Comic Books Store

A few years ago I at long last met a person I’d known for quite some time, but merely on the web. I noticed that she usually donned the same necklace and charm, an unusual figure with an elephant’s head.  I wondered why such sophisticated lady would be so enamored with what looked like a lighthearted plastic figure.  When I ultimately was able to ask the woman about this, I was embarrassed with my lack of knowledge. It had been the first time I’d heard about the Hindu God Ganesh.

To a western eye, Ganesh appears quite strange; a practically comical figure that has a man’s body (and a little bit of a paunch) an elephant’s head, four hands (at least), only one tusk, who spends his time riding around on a tiny mouse. However Ganesh is not a clown and to view him as being a joke would be to misunderstand decades of belief and symbolism.  He’s viewed with reverence in the Hindu religion, where the same attributes, viewed in another way, make him the embodiment of intelligence and learning, the patron of scientific discipline as well as the arts, the remover of road blocks, and therefore called on at the start of each and every venture as the god of success. It turned out as such that my friend wore her pendant, not plastic but very old jade, a talisman made to carry a favorable outcome to each 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 religion is quite old and observed over a broad region, so it isn’t surprising there are numerous tales about the source of the Hindu gods. In most Hindu practices, Ganesh is the son of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu’s recognize 4 main denominations all of whom regard Parvati and Shiva as essential, 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 made Ganesh.

Parvati is said to value her seclusion, so one day when she wished to bathe and had no-one nearby to keep watch for her, Parvati employed turmeric paste to generate a boy. She presented him life and asked him to guard her privacy, and this is the way Ganesh was born, with no real involvement from his ‘father’ Shiva.

When Shiva came back home he wanted to go inside, yet Ganesh obeyed his Mother’s instructions and stopped him.  There was a battle, and Shiva, who is Lord of Destruction, cut off the boy’s head.

When she saw what had occurred, Parvati’s anger knew no bounds. She demanded that Shiva amend the matter, so he sent his servants to return with the head from the very first living thing they observed. The head belonged to an aged elephant they had found just as he was about to die, so Ganesh was brought back to life and given the elephant’s head.

By association Ganesh is considered strong, affectionate and loyal. A very massive head can only be a sign of wisdom and cleverness, while the massive ears are employed to carefully distinguish the good and the bad and to hear the requests of supplicants. Similar to the elephant Ganesh is powerful if provoked, but loving when shown kindness. Unlike most elephants, Ganesh has only one tusk.

There are many stories of the reason behind the damaged tusk; the most popular is that Ganesh was given the job of recording the legendary account known as the Mahabharata. At some point his pen failed and rather than stopping, Ganesh detached his tusk and continued, demonstrating he was willing to make a sacrifice to acquire knowledge. Other, less poetic stories claim that the tusk was removed by a villain who stole it to create ivory earrings for breathtaking women.

It isn’t always immediately apparent that a Ganesh statue has 4 (and sometimes more) hands. Some may be shown in abhaya pose that’s held up with palm out and fingers directed 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 down the way of truth, as the latter represents the snare of earthly desires. At his feet most statues of Ganesh display a mouse, his classic steed. The mouse is the symbol of the intellect, wandering in and out, but tamed through the greater power of the whole.

Numerous devotees believe the strange form of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol that connotes the primeval sound that was the very first thing to be formed and from which the entire content of the universe came about.  This is the symbolic representation that is commonly used to represent all Hinduism and its beliefs.

Even though the Hindu religion has 4 principal sects, all worship Ganesh, whose image is found throughout 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 seen 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 position as remover of obstacles and patron of the arts mean that there is a service where offerings are made to Ganesh before any movie or TV series starts shooting.

Indonesia is a Muslim region, but 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 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 has been discovered.

Whatever your own 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 nationalities often saw it differently; one reason why museum quality statues and other artifacts make fascinating and artistic conversation pieces for any home.