Ganesha
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Painting / Art Print
Ganesha [Original fine art medium: Acrylic on canvas. July 2015]
This painting is the outcome of an effort to understand the curious construct of the image of Lord Ganapathy (Ganesh) in its relevant social and historical background. Lord Ganapathy, who is considered the tutelary divinity of Knowledge and the scriptures and is the Lord of intelligence and wisdom, has a bizarre image: a human with the head of an elephant!
This god with the elephant's head, one of the many Hindu deities, is known by several names like Ganapathy, Ganesh, Vigneswara, Vinayaka etc. It can be assumed that this God was taken and fostered by the casteist Hindu religion from the cradle of the then declining Buddhist religion (the tantric faction of buddhism) around the fourth century.
Ganapathy is a symbolic representation of the beheading of the Buddhists. That is why offerings to Ganapathy is made mandatory before the offerings to all the other divinities that the brahmins have introduced. Thus the worship of Ganapathy became acceptable and became a solace even to those Buddhists who were reluctant to leave their allegiance to their former religion. Today on all auspicious occasions, the ritual of offerings to Ganapathy which ensures the presence of a brahmin priest , haunts our society.
Carrier Mouse
It is to be considered that the carrier of Lord Ganapathy is an insignificant rodent. A harebrained, elephant-headed, gluttonous, bloated god image riding a small mouse, reveals the hatred, animosity , vengeful, mockery and the despise that the brahmin priests nurtures in their collective racist memory towards Ganapathy. The story of Parasurama, an incarnation of Vishnu and the destroyer of kshathriyas, confronting Ganapathy and cutting off his tusk can also be read as a reference to the vengefulness of the priesthood. In short, Ganapathy is a martyr. The deified victim of brahmin priesthood, in their infamous machinations to subdue the tantric Buddhists.
