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Large Granite Ganesh Statue With Two Rats On Base 81"

Large Granite Ganesh Statue With Two Rats On Base 81"
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Materials: Hand Carved Indian Black Granite

Total Height Including Base: 81 inches or 6 feet 9 inches

Base Width & Depth: 3.5 feet x 2 feet

Weight: 10000 pounds or 5 tons

Item # 39g5

  • Description
  • About Ganesh
  • Video of Sculpture
  • Care

  • "His four arms stand for His immense power in helping humanity.  The noose and goad borne in two of His hands stand for His all-pervasiveness and grace.  The broken tusk held in the right hand shows that He is the refuge for all.  His huge belly is indicative of His tolerance and also signifies that all things, the entire Universe, are contained in Him.  His feet stand for the bestowal of siddhi and buddhi, attainment of desires and knowledge.  The modaka (sweet goody) in His hand is symbolic of jnana, conferring bliss.  His mount, the shrew, represents the worldly desires which are to be overcome." M. Arunachalam, Festivals of Tamil Nadu

    The seated Ganesh is stunning to behold!  He is enormous with the presence of a god!  Ganesh is seated holding an axe, a noose, his broken tusk that he used to write the Mahabharata epic and a ball of sweets.  In his curled trunk he holds a water vessel. Carved into the base in bas-relief are two rats sharing a treat given to them by Ganesh.  Ganesh has a cobra belt. 

    About Black Granite:  Indian black granite is a wonderful stone. It is capable of a variety of finishes which can give it a variety of different color possibilities. It is possible to see 4-5 different colors on a single piece depending on the degree of polish or roughness of the stone. Indian black granite is among the best granite in the world sought after by artists globally. Unlike inferior quality granite, Indian granite is extremely dense and without impurities that plague other stones. The density of granite makes a granite sculpture perfect for any garden because it can be left outside in extreme heat and extreme cold for years without care.

  • "In heaven Lord Ganesh will establish the predominance of gods, on earth that of people, in the nether world that of serpents and anti-gods" ~A Hymn from Sri Bhagavat-Tathva~

    The chubby, gentle, wise, elephant-headed Ganesh, or Ganesha, is one of Hinduisms most popular deities. He is the remover of obstacles, the deity whom worshippers first acknowledge when they visit a temple. He is also patron of letters and of learning; he is the legendary scribe who, using his broken tusk, which he often holds, wrote down parts of the Mahabharata epic. Ganesh is usually depicted colored red; he is pot bellied, has one tusk broken, and has four arms that may hold a pasam, a goad, and a pot of rice or sweetmeats. The sweet meats are held in a type of bowl known as a laddus. His appetite for these sweets is legendary and offerings of them are often left at his shrine.
    Statues of Ganesh can be found in most Indian towns. His image is placed where new houses are to be built; he is honored at the start of a journey or business venture, and poets traditionally invoke him at the start of a book.
    A pasam is a triple twine weapon. Each of the three twines represents, arrogance and conceit, Maya - the illusory nature of the real world, ignorance. In Hindu ideology weapons are a viewed as symbolic tools to destroy the ego rather than to cause any type of bloodshed. Goads (or elephant prods) are typically used to direct elephants. Goads are symbolic of how one should steer the soul away from the ignorance and illusions of this earthly world just as a mahout would steer an elephant away from any treacherous path.
    Ganesh's characteristic pot belly is usually bound with a cobra. The cobra is an animal usually associated with Shiva, a reminder that Ganesh is his son. Ganesh is usually shown in sculpture accompanied by or riding a rat. Since rats are seen as being capable of gnawing their way through most things, the rat symbolizes Ganesh's ability to destroy every obstacle. Ganesh's name literally means "Lord of Gana." Ganesh was entrusted by Shiva with the leadership of the ganas, Shiva's dwarfish, rowdy retinue, in compensation for the loss of his human head.
    How Ganesh came to have the head of an elephant is explained in various stories. One account of his birth is that Parvati formed him from the rubbings of her body so that he might stand guard at the door while she bathed. When Siva approached, unaware this was his son, he was enraged at being kept away from his wife and proceeded to lop off the head of Ganesh. To ease Parvati's grief, Shiva promised to cut off the head of the first living thing he saw and attach it to the body. That creature was an elephant. Ganesh was thus restored to life and rewarded for his courage by being made lord of new beginnings and guardian of entrances. A prayer to Ganesh is invariably accompanied by smashing a coconut, symbolic of smashing the undesirable forces inherent in one self.

    "If you take home a stone and worship it in full faith,
    over a course of time you are bound to see the image of Ganesh."


    Click here to learn more about Ganesh

  • Wash the piece with soap and water to prevent dirt build up.