Ganesha
Ganesha is the elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings and the remover of obstacles, worshipped first before any undertaking. He holds his broken tusk and a sweet, and rides a mouse.
Meaning
The Himalayan Academy calls Ganesha the beloved elephant-faced Deity honoured by Hindus of every sect, invoked first before any undertaking. Many Hindus worship him, the Hindu American Foundation says, before any major endeavour, whether a business, a marriage or a birth, chanting om gam ganapataye namaha, “I offer my obeisances to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles.” He is the son of Shiva and Parvati and the brother of Kartikeya. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes a Kalighat painting in which Hindus worship him before journeys, at the start of the day and at the beginning of any auspicious occasion. His image, T. A. Gopinatha Rao records, may have four, six, eight, ten or even sixteen arms, but most have four. A Chola bronze of about 1070 in Cleveland holds his own broken tusk and a sweet modaka, the museum noting his weakness for sweets.
Origin and history
Hindu texts give more than one account of how Ganesha came by his elephant head, and the Hindu American Foundation, citing Shakunthala Jagannathan and Nanditha Krishna, notes that they appear to contradict each other. In one, Shiva produced him from his mind with an elephant’s head and a trident in his hand to protect the gods. The best known is the story of Parvati’s bath. She shaped a boy from the oil and dust of her own body and set him to guard her door; Shiva, returning and not knowing the boy was his son, fought him and cut off his head. To console Parvati he sent his attendants to bring the head of the first creature they found, and they came back with an elephant’s, which Shiva set on the boy’s body to bring him back to life.
The tusk has a story of its own. When the sage Vyasa set out to compose the Mahabharata, the foundation tells, he asked Ganesha, famous for his memory and subtle intellect, to be his scribe, and Ganesha broke off one of his own tusks to write with. The Chola bronze in Cleveland shows him holding it, the tusk he used as a pen to write the epic.
What Ganesha holds
The Hindu American Foundation gives a reading of his form. His large head is wisdom and understanding, his round belly the cosmos, and the snake round his waist the energy that holds the cosmos together. Of his four hands, one holds an axe to cut off attachments, one a rope to pull a person towards the highest goal, one a sweet as the reward of a disciplined life, and one is held palm out to bless and protect. The mouse he rides is the wandering mind brought under control. Mouse or rat: the Cleveland Museum’s page for a Kalighat painting of him uses both words for his vehicle.
Which way does Ganesha’s trunk turn?
Usually to the left. Rao writes that the trunk may be shown turned to the left or to the right, but generally it turns to the left, and only in rare cases to the right. In Tamil a Ganesha with the trunk turned to the right is called Valamburi Vinayaka, and one with the trunk turned to the left Idamburi Vinayaka, from the Tamil words for right and left.
Ganesh Chaturthi
His birthday, Ganesha Chaturthi, is a ten-day festival in August or September. The Himalayan Academy describes it ending in a parade, Ganesha Visarjana, in which images of Ganesha made for the festival are carried in procession to a body of water and immersed to dissolve, which stands for his merging with the ocean of consciousness.
The race round the world
His wisdom is the point of a story the foundation tells. Ganesha and his brother Kartikeya held a contest to see who could circle the earth faster. Kartikeya flew off; Ganesha walked round his parents, Shiva and Parvati, and was judged the winner, because they are the centre of creation.
Read next
- Next in Hindu deities and their symbolsMuruganMurugan, also called Kartikeya, Skanda and Subrahmanya, is the son of Shiva and Parvati, worshipped above all by Tamil Hindus. He holds the vel, a leaf-bladed spear, rides a peacock and has the rooster as his emblem.
- The same shape in Birth flowersJanuary birth flowers: carnation and snowdropJanuary has two birth flowers on the usual American list, the carnation and the snowdrop. In the nineteenth-century flower dictionaries the snowdrop meant hope; what the carnation meant depended on its colour and on the book.
See also
Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Rama, Krishna.
Sources
- Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Gaṇeśa, Gaṇeśa Chaturthī, Gaṇeśa Visarjana), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Gaṇeśa, Gaṇeśa Chaturthī, Gaṇeśa Visarjana
- 5 things to know about Ganesha (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “5 things to know about Ganesha”, Hindu American Foundation, 2020, Hindu American Foundation, article text
- Ganesha (1970.62, Cleveland Museum of Art), Ganesha, c. 1070, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1970.62, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Ganesha (2003.166, Cleveland Museum of Art), Ganesha, c. 1890, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.166, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Elements of Hindu Iconography, Vol. I, Part I, T. A. Gopinatha Rao, 1914, Law Printing House, Madras (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy), Chapter on Ganapati
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
Added .