Ganapathi - Kerala Mural Archive

Alangad, ASG_P014 — Ganapathi: full panel view

Detail Photos

Deity: Ganapathi Location: Alangad Sree Santana Gopala Murthy Temple Theme: Non-narrative Visual Feature: Background pattern Visual Feature: Facial expression detail Visual Feature: Hand gesture (mudra)Visual Feature: Ornamentation

Image of Ganapathi sitting on a throne. He wears a yellow dhoti and a blue-ish upper garment or uttareeya. He wears a crown on his forehead, on his head. He has an elephant face.

Iconography

Primary Deity/Figure: Ganapathi
Iconographic Form: Ganapathi
Iconographic Attributes: Ganapathi, face of an elephant, broken tusk, four-armed, holding a goad in his upper right arm, broken tusk in his lower right arm, rope in his upper left arm, a bowl of sweets in his lower left arm, and a pot in his trunk, wearing a yellow dhoti, a bluish uttariya, ornate throne. He is three-eyed.
Rasa: Shanta

Spatial & Architectural

Position in Pradakshina Sequence: 14
Adjacent Panels: Varaham and Venugopala

Narrative

Textual Source: Non-narrative
Mythological Tale: Ganapathi is considered the son of shiva and Parvathy. He is worshipped as the remover of obstacles and invoked whenever one undertakes a new task. In one story, he acts as the scribe to sage Vyasa who dictated the Mahabharata to Ganapti. While writing it down feverently, he ran out of ink in his quill and broke off his trunk, dipped it in ink and continued writing the epic. He did this so that the flow of narration is not broken. In some local tales Ganapathi was endlessly refrained from marrying by asking him to write “your wedding is tomorrow”. He was made to read that and since ‘tommorrow” never comes, his marriage never happens. Locally, any function that gets endlessly postponed gets referred to as “Ganapathi kalyanam pole”(like Ganapathi’s marriage). In some tales however, he has two wives Siddhi and Buddhi.
Episode: Non narrative

Condition & Documentation

Condition: Fair
Deterioration Type: Pigment loss
Restoration Status: Unrestored
Documentation Type: DSLR full panel
Permission Basis: Temple authorities
Date of Documentation: 08/08/2024
Artist: Neelakantan Ilayath
Identifier: ASG_P014
Rights / Notes: These images may not be reproduced, redistributed, or used for commercial purposes without prior permission.