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Beautiful Dancing Ganesh Statue with Rat 24"

Beautiful Dancing Ganesh Statue with Rat 24"
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Materials: Lost Wax Method South Indian Bronze

Total Height Including Base: 24 inches

Base Width & Depth: 11 x 9.5 inches

Weight: 47 pounds

Item # 51b120

  • Description
  • About Ganesh
  • Care

  • This dancing Ganesh bronze statue is currently on display in the Chopra Center in Carlsbad California.  Lotus Sculpture is overjoyed to be showcasing some of our statuary alongside the services of such a renown thinker and healer such as Deepak Chopra.

    Shiva's son, Ganesh is dancing in joy! His large body and belly move gracefully under his strong defined legs. Ganesh is holding an upside-down noose, his broken tusk that he used to write the Mahabharata epic, a ball of sweets, and an elephant goad. 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. In his curled trunk he holds a water vessel. There are two small cobras wrapped around Ganesh's belt in the front. On the base at Ganesh's feet staring up adoringly is his vahana or vehicle a small 3 inch tall rat. The rat is it's own sculpture, cast separately, which gives a nice touch to this beautiful statue. Usually the rats are carved into the base and lack the detail of this rat.

    Lost Wax Method:  This sculpture is a one of a kind, lost wax method bronze statue hand made by the artists of South India.  The sculpture pictured is the only sculpture Lotus Sculpture has like this in our store.  When you order this piece you will receive this exact sculpture.  It is truly one of a kind as there is only one made exactly like this!  Each bronze is hand made by a group of bronze artists whose families have been crafting bronze sculptures for centuries with the art being passed on by each generation.  The hand crafted bronzes statues have an incredible amount of detail which many other mass produced, brass Hindu statues lack.  Lost Wax South Indian bronze statues are the only sculptures used by Hindu temples throughout India and the world.  Click here to learn more about the Lost Wax Method.

  • "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

  • The piece can be used both indoors and outdoors. Dust the piece regularly. If you would like the piece to shine use a cotton cloth with some coconut oil or other natural oil to wipe down the statue.