Dancing Ganesha

It is thought that when Ganesha dances he is playfully imitating the cosmic dance of creation and destruction performed by his father, Shiva. One of India’s most beloved gods, Ganesha is the subject of numerous poetic verses, some of which address this joyful frolicking:

Victory to Ganesha, who, when dancing, makes a shower of stars, resembling a rain of flowers, fall from the sky, by a blow of his trunk!*
Images of Ganesha dancing were especially popular in central India, where they were usually placed in niches on the exterior walls of Hindu temples. As the remover of obstacles, Ganesha is capable of ensuring that the religious endeavors of worshipers meet with success.

*Quotation from C. H. Tawney’s 1880–1884 translation of Somadeva’s eleventh-century Ocean of Streams of Story