What Does Ganesha’s Body Symbolize? What Is Ganesha"s Vehicle?

What does Ganesha’s body symbolize? What is Ganesha's vehicle?

The bodily features of Lord Ganesha have been the essential facets of spiritual arts of India. The pictorial representations of Lord Ganesha have varied over a period of time; standing, sitting, attacking the demons, nestled between his parents Shiva and Parvati and the like.

Lord Ganesha possesses the head of an elephant and a rounded beefy belly. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand, an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads. The Mudgala Purana refers Lord Ganesha as ekadanta; ‘eka’ one and ‘danta’ dent or tusk, the one-tusked God, while the other being broken. It also mentions two different avatars of Ganesha; Lambodara and Mahadora, potbelly and great belly respectively.

According to Brahmanda Purana, Ganesha is known as Lambodara because all the universes of the past, present, and future reside in him. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha has the serpent Vasuki around his neck. The serpent also known as yagnyopavit is a sacred thread wrapped around the belly as a belt, held in his divine hand, coiled around his ankles or sometimes used as a throne. The Ganesha Purana, a Vedic treatise glorifying Him, talks about the divine tilaka and the crescent moon on his forehead. Hence he is called Bhalachandra ‘Moon on the forehead’. The bodily color of Lord Ganesha is red but the Sritattvandhi mentions specific colors associated with meditation on Ganesha. For instance, white is associated with his representation as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati whereas Ekadanta is believed to own blue color.

What is the Vahana (Vehicle) of Ganesha?

The Matsya Purana, Brahmananda Purana, Mudgala Purana and Ganesha Purana confirm that Ganesha uses mouse as his divine vehicle. One of the names of Ganesha in Ganesha Sahasranama (thousand names of Ganesha) is Musakavahana that is the One who is mounted on the mouse.However other Avatars of Ganesha use other vehicles. For example, in Vakratunda Avatar a lion is His vehicle; in Vikata Avatar, a peacock is His vehicle; in Vignaraja Avatar, the divine serpent Shesha is his vehicle.