Four-Armed Ganesh Postcard

Ganesh also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu pantheon. Although he is known by many other attributes, Ganesh's elephant head makes him particularly easy to identify. He is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. In this painting Ganesh is shown dancing in tandavi or bow-and-arrow posture, with his right leg drawn up and his left foot resting upon the saddlecloth of his vehicle, a long-nosed Asian shrew or chuchundra. Ganesh’s stout and pot-bellied white body is adorned with a floral-patterned loincloth, a long billowing silk scarf, and a headdress. He wears golden ornaments, a five-jewelled crown, and around each of his shins he wears little spherical ‘dancing bells’, which are used in classical Indian dance and in the Newar charya-nritya dance traditions. Ganesh has three piercing eyes, his forehead is marked with the three horizontal lines of a Shaivite tripundra, and the tip of his right tusk is broken off. With his hands he holds a white radish (mulaka) – his favourite vegetable, and a bowlful of yellow laddus – his favourite Indian sweets. His mantra is Om Ganapataye Namaha.