Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has two arms. He holds in his lower-right hand a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. His right hand is in the Abhaya Mudra, a gesture of reassurance, blessing and protection. Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, also called Ganapati, elephant-headed Hindu god of beginnings, who is traditionally worshipped before any major enterprise and is the patron of intellectuals, bankers, scribes, and authors. Hindu's attribute the qualities of listening well and listening to the right rounds in a cacophony of voices to Ganesha's big ears - a quality that we must seek to emulate. The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana (gaṇa), meaning a 'group, multitude, or categorical system' and isha (īśa), meaning 'lord or master'.The word gaṇa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaṇas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva, Ganesha's father. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord", thus meaning "Lord of the Common man"
