Ganesha Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
46 free Ganesha trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Ganesha trivia for the most recognisable god in the Hindu pantheon. This quiz covers how he came by his elephant head, what his names Ganapati, Vinayaka, Ekadanta and Lambodara mean, why he is worshipped first before any other deity, his broken tusk and the story of writing down the Mahabharata for Vyasa, the mouse he rides, the sweets he loves and the objects in his four hands. It also looks at his family - Shiva and Parvati, his brother Kartikeya, the goddesses Buddhi, Siddhi and Riddhi - and at Ganesh Chaturthi: the ten-day festival, the clay idols and their immersion, Lokmanya Tilak's 1893 transformation of it into a public celebration, and Mumbai's Siddhivinayak temple. The last questions follow Ganesha beyond India to Jains, Buddhists, Thailand and Japan. Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Shiva quiz.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ganesha is usually shown with four of which body part?
Arms
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.
Q 02Ganesha is most widely revered as the remover of what?
Obstacles
Ganesha is revered as Vighnaharta, the remover of obstacles, and as Vighnaraja, lord of obstacles, who can both place them and clear them away.
Q 03In a famous story, how did Ganesha win a race around the world against his brother?
By circling his parents
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.
Q 04In the most common story, Ganesha received his animal head after which god beheaded him?
Shiva
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.
Q 05In the best-known story, why did Parvati create Ganesha?
To guard her door while she bathed
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.
Q 06Which animal serves as Ganesha's usual vahana, or mount?
A mouse
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.
Q 07What sweet is most famously offered to Ganesha, who is often shown holding a bowl of them?
Modak
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.
Q 08Ganesha's name Ekadanta refers to what feature?
His single tusk
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.
Q 09Ganesha's name Lambodara means what?
One who has a hanging belly
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.
Q 10The name Ganesha combines gana, 'group or multitude', with isha, meaning what?
Lord or master
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.
Q 11Which name for Ganesha is used in Tamil?
Pillaiyar
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.
Q 12Ganesha holds the title Pratham Pujya, meaning he is what?
Worshipped first before any other god
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.
Q 13Which epic did Ganesha agree to write down as the sage Vyasa dictated it?
The Mahabharata
Q 21The Siddhivinayak temple at Prabhadevi is a landmark of which Indian city?
Mumbai
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.
Q 22The Ashtavinayaka pilgrimage links eight Ganesha temples in the countryside around which city?
Pune
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.
Q 23In one telling, the infant Ganesha lost his head to the baleful gaze of which planet?
Saturn
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 wrote down the Mahabharata as Vyasa dictated it; Vyasa's own condition was that Ganesha understand every verse before writing it down.
Q 14What condition did Ganesha set before agreeing to be the sage's scribe?
Vyasa must recite without pausing
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.
Q 15Which god is Ganesha's brother?
Kartikeya
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.
Q 16Buddhi, Siddhi and Riddhi, said in one tradition to be Ganesha's wives, personify what?
Intellect, spiritual power and prosperity
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.
Q 17Ganesha's annual festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, typically falls in which months?
August or September
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.
Q 18What happens to the clay Ganesha idols at the end of Ganesh Chaturthi?
They are immersed in water
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.
Q 19Which Indian nationalist turned Ganesh Chaturthi into a grand public event in 1893?
Lokmanya Tilak
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.
Q 20In which Indian state is Ganesh Chaturthi most popular?
Maharashtra
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.
Q 24Ganesha is identified with which sacred sound, said to be his very form?
Om
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.
Q 25Ganesha's five-headed form Heramba is especially popular in which country?
Nepal
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.
Q 26In a popular story, Ganesha snapped off a tusk to use as what?
A pen
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.
Q 27Which two implements does Ganesha most often carry?
An axe or goad and a noose
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.
Q 28What colour is Ganesha most often described as?
Red
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.
Q 29In a well-known story, what did Ganesha tie round his burst stomach?
A snake
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.
Q 30Ganesha's name Dvaimatura means what?
One who has two mothers
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.