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The story of the elephant-headed god starts one day when his father, the god Shiva, went off somewhere and while he was gone Ganesha’s mother Parvati decided to take a bath. However, Parvati needed someone to guard her privacy while she was bathing but there was no one around, so she decided to sculpt a person out of her own body oils. And thus she created a perfect boy in the image of her and her husband Shiva. Parvati said to him, “I’m going to bathe so stand out here and do not let anyone pass.” So while Parvati went about bathing Ganesha stood guard and made sure no one entered.
Sometime later Shiva returned home and decided to go see his wife. As he approached her chambers he noticed a strange person standing guard outside. So he walked toward Parvati’s chambers and tried to enter, but the strange man blocked him. Furiously Shiva said, “Who are you? And how dare you block my way?”
To which the stranger replied, “I’m the guard for Parvati, and she told me to not let anyone pass.” Shiva was enraged and tried to shove past the strange man, but Ganesha not knowing who Shiva was fought to keep him out of Parvati’s chambers. This enraged Shiva further and started a battle between the two. While he fought well the stranger was not strong enough to defeat Shiva and in the end Shiva beheaded him.
Parvati came out and immediately was distraught at seeing the beheaded boy. She cried and while clinging to him said to Shiva, “How could you kill him? This was our child.”
Shiva, realizing what he had done, became agitated and tried to think of a solution to bring the boy back. Then coming up with an idea he sent for his subordinates and said, “Go out and the first living creature you see sleeping facing north, collect his head, and bring it to me.” And so his subordinates went out in search of a creature sleeping with its head facing north.
Parvati looked at Shiva and asked, “But why must his head be facing north?”
To which Shiva replied, “Because the north is associated with wisdom.” Shiva’s subordinates scoured the land looking everywhere for a creature sleeping with its head facing north. Eventually Shiva’s subordinates came across one of Indra’s elephants sleeping with its head facing north.
They chopped off its head and bought it back with them and Shiva gave the boy this head and restored him to life. Parvati, however, was not satisfied and commanded that her son be made into a main god. And so Ganesha became one of the biggest Hindu gods. His elephant head is one very important part of his iconography. His head is what associates Ganesha with wisdom. Wisdom a very big trait that Ganesha possesses. It is the reason he is one of the most widely worshiped Hindu gods. Many people pray to him in the hopes that with his wisdom they can gain prosperity and luck. These features are also shown with his consorts. His consort Buddhi is associated with intellect. His spiritual power is associated with his consort Siddhi. Prosperity is associated with his consort Riddhi.
Author's Note:
I chose to start with this story because one of the most obvious features of Ganesha is his elephant head. I stuck pretty close to original story and did not change much of anything. Although there are many different versions of this story most can vary in minor details and some vary in major details. For example, there is one where Ganesha was sculpted out of clay instead of Parvati’s body oils. Some say that Shiva’s army killed Ganesha, and some say that he was created by Shiva’s laughter. Some stories say that Shiva was jealous of Ganesha’s attractiveness and so he gave him an elephant head and a round belly. There also some stories that say Ganesha was simply born with the elephant head. All these variations were rarely in most stories so I chose to try to stick to the common points in most of the stories of how Ganesha was made. For this story I decided to stick as closely to the version of the story I have heard for most of my life. I changed a little based off the book source I used, and a little bit of details from the Indra and Ganesha Wikipedia pages. I also used some of my recollections of movies of Ganesha that I watched when I was younger.
Bibliography: Shiva giving Ganesha his elephant head
Hindu Gods & Godesses by Sunita Pant Bansal Source
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