Footnotes

A SANDSTONE STELE OF GANESHA
CENTRAL INDIA, CIRCA 10TH CENTURY

印度中部 約十世紀 砂岩象神石碑

Provenance:
With Claude de Marteau, New York, by 1967

The mischievous elephant-headed god Ganesha can clear (or create) obstacles and is therefore propitiated before the start of almost any undertaking. The whimsical, improbable vision of Ganesha dancing while snacking on a bowl of sweets is the subject of this early medieval stone sculpture. Ponderous weight is placed on the right foot and hip as Ganesha sways to the right. He turns his left foot out, resting it delicately on the toes. Ten arms are rhapsodically poised around the torso, holding attributes and weapons; two additional arms (one on either side) are now lost. Six ecstatic musicians inspire this motion, four below and two flanking the garland-bearing vidyadharas above. Crouching on the pedestal beneath is a rat, Ganesha's humble vehicle, adding to scene's delightful humor.

Tales of the origins and appearance of Ganesha vary, but most describe him as having been created a boy by his mother Parvati from the residue of her bathwater. Once manifest, she placed him as sentry to her bath chamber. Shortly thereafter, Parvati's husband Shiva appeared, demanding entry. When Ganesha refused the stranger's request, Shiva removed his head. Parvati insisted Shiva restore Ganesha's head immediately. The first available head was that of an elephant, which was expediently placed atop the young man's body, thus forming the unique appearance of this beloved deity.

A smaller work of approximately the same period is now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Dye, The Arts of India, 2001, pp. 142-43, no. 42). See also the much larger example, of unsurpassed quality, in the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society Museum in New York, published in Leidy, Treasures of Asian Art, 1994, p. 42, fig. 22.