Our pot-bellied god of auspicious beginnings and the remover of obstacles presents us with an interesting image to appreciate in this ‘panchaloha’ bronze sculpture. Standing on top of a raised lotus pedestal, Ganesha is in the ‘tribhanga’ posture – with his body twisting at his legs, his waist, and his neck – and holds in his hand his broken tusk and parchment to write on.
This singular visual created by the ‘sthapati’ in the ‘madhuchista vidhana’ image nods to the episode of Ganesha taking down the narration of Mahabharata from Vyasa. As the legend goes, Ganesha, as instructed by Brahma, sat down to write the narrative of the great epic that Vyasa began dictating with ease and no hesitation. Some time during this process, Ganesha realised that his writing instrument was about to break, and not wishing to disturb Vyasa’s thought process, proceeded to break his own tusk and write the remainder of the epic with it.
The way our beloved ‘ekdanta’ or one-toothed god keeps his chin up in this image therefore assumes that he is looking towards Vyasa while he continues to narrate the story of the Mahabharata. The sculpture has been presented in a highly ornate manner, with elaborately detailed jewels adorning Ganesha’s body, a diaphanous ‘dhoti’ held by a girdle with tassels, and a grand ‘mukuta’ as a headgear along with a beautiful ‘prabhamandala’ or halo behind it.
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