Ganesha

The almighty Destroyer of Obstacles!

Ganesha means the lord of Ganas(an army of demons belonging to Shiva)..
So he was the commander in chief of Shiva’s army.

Ganesha's vahana represents the monster within us al i.e. ignorance and Ganesha being the god of wisdom,subdues that monster..
The snake coiled around his belly represents control over desire.

His broken tusk:
there are many stories behind his broken tusk but here’s my favorite version..
Parashurama who was a student and ardent devotee of Shiva wanted to visit him to offer salutations..
but his way was blocked by Ganesha who didn’t allow Parashurama to go further.. and wanted him to wait for Shiva’s permission.
Parashurama’s pride was hurt as he felt that Shiva was like his own father ..soon the two titans engaged in a fierce battle!
In the heat of the battle Parashurama struck Ganesha with his axe and broke his tusk.
The fight stopped when Shiva intervened… Parashurama guilty of his actions apologized to Ganesha .
Ganesha was known as Ekadanta after this incident.



As you might have noticed I've portrayed Ganesha a bit different than his usual representation and have given him elephant-like feet.
The most commonly known myth behind Ganesha's head is where his father Shiva cuts it off and replaces it with that of an elephant.
but there is another story about Ganesha..
Ganesha was born with five heads to the elephant headed Goddess Malini.
Shiva combined the five heads into one and adopted the child as his own.
So I've based Ganesha on this story because it appealed to me that he belonged to an entirely unique species of elephant–like humanoids instead of getting his neck chopped-off by his father.


textures : cgtextures.com