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Description The art historian Partha Mitter, when writing his oft-cited masterpiece ‘Many Maligned Monsters,’ explained that European and Victorian sensibilities wrongly assumed the significance of Indian art – when they came across depictions of four or eight-armed gods and goddesses, often in striking and fierce moments vanquishing demons, Westerners thought that we had an underdeveloped sense of reality and that our ‘savage’ livelihood needed to be civilized according to their tastes and aesthetics. Imagine their fright then if they would have come across this imaginative visualization from the ’sthapati’ from Swamimalai! However, we can realize his artistic and religious genius in presenting to us what is perhaps the most unique iteration of Ganesha one would come across. Ganesha, as our beloved lord of auspicious starts and the remover of obstacles, is usually visualized in thirty-two forms as listed in the Ganesha-centric scripture Mudgala Purana. These forms are always individually realized, as is the case with the various sculptural representations present at the temples of Nanjangud and Chamarajanagar. Moreover, Ganesha is also associated with 108 names; a number which is deeply auspicious for the Hindu religion. The artisan, therefore, has provided us with a hugely impressive and massive fifty-four-inch Ganesha – embodying all his 108 names and characteristics in a single figure.
Description The art historian Partha Mitter, when writing his oft-cited masterpiece ‘Many Maligned Monsters,’ explained that European and Victorian sensibilities wrongly assumed the significance of Indian art – when they came across depictions of four or eight-armed gods and goddesses, often in striking and fierce moments vanquishing demons, Westerners thought that we had an underdeveloped sense of reality and that our ‘savage’ livelihood needed to be civilized according to their tastes and aesthetics. Imagine their fright then if they would have come across this imaginative visualization from the ’sthapati’ from Swamimalai! However, we can realize his artistic and religious genius in presenting to us what is perhaps the most unique iteration of Ganesha one would come across. Ganesha, as our beloved lord of auspicious starts and the remover of obstacles, is usually visualized in thirty-two forms as listed in the Ganesha-centric scripture Mudgala Purana. These forms are always individually realized, as is the case with the various sculptural representations present at the temples of Nanjangud and Chamarajanagar. Moreover, Ganesha is also associated with 108 names; a number which is deeply auspicious for the Hindu religion. The artisan, therefore, has provided us with a hugely impressive and massive fifty-four-inch Ganesha – embodying all his 108 names and characteristics in a single figure.
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