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.

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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 around with a cobra.  The cobra is an animal usually associated with Shiva, a reminder that Ganesh is his son.

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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.