Ganesha is considered a scholar, and one having special interest in literary and educational activities, and is placed as the patron of grammarians, artists, scientists and other intellectuals. And it is why you worship Ganesha before you or your kids begin something that is connected with education or the arts, or the first staging of a dance performance or a music concert. Ganesha is ‘consulted’ just before you enter into something new. Ganesha does not appear in the Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata (1.1.75–79[a]) says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on the condition that Vyasa recites the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation.
