Dancing Ganesha

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Cultural Context

Ganesha loves to dance. The emphasis on dance in the Hindu tradition is

reflected in the inclusion of sound and music in worship. Because this

sculpture would have been carried in a procession, we must imagine the presence

of sounds, movements, flowers, and incense. The eleventh-century poet

Rajasekhana described Ganesha's playful, lively dance:

May the dancing Ganesha be your aid, copied by the guardian elephants of the

horizon, who spring up lightly from the earth that trembles at the stamping of

his feet, the while with upraised trunk he drinks and then sprays back like

drops of water the great circle of stars.1

Ganesha is one of the most popular Hindu deities. Every Hindu temple has a

shrine dedicated to him, and he is also worshipped in almost every home.

Ganesha is so widely loved because he is the god of lucky beginnings and good

fortune. He is the deity who can remove any obstacle. For this reason,

Ganesha's name is called upon at the beginning of every worship and every

undertaking, whether it be a journey, the building of a house, or the writing

of a book. Ganesha is one of the sons of the major Hindu god Siva and his wife

Parvati. He is always represented as a short, potbellied male with four arms

and the head of an elephant. Like many Indian deities, he has multiple arms in

order to hold his identifying attributes. Ganesha generally carries a

battle-ax, a weapon that destroys obstacles and ignorance. He also holds a

bunch of mangoes, a bowl of sweets, and his broken tusk. Sometimes, he stands

atop his mount, which is a rat (the rat can chew through any obstacle). There

are many stories describing how Ganesha got his head. In one version, he lost

his human head while still an infant, and his father replaced it with the head

of the first creature he could find, which happened to be an elephant. Ganesha

is a unique representation of an elephant in that he combines tremendous power

with childlike playfulness. Ganesha is also the god of wisdom and prudence and

is thought to be an expert scribe, learned in the scriptures. It is

traditionally told that Ganesha served as the stenographer for the great Indian

epic, the Mahabharata.

Historical Background

The most widespread religion in India today is Hinduism, a European name given

to a multitude of different religious groups, some small and some large.

Hinduism evolved over many centuries, blending local Indian traditions with

practices brought to the land by outside settlers. An important act of Hindu

worship is to visit a temple sacred to a deity or group of deities. While

there, the worshiper makes an offering to the deity of flowers, incense, fruit,

or other gifts. He or she stands before an image that embodies the deity to

experience darshan, that is, to see the divine image and be seen by it. The

majority of Hindu sculpture was made to be used in darshan, either in religious

processions or as part of the decorative scheme on a temple exterior. The

bronzes of southern India (like the Dancing Ganesha) were made to be carried in

processions, where many people could glimpse the deity at one time. There is an

inscription on the base of this piece stating that the sculpture was donated by

a worshiper named Ramappa in honor of the Lord" (either Ganesha himself or the

deity of the temple to which the sculpture was dedicated). Giving a religious

gift such as this to a temple or for private use was considered to be an act of

utmost piety.

Medium

The Dancing Ganesha was made in the southwestern state of Karnataka in the

sixteenth century. The artist carried on the great tradition of bronze

sculpture that had emerged in southern India in the nearby state of Tamil Nadu

between the ninth and thirteenth centuries A.D. The piece is made of bronze, a

copper alloy, and was created through the lost wax process. In this process, a

wax original is covered with clay. When the object is baked, the wax melts away

and the clay becomes hard, forming a mold. This mold is then filled with molten

bronze. After the bronze cools, the mold is removed, revealing the image. The

surface is then smoothed and finished to enhance details. The artist who made

the Dancing Ganesha has used the material masterfully to create an image of the

rotund and jolly deity that is graceful, well-balanced, and intricate in its

surface decoration.

Theme

Symbol of Good Fortune As the god of wisdom and good fortune, Ganesha displays

certain attributes. He holds his broken tusk (seen here in his lower right

hand), used as a weapon or writing tool, and his bowl of favorite sweets,

symbolizing abundance, into which he often dips his trunk. He also holds an ax

in his upper right hand and a bunch of mangoes, representing fertility, in his

upper left. Ganesha's dance evokes a sense of playfulness and childlike joy.

Here, Ganesha dances a happy jig on top of a lotus flower, a symbol of the

universe and of the pure heart of the devotee.

Timeline

2500-1500 B.C.Indus valley civilization and earliest known use of bronze.

1500-500 B.C.Introduction of religious foundations of Hinduism to India through

successive invasions from the north. 1000 B.C.Development of stories that became

the basis for the epic Mahabharata. 563 B.C.Buddha Sakyamuni born in the

Himalayan foothills of present-day Nepal. 483 B.C.Buddha passes into nirvana.

327 B.C.Macedonian king Alexander the Great reaches India. 273-232 B.C.First

unification of India under Ashoka, whose empire stretched from Afghanistan in

the north to Karnataka in the south; after his death, the empire split again.

4th-6th centuriesGupta period; patronage of monumental Hindu temples

flourishes; many are built and decorated with terra-cotta relief panels and

freestanding deities. 4th centuryStories describing Ganesha begin to develop.

5th centuryEarliest sculptural images of Ganesha appear in central India.

8th-13th centuriesPeriod of great Hindu temple building in central and southern

India; Chola period (850-1279) marks era of intense production of bronze

sculpture in southern India. 14th-16th centuriesBronze tradition continues in

southern India; the Dancing Ganesha made in Karnataka.

References

Blurton, T. Richard. Hindu Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University

Press, 1992. Brown, Robert L., ed. Ganesh, Studies of an Asian God. Albany:

State University of New York Press, 1991. Courtright, Paul B. Genesa: Lord of

Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985 Eck,

Diana L. Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India. Chambersburg,

Pennsylvania:Anima Books, 1981. Ions, Veronica, Indian Mythology. London: Paul

Hamlyn Limited, 1967. Pal, Pratapaditya. Elephants and Ivories in South Asia.

Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Musuem of Art, 1981. Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian

Art, Vol. II, 700 - 1800. Berkeley: Los Angeles County Musuem of Art in

association with University of California Press, 1988. For Children Color Me

Genesha (coloring book). San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,

Education Department, 1986.

http://www.getty.edu/artsednet/resources/Maps/ganesha.htmlDo You ?

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