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Lord Ganesha

Elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, who's historically worshipped before any major enterprise and is the patron of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. He is also referred to as “Lord of the Individuals” (gana means the common folks) and as “Lord of the Ganas” (Ganesha is the chief of the ganas, the goblin hosts of Shiva). Ganesha is potbellied and customarily depicted as holding in his hand a couple of round Indian sweets, of which he is inordinately fond. His vehicle (vahana) on the earth is the large Indian bandicoot rat, which symbolizes Ganesha's means to beat something to get what he wants; Ganesha is thus the remover of obstacles.

Many various tales are instructed in regards to the birth of Ganesha, together with one through which Parvati makes her son out of a chunk of cloth and asks her consort, Shiva, to convey him to life. Among the best-known myths, however, begins with Parvati taking a bath and longing for somebody to maintain Shiva from barging in on her, as was his habit. As she bathes, she kneads the filth that she rubs off her physique into the form of a child, who involves life. However when Shiva sees the handsome younger boy-or when the inauspicious planet Saturn (Shani) glances at it, in some variants of the parable that attempt to absolve Shiva of the crime-he or certainly one of his attendants cuts off the kid's head, which is ultimately replaced with the head of an elephant. When Shiva cuts off the elephant's head to bestow it on the headless Ganesha, one of many tusks is shattered, and Ganesha is depicted holding the broken-off piece in his hand. In keeping with this version of the parable, Ganesha is the kid of Parvati alone-indeed, a child born regardless of Shiva's damaging intervention.