46 Fun Facts About Ganesha

Ganesha is usually shown with four of which body part?

Arms. Four became the standard, though early images of him, such as fifth-century carvings in central India, show only two, and a few later forms have as many as twenty.

Ganesha is most widely revered as the remover of what?

Ganesha is revered as Vighnaharta, the remover of obstacles, and as Vighnaraja, lord of obstacles, who can both place them and clear them away.

In a famous story, how did Ganesha win a race around the world against his brother?

By circling his parents. He explained that they were his whole world, while his brother was still racing round the real one; the prize varies by telling, from a fruit of knowledge to the right to marry first.

In the most common story, Ganesha received his animal head after which god beheaded him?

Shiva. He struck off the boy's head in a rage, then, to calm the grief-stricken Parvati, brought him back to life with the head of the first creature that could be found.

In the best-known story, why did Parvati create Ganesha?

To guard her door while she bathed. She shaped the boy from material rubbed from her own body, which is why this telling makes him the child of Parvati alone.

Which animal serves as Ganesha's usual vahana, or mount?

A mouse. One traditional reading of the unlikely pairing is that the god, like a rodent that finds its way into every hidden corner of a house, can reach anywhere.

What sweet is most famously offered to Ganesha, who is often shown holding a bowl of them?

Modak. At Ganesh Chaturthi worshippers traditionally set out 21 of these dumplings, filled with coconut and raw sugar, because they are held to be his favourite food.

Ganesha's name Ekadanta refers to what feature?

His single tusk. In one telling he lost the other to an axe hurled by the warrior Parashurama, letting the blow land because the weapon had been a gift from his own father.

Ganesha's name Lambodara means what?

One who has a hanging belly, from the Sanskrit lamba and udara. One Purana gives the reason for its size: every universe, past, present and future, is held inside it.

The name Ganesha combines gana, 'group or multitude', with isha, meaning what?

Lord or master. The ganas are the unruly troop of spirits who attend his father, and in the best-known story Ganesha was put in command of them after being restored to life.

Which name for Ganesha is used in Tamil?

Pillaiyar, often glossed as 'noble child'. Tamil Hindus traditionally draw a small curl named after him, the Pillaiyar suzhi, before they begin a letter or any other new piece of writing.

Ganesha holds the title Pratham Pujya, meaning he is what?

Worshipped first before any other god. That is why Hindus invoke him at the start of a rite to any other deity, and before setting out on a journey or any other new undertaking.

Which epic did Ganesha agree to write down as the sage Vyasa dictated it?

Ganesha wrote down the Mahabharata as Vyasa dictated it; Vyasa's own condition was that Ganesha understand every verse before writing it down.

What condition did Ganesha set before agreeing to be the sage's scribe?

Vyasa must recite without pausing. The sage agreed, and whenever he needed a rest he dictated a verse so knotty that Ganesha had to stop and work it out.

Which god is Ganesha's brother?

Kartikeya, the god of war. His name means 'of the Krittikas', the six stars of the Pleiades who nursed him, which is how the stories account for his six heads.

Buddhi, Siddhi and Riddhi, said in one tradition to be Ganesha's wives, personify what?

Intellect, spiritual power and prosperity. That tradition turns the three qualities into goddesses and marries them to him, while in southern India he is commonly held never to have married at all.

Ganesha's annual festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, typically falls in which months?

August or September. The date shifts from year to year because the festival follows the lunar calendar: it begins on the fourth day, or chaturthi, of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada.

What happens to the clay Ganesha idols at the end of Ganesh Chaturthi?

They are immersed in water. Processions carry the idols to a river, lake or the sea, and the dissolving clay is read as earth returning to earth and as the god setting off for home.

Which Indian nationalist turned Ganesh Chaturthi into a grand public event in 1893?

Lokmanya Tilak. With political meetings restricted by the British, he turned a household rite into street processions that drew Hindus of every caste together and doubled as nationalist rallies.

In which Indian state is Ganesh Chaturthi most popular?

Maharashtra. The festival's public side goes back to the Maratha king Shivaji, who promoted it in the 1600s to rally his subjects, long before its revival under British rule.

The Siddhivinayak temple at Prabhadevi is a landmark of which Indian city?

Mumbai. Its black stone Ganesha is an oddity: the trunk curls to the right, where most images of the god turn it to the left.

The Ashtavinayaka pilgrimage links eight Ganesha temples in the countryside around which city?

Pune. Pilgrims traditionally start at Morgaon, the chief of the eight shrines, and the round only counts as complete once they have returned there at the end.

In one telling, the infant Ganesha lost his head to the baleful gaze of which planet?

Saturn, known in India as Shani. His gaze was cursed to destroy whatever it fell on, but the proud mother insisted that every god, Shani included, look at her newborn.

Ganesha is identified with which sacred sound, said to be his very form?

Om. A hymn to him, the Ganapati Atharvashirsha, identifies him with the syllable, and in the story of his work as a scribe he gives his consent to the task simply by uttering it.

Ganesha's five-headed form Heramba is especially popular in which country?

Nepal. Images of Ganesha with extra heads are rare, and five-headed Heramba, honoured as a protector of the weak, is the one common exception.

In a popular story, Ganesha snapped off a tusk to use as what?

A pen. His own broke while he was taking dictation, so he snapped off a tusk and wrote with that instead, a fitting story for the patron of writers and scribes.

Which two implements does Ganesha most often carry?

An axe or goad and a noose. The goad is the tool an elephant driver uses to urge the animal on; in the hand of the elephant-headed god it is read as a spur for his worshippers.

What colour is Ganesha most often described as?

Red. It is why he is worshipped with red flowers and red sandalwood paste, though particular forms of the god have colours of their own, white and blue among them.

In a well-known story, what did Ganesha tie round his burst stomach?

A snake. It was the very snake that had startled his mount and sent him tumbling, so the cause of the accident became the cure.

Ganesha's name Dvaimatura means what?

One who has two mothers. In ordinary Sanskrit the word describes a child with a mother and a stepmother; for Ganesha it points to birth stories in which a second goddess also claims him as her son.

In a well-known story, which heavenly body did Ganesha curse for laughing at him after a fall?

The moon. It laughed at his mishap, and its waning each month is said to be the price; he relented only far enough to let it grow full again.

The earliest mention of the word Ganapati appears in which text, though it may not refer to Ganesha?

The Rigveda. There the word is a title, 'leader of the group', addressed to another god, Brahmanaspati, and the verse was only later taken up in the worship of Ganesha.

Which name of Ganesha first belonged, in early texts, to a band of troublesome demons?

Vinayaka. In early household-ritual texts the Vinayakas are spirits who bring misfortune and must be appeased; later they merge into one figure, and the name passes to Ganesha.

Under what name is Ganesha revered in Japan, usually as a pair of embracing elephant-headed figures?

Kangiten. Where Ganesha's image is on show everywhere in India, many statues of his Japanese form are kept hidden away in their temples and honoured unseen.

Ganesha serves as the official emblem of which Thai government body?

The Fine Arts Department. The link goes back to King Vajiravudh, a devotee of the god, who founded the department and is credited with making Ganesha Thailand's patron of the arts.

In 1995, statues of Ganesha around the world were reported to be doing what?

Drinking milk. Spoonfuls held to the statues' trunks seemed to vanish, New Delhi's shops sold out of milk within hours, and scientists put the effect down to capillary action.

Which bird, better known as his brother's mount, does Ganesha ride in some incarnations?

A peacock. In the Ganesha Purana he takes the form Mayureshvara, the 'Peacock Lord', and rides one into battle against a demon; he is still worshipped under that name at Morgaon.

At Diwali, Ganesha is traditionally worshipped alongside which goddess?

Lakshmi. Families pray to the pair together on Diwali night, lighting oil lamps before their images: she is the goddess of wealth, he the god of good beginnings.

Besides students and writers, Ganesha is the special patron of which working group?

Traders and merchants. As the god of beginnings he is invoked before any new venture, which made him the natural patron of anyone opening a shop or striking a deal.

Which animal does Ganesha ride in his five-headed form Heramba, protector of the weak?

A lion. The fearsome mount suits the role: Heramba is the god as defender of the helpless, shown with his hands raised in the gestures of protection and blessing.

Pancha Ganapati, a modern five-day festival of Ganesha, falls at the same time as which holiday?

Christmas. An American-born Hindu teacher devised it for 21 to 25 December so that Hindu children in the West would have a gift-giving festival of their own.

Which philosopher popularised the five-deity Panchayatana puja that includes Ganesha?

Adi Shankara. Tradition credits the eighth-century philosopher with promoting the rite so that followers of rival gods could honour all five on an equal footing, though shrines laid out this way are older than he is.

In Kundalini yoga, Ganesha is said to reside in which chakra?

Muladhara, the first. It is the root chakra at the base of the spine, and from that seat Ganesha is said to hold up and steady all the chakras above it.

Which mountain, home to his father and mother, is Ganesha said to return to after his festival?

Mount Kailash. The Tibetan peak is held so sacred that climbing it is forbidden, and no one is recorded as ever having reached its summit.

In one tradition Ganesha has a son named Labha, a word meaning what?

Profit. In one Purana he is one of two sons born after Ganesha wins his brides in a contest with his brother; northern tellings pair him with a brother named Shubha, 'auspiciousness'.

Which country, where most people are Muslim, put Ganesha on a banknote in 1998?

Indonesia. The 20,000 rupiah note paired him with Ki Hajar Dewantara, the father of Indonesian education, a nod to Ganesha's standing there as an emblem of learning.