An illustration of the elephant-headed god, Ganesha, formed by his different names, written in the Devanagari script. His rodent vehicle even makes an appearance at the bottom!
How many names can you find? Here’s what I read…
Gananaayak, Kapil, Ganesha, Heranb, Vighnaraj, Lambodar, Gajaanan, Ganapati, Ganaadhyakha, Vikat, Vakratunda, Shuurpakarna, Dhuurmaketuu, Vinayaka, Mariyaa
Image originally found in Ganapati: Song of the Self, colorized by me because I miss color!
Comments
Ahh vinayaka. Reminds me of my grandmother’s prayer room. She used to have books called sahasranamas, one of them was for him.
A sahasranama is a collection of sanskrit poems that have about a thousand names of a particular deity.
When I was studying sanskrit in high school I came upon this commentary on ganesa sahasranamas by bhatacharya – it was interesting because the same commentary could mean two entirely different things, depending on the readers beliefs and context. Talented stuff.
Just thought Id share that with you.
Keep up the good work.
That is SO cool. It’s similar to Islamic Arabic calligraphy, when Arabic letters are also formed in the shape of animals– my fave is the peacock one.
BTW I love your blog. Keep up the great postings.
Hi Sri, thanks for the comment – I want to read more about it now! I’ll look it up!
And heyyy, Muslim Anarchist? Thanks for finding me yet again! I also LOVE those Arabic calligraphy pictures – I’ll look for one to post!