Worshipped as the god of good luck and the remover of obstacles, Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is one of the most popular gods of the Hindu pantheon. The god's elephant head is the result of a quarrel between his parents. The young god angered Shiva by refusing, at his mother's behest, to allow his father to observe Parvati bathing. Shiva cut off Ganesha's head in rage, but, to soothe Parvati's grief, replaced it with the head of the first creature that passed by--which happened to be an elephant.

This eleventh-century sculpture has the rotund body and short legs typical of representations of Ganesha. He holds a lasso to ensnare devotees, a mace emblematic of his role as god of war, and a broken tusk. This last records the time Ganesha hurled a tusk at the moon for rebuking him about his habitual overindulgence in sweets.