Artwork Page for Ganesha

Details / Information for Ganesha

Ganesha

c. 1070

South India, Medieval period, Chola dynasty

(10th-13th century)
Medium
bronze
Measurements
Overall: 50.8 x 25.4 x 17.8 cm (20 x 10 x 7 in.); Base: 23 x 18.3 cm (9 1/16 x 7 3/16 in.)
Weight: 19.278 kg (42.5 lbs.)
Credit Line
Gift of Katharine Holden Thayer 1970.62
Public Domain
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Location
244 Indian and Southeast Asian
Print
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Did You Know?

Ganesha pulls his own broken tusk in one hand, which he used as a pen to write the epic Mahabharata.

Description

Ganesha, the god of wealth and abundance, is an auspicious and revered Hindu deity. He removes obstacles and protects his worshipers. Numerous myths explain how Ganesha became an elephant-man composite, but the most popular version relates the story of how he was decapitated by his enraged father, Shiva, and restored to life through the intervention of his mother, Parvati. Shiva agreed to revive him with the head of the first creature encountered: an elephant. Ganesha's strength—his profound spiritual wisdom—contrasts with his weakness for sweets, as indicated by his pudginess and the sweet modaka he carries. In Ganesha, opposing forces exist in perfect harmony.
Splotchy green discolored bronze sculpture depicting Ganesha, a plump god with a human-like body, elephant head, and four arms each holding a different object, standing on a platform. He swings his hips to his right, body sparsely covered with strips of ornamentation and a cone-shaped crown on his head. His right tusk has broken off, held in his lower left hand. His lower right hand holds a sphere which his trunk touches.

Ganesha

c. 1070

South India, Medieval period, Chola dynasty(10th-13th century)

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