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Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. [53] Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. [54] One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. [55]
There are many anecdotes of Ganesha. Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. [1] He is worshipped as the lord of beginnings and as the lord of removing obstacles, [2] the patron of arts and sciences, and the god of intellect and wisdom. [3] Stories about the birth of Ganesha are found in the later Puranas, composed from about 600 CE ...
She does not have a consistent name and is known by various names, Stri Ganesha ("female Ganesha" [3]), Vainayaki, Gajananā ("elephant-faced"), Vighneshvari ("Mistress of the remover of obstacles") and Ganeshani, all of them being feminine forms of Ganesha's epithets Vinayaka, Gajanana, Vighneshvara and Ganesha itself.
He has four arms. While two of them hold sweet balls, his trunk holds his favourite sweet, the modaka and curves towards his open mouth, indicating that he is about to eat the sweet. [4] Bala Ganapati is also the first of the thirty-two forms of Ganesha listed in the Sritattvanidhi. [5] He has an elephant head and is depicted like a child. [6]
With a shakti seated on his left thigh, He has four arms. He is red in colour. His first three hands hold the elephant goad, the skull filled with liquor (madhumatkapâla) and the noose. The fourth hand creeps between the thighs of the goddess who holds a lotus and a banner. Tryakshara Gaṇapati Lord "of the Three-letters A+U+M" Ganapati
In addition, the eight guardian deities who preside over the points of the compass each sit on an elephant (world elephant). Each of these deities has an elephant that takes part in the defense and protection of its respective quarter. Chief among them is Airavata of Indra. There is a reference to Airavata in the Bhagavad Gita:
That elephant statue has a deep symbolic meaning. The post If You See an Elephant Statue at a Front Door, This Is What It Means appeared first on Reader's Digest.
India and Hinduism have influenced many countries in other parts South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia as a result of commercial and cultural contacts. Ganesha is one of many Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result. [1] Ganesha was a deity particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ...