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GANESH MAHAVINAYAK
Beige buff sandstone
India (Madhya Pradesh)
Khajuraho
Circa 10th c CE
Dimensions
Height: 59cm (23”1/4)
with stand: 71cm (28”)
Width: 35cm (13”3/4)
Depth: 20cm (8”) |
The Hindu god Ganesh is very popular, and worshiped all over India. He is the son of Parvati, Shiva’s wife, who one day she wanted to bath in a lake, created with the wax scrubbed off from her own body, a little boy to guard her house during her ablutions.
Having finishing his long penance in the forest, one day, Shiva returns to Kailash, his home to find the door blocked by a boy He had never seen before.
Lord Shiva is known to be short tempered and as the boy doesn’t let him enter the house, he cuts his head with his sharp trishula. Alerted by the commotion, Parvati comes back from her bath to find the lifeless body of her beloved son. She clutches the mutilated head against her bosom, cries, pulled her hair, and smeared her body with dirt.
Seeing his wife inconsolable, Shiva realized the seriousness of the situation and promised he will resurrect the boy, giving him the head of the first living creature which will pass by. It came to be an elephant…
Worshiped as the remover of obstacles, Ganesh is also the chief of his father’s ghanas army, and the guardian of the threshold, the cosmic doorkeeper, who is depicted at the entrance of all Hindu temples and who’s invocated before any start.
This very rare iconography of Ganesh depicts the god with 5 heads,(the fifth is on the back of the statue) and ten arms, standing in a straight posture.
We can undoubtedly attribute this idol to one of the Tantric steams of Hinduism that appeared in India during the early medieval period. It will give to the elephant god a prominent role as a creator god and will soften the practices and excessive behaviors of the devotees of Tantrism.
Here, the pot-belly god is shown naked, only wearing necklaces around his different necks and bangles on his wrists. His main left hand holds a rosary and all his secondary hands hold different attributes of power and divinity.
Very good condition
Two of the ten arms missing
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