Ganapati: Song of the Self presents a wide-range of information about Ganapati/Ganesa, the Hindu Lord of Beginnings, the Keeper of the Threshold, the Remover of Obstacles, Master of the Mind, Son of Siva, Elephant-headed, plump and loveable, gathered from such diverse sources as hymns, poems, myths, shrines, practices, and theologies. However, besides being a handy reference work, the book is also an attempt to understand this information from within a tradition, and further, to follow how that understanding may have universal connotations. Ganapati is found everywhere: in temples, in wayside shrines, in homes, in devotee’s hearts. His praises are sung. He is worshipped and adored. He is represented in art and literature. Stories are told about him. The thinkers think, the scholars scholasticise, the devotees worship. But what is Ganapati’s hidden meaning? Who is he really? Side by side, seemingly incongruous facts are simultaneously found. Ganapati: An enomous popularity which transcends sectarian and territorial limits; a seemingly rather late, yet dramatic, full-blown appearance into a religious pantheon; a confusing, conflicting, yet interesting and intriguing mythology; and an elephant’s head atop a plump human body! This book considers this complexity of Ganapati lore and presents possible ways of understanding it.
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