthropomorphic, and only vestiges remain of
their animal associations. Enough has been said to show that most of
the pantheons are largely occupied by deified animals and birds.