Mythes et folklores
Why Ganesh is elephant headed?
Ganesh is the elephant-headed
god who is in the forefront of all worship. As the remover
of all sorts of obstacles no ritual is undertaken without
worshipping him first.
This is what the myth has to say about his strange looking
human body. It says that Parvati, the wife of Shiva, was in
some kind of trouble with her over- romantic or jealous husband,
who always needed to knwo too much. Her friends advised her
to employ her own body-guard who would safeguard her privacy.
So she collected some "bukuwa" (a kind of paste) to wash her
body and from this she moulded a child and gave life to him.
One day she asked him to guard her door and not to allow anybody
in while she took a shower, but Shiva returned home and wishing
to enter her room was prevented. Shiva became angry, and not
knowing who the child was, decapitated him. Parvati came out
and cried at the fate of her som, while Shiva trying to pacify
her ordered his servants to find any creature, chop the head
and bring it to him. They found a white elephant, chopped
its head off, and brought it to Shiva, who added the head
to the torso of Ganesh and provided life to him.
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