Ganesh is the elephant-headed god who is in the forefront of all worship. As the remover of all sorts of obstacles no ritual is undertaken without worshipping him first. This is what the myth has to say about his strange looking human body.

It says that Parvati, the wife of Shiva, was in some kind of trouble with her over- romantic or jealous husband, who always needed to knwo too much. Her friends advised her to employ her own body-guard who would safeguard her privacy. So she collected some “bukuwa” (a kind of paste) to wash her body and from this she moulded a child and gave life to him. One day she asked him to guard her door and not to allow anybody in while she took a shower, but Shiva returned home and wishing to enter her room was prevented.

Shiva became angry, and not knowing who the child was, decapitated him. Parvati came out and cried at the fate of her som, while Shiva trying to pacify her ordered his servants to find any creature, chop the head and bring it to him. They found a white elephant, chopped its head off, and brought it to Shiva, who added the head to the torso of Ganesh and provided life to him.