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A couple of years back I finally met somebody I'd known for many years, but only on the web. I noticed that this person usually wore the same pendant, a strange shape which has an elephant's head. I was curious why such a classy lady was so attached to what appeared to be a kitchy plastic figure. When I ultimately was able to ask the woman about this, I was ashamed of my ignorance. It was the first time I'd been aware of the Hindu God Ganesh.
To the western eye, Ganesh looks genuinely unusual; a nearly comical figure who's a man's physique (and a little bit of a paunch) an elephant's head, 4 hands (at least), a single tusk, and spends his time traveling around on a very small mouse. However Ganesh is not a clown and to see him to be a joke would be to misunderstand generations of belief and symbolism. He's an important figure in the Hindu faith, where the same attributes, viewed in a different way, make him the embodiment of wisdom and learning, the patron of science and the arts, the remover of hurdles, and hence called on at the beginning of each and every undertaking as the god of success. It was as such that my friend wore her pendant, not plastic but very old jade, a talisman made to carry success to every one of the woman's ventures. Like many other Hindu statues and talismans, a Ganesha statue represents specific aspirations of a productive life.
The Hindu faith is incredibly old and practiced over a broad area, so it isn't really unexpected that there are numerous stories about the origin of the Hindu gods. Generally in most Hindu practices, Ganesh is the son of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu's acknowledge four major denominations all of whom regard Parvati and Shiva as significant, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name implies 'she of the mountains' is the Supreme Being and Shiva is her consort. It was Parvati who created Ganesh.
Parvati is said to value her solitude, so one day when she wanted to bathe and had no-one around to help keep watch for her, Parvati employed turmeric paste to generate a boy. The goddess afforded him life and expected him to guard her security, and this is the way Ganesh was created, without any real intervention from his 'father' Shiva.
When Shiva returned home he wanted to go inside, but Ganesh followed his Mother's instructions and stopped him. A battle ensued, and Shiva, who is Lord of Destruction, chopped off the child's head.
When she saw what had happened, Parvati's wrath knew no bounds. She commanded that Shiva amend the matter, so he sent his servants to bring back the head from the first living thing they observed. The head belonged to an elderly elephant they had seen just as he was about to perish, so Ganesh was brought back to life and given the elephant's head.
By association Ganesh is considered powerful, affectionate and devoted. A very large head can only be a signal of wisdom and intelligence, and the large ears are employed to meticulously distinguish the good and the bad and to listen to the requests of supplicants. Similar to the elephant Ganesh is dangerous if provoked, but loving when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has just one tusk.
There are many stories of the reason for the shattered tusk; the most famous is Ganesh was given the job of writing down the legendary account known as the Mahabharata. At some point his pen failed and rather then stopping, Ganesh removed his tusk and continued, demonstrating he was willing to make a sacrifice to obtain knowledge. Other, less poetic stories claim that the tusk was removed by a villain who stole it to create ivory ear-rings for attractive women.
It isn't always immediately obvious that a Ganesh statue has four (and sometimes more) hands. Some may be shown in abhaya pose that is held up with hand out and fingers pointing upwards, as the second holds a sweet, a symbol of the interior self. And the second two hands will most likely contain a goad and a noose, the former used to prod followers along the way of truth, while the latter signifies the snare of earthly desires. At his feet most statues of Ganesh show a mouse, his classic steed. The mouse is a symbolic representation of the intellect, roaming in and out, but tamed through the greater power of the whole.
Numerous devotees believe the unusual form of the one tusked elephant headed God mimics the symbol AUM, a symbol which represents the primeval sound that was the very first thing to be formed and from which the entire content of the world came into being. This is actually the symbol which is commonly used to symbolize all of Hinduism and its values.
Even though the Hindu religion has 4 primary denominations, all worship Ganesh, whose image is found across India, Nepal and many regions of the Far East. For Buddhists Ganesh looks like the god Vinayaka and is commonly displayed dancing. His statues appear in Nepal and Tibet. In Japan he is viewed as a minor god and young adults call on him when looking for success in love. All through Malaysia, Java, Bali and Borneo you will find temples to Ganesh as well as in Thailand. There his placement as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there's a service where offerings are made to Ganesh prior to any movie or TV series begins shooting.
Indonesia is a Muslim country, however even there Ganesh is adored and his image can be found in many Cambodian temples. Yet despite spreading throughout the Eastern world Ganesh was not known in Europe until relatively recently, though some scholars, commenting on a sculpture of Ganesh where he's shown with two heads (one of an elephant one of a man) facing in opposite directions have compared the image to that of Janus, the two headed God of the Romans, but no actual link between the two have been found.
No matter what your view on the gods from the east or of the ancients, their statues and associated symbolism are always thought provoking. However we view something, various other ethnicities often saw it in another way; one reason museum quality statues and other artifacts make fascinating and artistic conversation pieces for any home.
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