A couple of years back I at last met somebody I had known for many years, but merely on the net. I noticed that she always wore the same pendant, a strange shape which has an elephant's head. I was curious why such a classy woman was so enamored with what looked like a funny plastic figure. When I finally was able to ask her about it, I was ashamed of my ignorance. It had been the first time I'd discovered the Hindu God Ganesh.
To a western eye, Ganesh seems to be extremely odd; a practically comical figure who has a man's body (and a little bit of a paunch) an elephant's head, 4 arms (at least), just one tusk, and spends his time riding around on a very small mouse. But Ganesh is not a clown and to see him as being a joke would be to misunderstand hundreds of years of belief and symbolism. He's an important figure in the Hindu faith, where the identical characteristics, looked at in another way, make him the embodiment of wisdom and learning, the patron of scientific disciplines as well as the arts, the remover of road blocks, and hence prayed to at the beginning of each enterprise as the god of success. It was as such that this individual wore her Ganesh charm, not plastic but very old jade, a talisman made to convey accomplishment to every one of her endeavors. Like many other Hindu statues and talismans, a Ganesha statue represents specific aspirations of a productive life.
The Hindu religion is quite old and observed over a broad area, so it isn't really unexpected there are countless tales about the source of the Hindu gods. Generally in most Hindu practices, Ganesh is the son of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu's acknowledge 4 major sects all of whom value Parvati and Shiva as important, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name means '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 planned to bathe and had no-one nearby to keep watch for her, Parvati employed turmeric paste to produce a boy. She presented him life and expected him to protect her security, and this is how Ganesh was created, with no real intervention from his 'father' Shiva.
When Shiva returned home he wanted to go inside, but Ganesh followed his Mother's directions and stopped him. A battle ensued, and Shiva, who is Lord of Destruction, chopped off the boy's head.
When she saw what had happened, Parvati's fury knew no bounds. She demanded that Shiva amend the matter, so he directed his servants to return with the head of the very first living thing they found. The head belonged to an elderly elephant they had discovered just as he was going to die, so Ganesh was brought back to life and given the elephant's head.
By association Ganesh is considered strong, caring and loyal. Such a massive head can only be a sign of knowledge and cleverness, and the enormous ears are employed to meticulously separate the good and the bad and to listen to the requests of supplicants. Just like the elephant Ganesh is powerful if provoked, but warm when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has just one tusk.
There are many tales of the reason for the broken tusk; the most famous is Ganesh was handed the job of recording the epic tale known as the Mahabharata. At some point his pen failed and rather than stop, Ganesh detached his tusk and carried on, showing he was ready to make a sacrifice to acquire knowledge. Some other, less poetic tales say that the tusk was taken by a villain who stole it to make ivory earrings for stunning women.
It isn't always instantly obvious that a Ganesh statue has 4 (and sometimes more) arms. Some may be shown in abhaya pose that's held up with palm out and fingers pointing upwards, while the second holds a sweet, a symbol of the inner self. And the second two hands will usually contain a goad and a noose, the former used to prod followers down the way of truth, as 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 through the greater power of the whole.
A number of devotees believe the unusual shape of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol which represents the primeval sound that was the first thing to be created and from which all the universe came about. This is actually the symbolic representation that is commonly employed to signify all of Hinduism and its values.
Even though the Hindu religion has 4 principal denominations, all worship Ganesh, whose representation 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 people call on him when looking for success in love. Throughout Malaysia, Java, Bali and Borneo you will find temples to Ganesh and in Thailand. There his position as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there is a ceremony where offerings are made to Ganesh before 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 in spite of spreading throughout the Eastern world Ganesh was unknown in Europe until fairly recently, though some scholars, commenting on a statue of Ganesh where he is 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 has been identified.
Whatever your take on the gods of the east or of the ancients, their sculpture and related symbolism are always thought provoking. However we view something, various other nationalities frequently saw it very differently; one reason museum quality statues and other artifacts make fascinating and artistic conversation pieces for any home.