Everything about Ganesha - an encyclopedia

September 4, 2005

In Hinduism, Ganesha (or "lord of the hosts," also spelled as Ganesa and

sometimes referred to as Ganapati in Marathi, Gujarati and other Indian

languages) is a son of Shiva and Parvati, and the husband of Bharati, Riddhi

and Siddhi. He is also called as Vinaayaka or vinayagar

in Tamil and vinaayakudu in Telugu. In art, he is depicted as a pot bellied

yellow or red god with four arms and the head of a one-tusked elephant, riding

or attended to by a mouse. Typically, his name is prefixed with the Hindu title

of respect, 'Shree'

Ganesha acquired his head through varying methods in different stories. In one,

Shiva decapitated him because Ganesha refused to allow him to enter the bath

while Parvati was bathing. Shiva had to give him the new head to placate his

wife. In another version, Parvati showed the child off to Shiva, whose face

burned his head to ashes, which Brahma told Shiva to replace with the first

head he could find—in this case, that of an elephant. The lack of a second tusk

is explained by different stories. An avatar of Vishnu, Parashurama, once went

to visit Shiva but the way

was blocked by Ganesha. Parasurama threw his axe at him and Ganesha, knowing the

axe had been given to him by Shiva, allowed it to cut off one of his tusks. Yet

another version is that, in the process of writing the Mahabharata (at the

dictation of Vyasa), Ganesh found that his pen had broken, and in the urgency

of taking down the great words, snapped off his left tusk as a replacement

quill.

Ganesha is known as Aumkara, because his body mirrors the shape of the Aum, the

elephant god is thus seen as the embodiment of the cosmos. His elephantine head

symbolizes the intelligence and beatitude of the elephant, powerful, yet gentle.

His vehicle is a mouse known as Mooshika, Mooshikam, Minjur, or Akhu, and this

symbolizes the intellect, small enough to find out any secret in the most

remote of places. It also signifies his humility, that he espouses the company

of one of the smaller creatures.

He is the lord of wisdom, intelligence, education, prudence, luck and fortune,

gates, doors, doorways, household and writing. He is the remover of obstacles,

and as such it is normal to invoke him before the undertaking of any task with

such incantations as Aum Shri Ganeshaya Namah (hail the name of Ganesha), or

similar.

According to the strict rules of Hindu iconography, Ganesha figures with only

two hands are taboo. Hence, Ganesha figures are most commonly seen with four

hands which signify their divinity. Some figures may be seen with six, some

with eight, some with ten, some with twelve and some with fourteen hands, each

hand carrying a symbol which differs from the symbols in other hands, there

being about fifty seven symbols in all, according to the findings of research

scholars.

The physical attributes of Ganesha are themselves rich in symbolism. He is

normally shown with one hand in the abhaya pose of protection and refuge and

the second holding a sweet (modaka) symbolic of the sweetness of the realized

inner self. In the two hands behind him he often holds an ankusha (elephant

goad) and a pasha (noose). The noose is to convey that worldly attachments and

desires are a noose. The goad is to prod man to the path of righteousness and

truth. With this goad Ganesha can both strike and repel obstacles.

His pot belly signifies the bounty of nature and also that Ganesha swallows the

sorrows of the Universe and protects the world.

The image of Ganesha is a composite one. Four animals viz., man, elephant, the

serpent and the mouse have contributed for the makeup of his figure. All of

them individually and collectively have deep symbolic significance.

An intriguing aspect of Ganesha's iconography is his broken tusk, leading to the

appellation Ekdanta, Ek meaning one and danta meaning teeth.

Some incidents related to Ganesha

Birth of Ganesha

The first incident is the birth of Ganesha and how he got his elephant head.

Once, while Parvati wanted to bathe, there were no attendants around to guard

her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the house. Hence she created a

boy's idol out of turmeric paste which she prepared to cleanse her body (In

those days when no soap was known, turmeric was used for its anti-septic and

cooling properties.) and infused life into it, and thus Ganesha was born.

Parvati ordered Ganesha not to allow anyone to enter the house and Ganesha

obediently followed his mother's orders. After a while Shiva returned from

outside and as he tried to enter the house, Ganesha stopped him. Shiva was

infuriated at this strange little boy who dared to challenge him. He told

Ganesha that he was Parvathi's husband and he demanded Ganesha to let him go

in. But Ganesha would not hear any other person's word other than his dear

mother's. Shiva lost his patience and had a fierce battle with Ganesha. At last

he severed Ganesha's head with his Trishul (trident). When Parvati came out and

saw her son's lifeless body she was very angry and sad. She demanded that Shiva

restore Ganesha's life at once. But unfortunately, Shiva's Trishul was so

powerful that it had hurled Ganesha's head very far off. All attempts to find

the head were in vain. As a last resort, Shiva approached Brahma who suggested

that he replace Ganesha's head with the first living being that came his way

which lied with its head towards north, which happened to be an elephant.

Shiva decapitated the elephant and attached the elephant's head to Ganesha's

body and brought him back to life. Thus, Ganesha got an elephant's head.