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Home > Temples of Kerala > Lord Ganapathi Lord GanapathiLord Ganapathi or Ganesa or Vighneswara is the God of wisdom and remover of all obstacles. In Varaaha-Puraana., it is said that Ganesa emerged from Siva's forehead. Siva-Puraana, however, holds that Ganesa has different origins in different kalpas of creation. He is synonymously known as Vinayakan, Eka-danthan, Heramban, Lambodaran, Gajaagagan and Ganaadhipan. His image finds a place in almost every temple. He took the name Ganapathi as He is the Lord and leader of Lord Siva's attendants, known as ga1)a-Devathas. He is considered in Kerala as the son of Lord Siva in Parvathi and in appearance he has human body with an elephant's head. According to legend Ganapathi also acted as a scribe for three years to the great sage Vyaasa in writing the Mahaabhaaratha. Another legend narrated in Padma-puraana states that one of His tusks was broken in His encounter with Lord Parasurama, who was obstructed while entering Kailas, the abode of Lord Siva. There is very little evidence of Ganapathi worship in Kerala till the seventh century, though during the period of Kulasekharas Ganapathi was given prominence and worshipped. There are number of sankalpas on which Ganpathi idols are consecrated of which certain characteristics are very vital. Ancient vigraha of Ganesa do not conform to any rigid prescription given in silpa-saasthras. According to dhyaana Lord Ganapathi has the face of an elephant (Gajaan-ana), a full belly (lambodara), one tusk (eka-dantha), twisted trunk (vakra-thuda) and hands having weapons or mudras, shorter legs and yajnopaveetha (sacred thread). This concept of Ganesa necessitated the carving or mouldings of bimba in pancha-thaala type. According to sankalpa, Ganapathi vigrahas are that of Rathri-Ganapathi, Sree-Gapapathi, Beeja-Ganapathi, Baala-Ganapathi, Sakthi-Ganapathi,Moolaadhaara-chakra Ganesan etc. These are other types of bimbas also known as Uchishta-Ganapathi, Maha -Ganapathi, Urdhva-Ganapathi and Lekshmi -Ganapathi. In one of the types of Sakthi-Ganapathi, the idol has head of God and body of a Goddess. As per the sankalpas of Herambadeva and Gajamukha the God has five faces and ten hands. The general appearance of Ganapathi bimba is that of sitting pose though in ancient times the idols of Ganesa were of standing pose. In the sitting posture, the most prevalent one is having lalithasana with either right or left leg folded and the other leg kept down. The other types of poses are of padmaasanaand utkkutikaasana. Some of the sitting poses of Ganapathi are given in Diagram 30. In majority of cases the bimba is on a peetha but there are instances of these seated either on a lotus (padma) or lion (in case of Gajamukha sankalpa). The face of the bimba is large with three eyes and a twisted trunk either left (ita-muri. or itampiri) or right (valam-muri or valampiri). (Diagram 31). It is also noted that the idols have one of the tusks broken, either right or left one. In sankalpa the colour of the God is either red or golden. Some sankalpas describe Ganesa having 4 or 10 hands. The weapons in hand are axe, chakra (disc), club, goad, spade, bow (of sugarcane), trident, sweet-meats (madaka or laddu), garlands (rudraksha or aksha), or flowers like (lotus or bilwa), paddy com or kalasas containing modaka, water, diamonds etc or abhaya or varada poses or combination of some of these items. The pancha-loha idol of the Vaarnam Sree MahaGanapathi temple (near Cherthala) has ten hands and deserves special mention, in point of view of its artistic excellence, though in importance the idols at Sree Maha Ganapathi temples at Kottarakkara, pazhavangadi (Trivandrum) and Sulthan Bathery are famous.
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