Museum visitors unfamiliar with Hindu traditions are often puzzled by Ganesha's combination of human and elephant features--and by the presence of six arms. Many Hindu gods are shown with extra arms to indicate their superhuman powers. This is particularly appropriate for Ganesha, known as the "Lord of Obstacles." He can either create or remove obstacles, so he must be acknowledged before beginning any new enterprise.

Various accounts attempt to explain Ganesha's elephant head. Most indicate that he was created by the goddess Parvati with a human head. But this head was cut off by Parvati's consort, Shiva, who was angered when Ganesha tried to block his entrance to Parvati's bath. To appease Parvati, Shiva later replaced Ganesha's head with that of an elephant.

The unknown artist who made this sculpture gave viewers many clues about the elephant-headed god's general character, as well as particular attributes which allude to some of Ganesha's adventures. We can see from the figure's lively pose that Ganesha loves music and dancing. His fat belly tells us that he is also a connoisseur of food! Ganesha's devotees appreciate his very human, sensual nature and shower him with offerings of sweets on festival days. In this sculpture he holds a bowl of sweet balls (ladoos) in his middle left hand, from which he has daintily selected morsels with his elephant's trunk and one of his right hands.

One of the many stories about Ganesha tells how, after a long day of dancing and stuffing himself with ladoos, Ganesha mounted his mouse and rode toward home (If you look carefully, you can see a small mouse at the sculpture's lower left). Suddenly a large cobra appeared in the middle of the road, startling the mouse, who gave a great leap. Ganesha was unseated, fell heavily onto the road, and split his belly open. Sweet balls rolled in all directions!

Determined to regain the sweets, Ganesha used his trunk and all six arms to gather the ladoos, tucking each one carefully back into his open belly. In order to hold everything in place, he grabbed the cobra--the source of all this trouble--and tied it around his waist. Pleased with his solution to this unexpected mishap, Ganesha prepared to go on his way, when suddenly he was dismayed to hear laughter ringing out from overhead. He looked up and saw the moon laughing at him. Embarrassed and angry, Ganesha broke off one of his tusks and flung it at the moon, taking out some of its light. This explains why the moon sometimes has the shape of an elephant's tusk--and why artists usually show Ganesha with only one tusk.