The Elephant God Ganesh

A few years ago I finally met somebody I’d known for several years, but just on the net. I noticed that the woman often wore the same necklace and charm, a strange figure which has an elephant’s head.  I was curious why such a stylish lady would be so attached to what looked like a kitchy plastic figure.  When I ultimately was able to ask her about it, I was embarrassed with my ignorance. It was the first time I had heard of the Hindu God Ganesh.

To a western eye, Ganesh seems very peculiar; a nearly comical figure that has a man’s body (and a little bit of a paunch) an elephant’s head, four hands (at least), just one tusk, and spends his time traveling around on a really small mouse. But Ganesh isn’t a clown and to see him being a joke is to misunderstand hundreds of years of belief and symbolism.  He is an important figure in the Hindu faith, where the identical characteristics, viewed in an alternative way, make him the embodiment of intelligence and learning, the patron of scientific discipline and the arts, the remover of obstacles, and hence prayed to at the beginning of each and every venture as the god of success. It was as such that my friend donned her pendant, not really plastic but very old jade, a talisman made to convey accomplishment to each of her endeavors.  Like many other Hindu statues and talismans, a Ganesha statue represents specific aspirations of a productive life. 

The Hindu faith is extremely old and observed over a wide area, so it isn’t really astonishing that there are several tales about the source of the Hindu gods. Generally in most Hindu practices, Ganesh is the child of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu’s recognize 4 main denominations all of whom regard Parvati and Shiva as significant, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name implies ’she of the mountains’ is a Supreme Being and Shiva is her consort. Legend says it was Parvati who spawned Ganesh.

Parvati has been said to value her seclusion, so one day when she needed to wash and had no-one around to keep watch for her, Parvati utilised turmeric paste to create a boy. She afforded him life and expected him to guard her privacy, and this is how Ganesh came to be, without any real involvement 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 regarded as Lord of Destruction, chopped off the boy’s head.

When she saw what had occurred, Parvati’s anger knew no bounds. She commanded that Shiva amend the matter, so he sent his servants to bring back the head of the first living thing they observed. The head belonged to an elderly elephant they had discovered just as he was going to die, so Ganesh was brought back again and given the elephant’s head.

By association Ganesh is regarded as potent, loving and devoted. Such a large head can only be a signal of wisdom and intelligence, and the huge ears are used to meticulously distinguish the good and the bad and to hear the requests of supplicants. Similar to the elephant Ganesh is dangerous if provoked, but loving when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has only one tusk.

There are many stories of the explanation for the damaged tusk; the most popular is that Ganesh was handed the job of writing down the legendary tale known as the Mahabharata. At one point his pen failed and rather then stop, Ganesh detached his tusk and carried on, demonstrating he was ready to make a sacrifice to obtain knowledge. Other, less poetic stories claim that the tusk was taken by a villain who stole it to make ivory ear-rings for attractive ladies.

It isn’t always instantly evident that a Ganesh statue has four (and sometimes more) arms. Some may be shown in abhaya pose that is held up with palm out and fingers pointing upwards, while the second holds a sweet, a symbol of the inner self. The other two hands will most likely contain a goad and a noose, the former used to prod followers along the path of truth, while the latter represents the snare of earthly desires. At his feet most statues of Ganesh show a mouse, his customary steed. The mouse is a symbolic representation of the intellect, wandering in and out, but tamed by the greater power of the whole.

A number of devotees believe the peculiar form of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol which represents the primeval sound that was the very first thing to be formed and from which the remainder of the world came into being.  This is the symbolic representation which is commonly used to symbolize all of Hinduism and its beliefs.

Even though the Hindu religion has four major denominations, all worship Ganesh, in whose image is found across India, Nepal and many regions of the Far East. For Buddhists Ganesh looks like the god Vinayaka and is usually shown 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. Throughout Malaysia, Java, Bali and Borneo there are temples to Ganesh as well as in Thailand.  There his placement as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there is a service where offerings are made to Ganesh prior to any movie or TV series starts shooting.

Indonesia is a Muslim country, however even there Ganesh is adored and his image can be found in many Cambodian temples. Yet in spite of spreading throughout the Eastern world Ganesh was not known in Europe until relatively recently, though some scholars, commenting on a statue 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.

Whatever your own view on the gods of the east or of the ancients, their sculpture and related symbolism will always be thought provoking. However we look at something, other civilizations often saw it very differently; one reason why museum quality statues along with other artifacts make fascinating and artistic conversation pieces for any home.