Gauravm at 02:26, 25 November 2011

2011-11-25T02:26:43Z

Gauravm at 22:40, 12 November 2011

2011-11-12T22:40:02Z

Gauravm: Created page with "{{Likeboxes}} ==How Lord Ganesha got his elephant head== '''''Contributed by: Gaurav Moghe'''''. Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Ganesha...."

2011-11-01T02:55:11Z

Created page with "{{Likeboxes}} ==How Lord Ganesha got his elephant head== '''''Contributed by: Gaurav Moghe'''''. Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Ganesha...."

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==How Lord Ganesha got his [[elephant]] head==
'''''Contributed by: [[User:Gauravm|Gaurav Moghe]]'''''. Adapted from the Wikipedia article on [[w:Ganesha|Ganesha]].<br>'''''Discussed species: [[Elephant]] (Elephas maximus)'''''<br>
{|class="wikitable"
| Lord Ganesha is one of the most widely worshiped deities in the [[w:Hinduism|Hindu]] patheon. Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles<ref>Thapan, Anita Raina (1997), Understanding Gaņapati: Insights into the Dynamics of a Cult, New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, ISBN 81-7304-195-4</ref> and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles ('''Vighnesha''' (विघ्नेश,विघ्नेश्वर)), patron of arts and sciences, and the [[w:Deva (Hinduism)|deva]] of intellect and wisdom.<ref>Heras, H. (1972), The Problem of Ganapati, Delhi: Indological Book House</ref>.

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an [[elephant]] since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. There are several stories of how Lord Ganesha acquired the [[elephant]] head. However, the most popular story goes like this:
''<blockquote>[[w:Parvati|Parvati]], the wife of Lord [[w:Shiva|Shiva]] was alone at home and wanted to have a bath. To guard the entrance, Parvati created a human child - Ganesha - out of the earth and asked him to guard the entrance while she took a bath. While Parvati was bathing, Lord Shiva came to the scene and wanted to enter the house. However Ganesha blocked him from entering saying that it was his mother's orders not to allow anyone inside. Enraged, Lord Shiva cut off Ganesha's head and entered the house. Parvati, upon learning this, was overcome with grief. Upon learning that Ganesha was his own son, Lord Shiva felt sad too. Parvati then asked Lord Shiva to go down the [[w:Himalayas|Himalayas]] (their abode), cut off the head of the first animal he sees and splice it onto the headless body of Ganesha. The first animal Lord Shiva found was an elephant and that is how Lord Ganesha came to have the elephant's head and thus, infinite wisdom. </blockquote>''

Another story goes like this:
''<blockquote>When Ganesha was born, his mother, Parvati, showed off her new baby to the other gods. Unfortunately, the god [[w:Shani|Shani]] (Saturn), who is said to have the evil eye, looked at him, causing the baby's head to be burned to ashes. The god [[w:Vishnu|Vishnu]] came to the rescue and replaced the missing head with that of an elephant.<ref>Brown, Robert (1991), Ganesh: Studies of an Asian God, Albany: State University of New York, ISBN 0-7914-0657-1</ref></blockquote>''

'''''For more versions of the story and complete references, please refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha#Common_attributes this entry on Wikipedia].'''''
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How Lord Ganesha got his elephant head - Revision history

Gauravm at 02:26, 25 November 2011

Gauravm at 22:40, 12 November 2011

Gauravm: Created page with "{{Likeboxes}} ==How Lord Ganesha got his elephant head== '''''Contributed by: Gaurav Moghe'''''. Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Ganesha...."