How Ganesh Got His Elephant Head

The magical story of how Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Parvati, was brought back to life with the head of an elephant

• The story of one of the most beloved characters in Indian lore, made accessible for Western children

• Illustrated throughout with paintings from the classic Indian tradition

Any Indian child can tell you how the beloved god Ganesh got his elephant’s head—now American children can know as well. For centuries Indian children have grown up hearing Ganesh’s story—how his mother, Parvati (an incarnation of the great mother goddess), created a small boy from sandalwood soap and commanded that he guard the palace against all intruders while she took her bath. How her husband, Shiva (the fearsome god of destruction), didn’t take kindly to being barred from his own home. How Shiva beheaded the boy during the cosmic war that followed, but then, when he realized that the balance of the entire universe was at stake, brought the boy back to life by grafting an elephant’s head onto his body and made him the people’s intercessor against the powers of destruction.

Ganesh’s timeless story teaches children about the steadfast power of dedication to duty, the awe-inspiring power of a mother’s love for her child, and the gentle power of compassion, which holds the world together. Accompanied by rich, color illustrations prepared according to the traditional Hindu canon, How Ganesh Got His Elephant Head will transport children to a magical world filled with ancient wisdom.

Relates adventures of Ganesh, the Hindu god of prosperity, and how he became the gods' gift to humanity.

The magical story of how Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Parvati, was brought back to life with the head of an elephant

• The story of one of the most beloved characters in Indian lore, made accessible for Western children

• Illustrated throughout with paintings from the classic Indian tradition

Any Indian child can tell you how the beloved god Ganesh got his elephant’s head--now American children can know as well. For centuries Indian children have grown up hearing Ganesh’s story--how his mother, Parvati (an incarnation of the great mother goddess), created a small boy from sandalwood soap and commanded that he guard the palace against all intruders while she took her bath. How her husband, Shiva (the fearsome god of destruction), didn’t take kindly to being barred from his own home. How Shiva beheaded the boy during the cosmic war that followed, but then, when he realized that the balance of the entire universe was at stake, brought the boy back to life by grafting an elephant’s head onto his body and made him the people’s intercessor against the powers of destruction.

Ganesh’s timeless story teaches children about the steadfast power of dedication to duty, the awe-inspiring power of a mother’s love for her child, and the gentle power of compassion, which holds the world together. Accompanied by rich, color illustrations prepared according to the traditional Hindu canon, How Ganesh Got His Elephant Head will transport children to a magical world filled with ancient wisdom.

Harish Johari (1934–1999) authored many books that bring Eastern spiritual traditions to Western audiences. Vatsala Sperling, a native of India, was trained in traditional Brahmin religious rites and is fluent in Sanskrit. She is the coauthor ofA Marriage Made in Heaven and lives in Vermont with her husband and son. Pieter Weltevrede, who began his artistic studies with Harish Johari in 1977 and also studied with Shri Chandra Bal, is a social scientist by training. He lives in Holland with his wife and two children and travels to India annually.

Uma Krishnaswami - Children's Literature

Here in picture book form is the story of the beloved elephant headed god of Hindu mythology, Ganesh (Ganesha in southern usage). Told in a storyteller's voice, the format includes an introductory note summarizing Ganesh's place in the Hindu pantheon of deities, but also underscoring his multiple manifestations, and the broad common appeal he holds in popular imagination. The story of how he got his elephant head is retold here in one of its many variants, in which the goddess Parvati creates the figure of a boy and blows life into it. Her consort Shiva, upon returning home and encountering the strange, oppositional child, gets angry. His loss of control launches a series of events that results in the Ganesh figure we know and in his unique position as remover of obstacles. Woven into the narrative are a number of other stories. As in a previous Johari-Weltevrede collaboration about Krishna, these stories are retold here in a single continuous narrative, emulating an oral telling. Both stories and images refrain from sugar-coating scenes of battle and bloodshed, but they do put them into the context of the larger mythological web. Weltevrede's Nav Durga is a scary figure, as are her accompanying goddesses wearing traditional skull necklaces. The text, however, supplies the reasons for this by detailing the power of the goddess to take the many forms that are needed of her. Notes to parents and teachers, and an afterword about the illustration process, round out the book. Despite the picture book format, this is material that will be best understood by children older than the 6 to 9 age group suggested by the publisher. A list of the "cast of characters" and a single reproducible black andwhite Ganesh line drawing for coloring, might find favor in some classrooms. 2003, Bear Cub Books, Ages 8 to 12.

Harish Johari (1934-1999) was a distinguished North Indian author, Tantric scholar, poet,musician, composer, artist, and gemologist who held degrees in philosophy and literature and made it his life's work to introduce the culture of his homeland to the West.

Here is a hot link to a web site dedicated to Harish Johari's work that was set up by his students. sanatansociety.com/artists_authors/aa_harish_johari.htm

Vatsala Sperling, Ph.D., fluent in a number of Indian languages and Sanskrit, learned these traditional stories at her mother’s feet and enjoys introducing them to children of the Western world. Before marrying and moving to the United States, she was the chief of Clinical Microbiological Services at the largest children’s hospital in India. She is the author of How Ganesh Got His Elephant Head, How Parvati Won the Heart of Shiva, Ram the Demon Slayer, Hanuman’s Journey to the Medicine Mountain, Ganga: The River that Flows from Heaven to Earth, and Karna: The Greatest Archer in the World. She lives in Vermont with her husband and son.

Pieter Weltevrede began his artistic studies with Harish Johari in 1977 and also studied with Shri Chandra Bal. He lives in Holland with his wife and two children and travels to India annually.