From Temple To Home: Celebrating Ganesha

Explore the iconography of a beautiful 13th-century sculpture of the elephant-headed god Ganesha and find out how he is celebrated across India.

The elephant-headed Ganesha is one of the most popular Hindu gods – the creator and remover of obstacles. The main stone sculpture in the display was carved from schist around 800 years ago and was originally positioned on the outside of a temple in the eastern state of Orissa (recently renamed Odisha).

The display brings this sculpture together with other more recent depictions of Ganesha created for different purposes. Among these are the temporary statues created every year for the Ganeshchaturthi festival in Mumbai, which are placed in public or domestic shrines before being immersed in water at the end of the celebrations.