Welcome to Ganesha Gallery

Welcome to a gallery of Ganesha images.

We hope that you enjoy exploring these images and our notes about them and find out a lot about the way artists show their ideas about Ganesha in the work they make.

Click on the Ganesha pages on the menu to view the images.

How Ganesha is shown in pictures and sculpture

Ganesha is usually drawn or painted with the body of a man and the head of an elephant, having only one whole tusk. The other tusk seems to be broken. 

One special feature, apart from the elephant head, is the large belly which falls over his lower garment. 

On his chest, across his left shoulder, is his sacred thread. This is often in the form of a snake. 

The vehicle of Ganesha is the mouse, often seen paying obeisance to his lord.

According to the strict rules of Hindu art, Ganesha figures with only two hands are taboo - completely banned. 

For this reason, Ganesha figures usually have four hands. Some figures may be seen with six, some with eight, some with ten, some with twelve and some with fourteen hands, each hand carrying a symbol which is different from the symbols in other hands. People who have done some research on pictures of Ganesha have found that there are about fifty seven different symbols in all.

Why does Ganesha have the body of a human and the head of an elephant?

There are many stories which tell how Ganesha came to be.

Here is a popular one:

The Goddess Parvati was bathing and wanted some privacy. She scrubbed some sandlewood paste off her body and, out of it, created the figure of a boy. She told him to guard the entrance to her rooms while she bathed.

Soon after this, her husband, Lord Shiva,  returned home looking for his wife. The young boy blocked his way and, because he did not know who he was, Shiva became extremely angry and in the battle that followed, Shiva cut off the boy's head.

When she returned from her bath, Parvati saw she headless son and threatened to destroy the heavens and the earth, so great was her sorrow.

Shiva calmed her down and told his followers to bring the head of the first living thing that they met. The first creature they found was an elephant. They cut off its head and it was placed on the body of Parvati's son. Shiva breathed life into him and Parvati embraced her son.

Shiva gave him the name Ganesha.

Ganesha' hands

Ganesha is almost always shown with at least four hands.

One hand is usually raised up in the "abhaya pose" which is a sign that means "fear not - I am with you".

Another hand is usually shown holding a sweet - this is a sign of the sweetness of the world or the generocity of God.

Two other hands often hold a goad and a noose.

The noose is there to remind people that they can be tied up with wanting one thing then another and another and all wrapped up in the belongings they have and want.

The goad is to remind people that God wants to prod people back onto the right way of living. With this goad, Ganesha can puch away obstacles and fight off evil things.

If Ganesha has more hands then each one carries a special object or has a symbol on it.

Ganesha's belly

Ganesha is drawn with a very big tummy.

This shows that there are many good things in the world. It also suggests that, with such a big stomach, Ganesha can swallow up all the troubles of the universe and protect the world from them.

Ganesha's head

Ganesha has the head of an elephant.

Elephants are thought to be clever animals with good memories. Their big head and big brain symbolises widsom.

Although they are so strong, elephants are known to be very gentle creatures and, despite their size, are vegetarian so they do not kill anything to eat.

Elephants seem very loyal to their keepers and seem to do everything to please their owners if they are shown love and kindness. Ganesha, although a powerful god, is also thought to be loving and forgiving to those who worship him.

At the same time, when made angry, an elephant is strong enough to destroy a whole forest and can be like a one-man army. Ganesha is also powerful and will trryto attack and destroy evil.

Ganesha's ears

Ganesha's ears are very large - like all elephants - so he can listen to everything.

But Ganesha will only remember the good and right things and hear the requests of his followers.

Ganesha's trunk

Elephants trunks are strong enough to pick up huge logs, but are delicate enough to grasp a single strand of grass.

Ganesha can use his trunk to carry out small, delicate tasks as well as big ones - it is a symbol to show that he can adapt intelligently to all sorts of different tasks and situations.

Ganesha's mouth

Ganesha is sometimes shown with a very small mouth which shows that he talks very little. This means he can listen to the world more carefully.

Other images of Ganesha show a wide mouth. In this case the size of the mouth shows that Ganesha can take in everything that the world as to offer and enjoy it.

Ganesha's eyes

Elephants eyes seem very small in relation to their great size.

Ganesha's small eyes show that he can concentrate very hard.

Ganesha' tusks

Ganesha seems to have one whole tusk and one broken tusk. 

There are many different stories to explain how one of his tusks became broken.

Here is one:

One day, one of Shiva followers came to visit him but, since Shiva was sleeping, Ganesha would not let him in. In the end there was a fight and the man fell on the ground. Eventually he picked himself up and threw an axe at Ganesha. When Ganesha recognised that the axe flying towards him was one that Shiva had given to the man, Ganesha let the axe hit him on one of his tusks which immediately broke.

Here is another story:

Ganesha was asked to write down an important story. Realising how important his task was and that an ordinary pen would not do, Ganesha broke off one of his tusks and made a pen out of it. 

The moral of this story is said to be that "no sacrifice is big enough when you are seeking knowledge and wisdom".

Ganesha: man, elephant, serpant and mouse

Images of Ganesha almost always include parts of four animals - man, elephant, serpant (or snake) and a mouse (or rat).

Ganesha is supposed to ride on the mouse.

This may seem strange, but mice are supposed to be clever animals - just like elephants - but are wondering, inquisitive animals. Showing a mouse as servant of Ganesha shows that our minds can be tamed by the power of Ganesha's love and understanding.

Ganesha has a serpant or snake as a pet. Many people are afraid of snakes, but Ganesha tells us that we can rise above our fears and problems.

The mouse

The little mouse whom Ganesha is supposed to ride upon is another enigmatic feature in his iconography. At
a first glance it seems strange that the lord of wisdom has been granted a humble obsequious mouse quite incapable of lifting the bulging belly and massive head that he possesses. But it implies that wisdom is an attribute of ugly conglomeration of factors and further that the wise do not find anything in the world  disproportionate or ugly.

The mouse is, in every respect, comparable to the intellect. It is able to slip unobserved or without our knowledge into places which we would have not thought it possible to penetrate. In doing this it is hardly concerned whether it is seeking virtue or vice. The mouse thus represents our wandering, wayward mind,
lured to undesirable or corrupting grounds. By showing the mouse paying subservience to Lord Ganesha it is implied that the intellect has been tamed through Ganesha's power of discrimination.

AUM

No analysis of Lord Ganesha can be concluded without a mention of the mystical syllable AUM. The sacred AUM is the most powerful Universal symbol of the divine presence in Hindu thought. It is further said to be the sound which was generated when the world first came into being. The written manifestation of this divine symbol when inverted gives the perfect profile of the god with the elephant head.

Ganesha is thus the ONLY god to be associated in a "physical" sense with the primordial sacred sound AUM, a telling reminder of his supreme position in the Hindu pantheon.

Acknowledgements

Information on this blog has been adapted from:

• an article by Nitin Goel published on the ExoticIndiaArt website, 
• Meher Bab's interpretation of Ganesha and
• information on the http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Symbolism_in_Hinduism.htm website.