The Significance of Ganesh in Hindu Culture

Posted on 21. May, 2010 by amauto in Uncategorized

A couple of years back I at last met somebody I’d known for countless years, but just on the web. I noticed that the woman often donned the same necklace and charm, an odd figure which has an elephant’s head.  I was curious why such an elegant woman would be so attached to what appeared to be a funny plastic figure.  When I ultimately was able to ask her about this, I was embarrassed with my lack of knowledge. It had been the first time I had heard of the Hindu God Ganesh.

To the western eye, Ganesh seems to be genuinely odd; a practically comical figure who’s a male’s body (and a bit of a paunch) an elephant’s head, 4 hands (at least), only one tusk, and spends his time traveling around on a very small mouse. But Ganesh isn’t a clown and to view him as being a joke is to misunderstand hundreds of years of belief and symbolism.  He’s highly revered in the Hindu faith, where the exact same attributes, viewed in a different way, make him the embodiment of wisdom and learning, the patron of science as well as the arts, the remover of obstacles, and therefore summoned at the start of each and every venture as the god of success. It turned out as such that this individual donned her Ganesh charm, not really plastic but very old jade, a talisman made to produce accomplishment to each one of the woman’s undertakings.  Like many other Hindu statues and talismans, a Ganesha statue represents specific aspirations of a productive life. 

The Hindu religion is extremely old and practiced over a broad region, so it isn’t surprising there are a lot of stories about the source of the Hindu gods. Generally in most Hindu traditions, Ganesh is the child of Shiva and his wife Parvati. Hindu’s recognize 4 major denominations all of who value Parvati and Shiva as important, but for the Shakta, Parvati, whose name means ’she of the mountains’ is the Supreme Being and Shiva is her consort. It was Parvati who made Ganesh.

Parvati has been said to value her seclusion, so one day when she wished to wash and had no-one nearby to keep watch for her, Parvati employed turmeric paste to make a boy. She gave him life and expected him to protect her privacy, and this is how Ganesh was born, without any real involvement from his ‘father’ Shiva.

When Shiva came back home he wanted to go inside, but Ganesh followed 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 discovered what had happened, Parvati’s fury knew no bounds. She demanded that Shiva amend the matter, so he directed his servants to retrieve the head from the very first living thing they observed. The head belonged to an aged elephant they’d located 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 faithful. Such a large head can only be a sign of wisdom and cleverness, while the large ears are employed to carefully distinguish the good and the bad and to listen to the requests of supplicants. Just like the elephant Ganesh is dangerous if provoked, but caring 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 tale known as the Mahabharata. At some point his pen failed and rather than stopping, Ganesh removed his tusk and carried on, demonstrating he was prepared to make a sacrifice to obtain knowledge. Some other, less poetic stories say that the tusk was removed by a villain who stole it to create ivory ear-rings for breathtaking ladies.

It is not always instantly evident that a Ganesh statue has 4 (and sometimes more) arms. Some may be shown in abhaya pose that’s held up with hand out and fingers directed upwards, as 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 being used to prod followers along the path of truth, while the latter signifies the snare of earthly desires. At his feet most statues of Ganesh display a mouse, his traditional steed. The mouse is the symbol of the intellect, roaming in and out, but tamed from the greater power of the whole.

A number of devotees feel that the peculiar shape of the one tusked elephant headed God mirrors the symbol AUM, a symbol that connotes the primeval sound which was the first thing to be created and from which the rest of the world came into being.  This is actually the symbol which is commonly employed to symbolize all Hinduism and its beliefs.

Even though the Hindu religion has four main denominations, all worship Ganesh, in whose image is found throughout India, Nepal and many areas of the Far East. For Buddhists Ganesh appears as the god Vinayaka and is commonly 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. 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 is a service where offerings are made to Ganesh before any movie or TV series begins shooting.

Indonesia is a Muslim region, but even there Ganesh is adored and his image can be found in many Cambodian temples. Yet despite spreading throughout the Eastern world Ganesh was unknown in Europe until fairly recently, though some scholars, commenting on a sculpture of Ganesh where he is shown with two heads (one of an elephant one of a man) facing in opposite directions have likened the image to that of Janus, the two headed God of the Romans, but no actual link between the two have been identified.

Whatever your own take on the gods of the east or of the ancients, their sculpture and associated symbolism are always thought provoking. However we view something, other nationalities frequently saw it through the lens of their own experience; one reason why museum quality statues along with other artifacts make fascinating and artistic conversation pieces for any home.

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