Author Description

The Hindu Elephant god Ganesha is perhaps the most widely popular of ancient deities, and so was the focus of many popular myths. However, his very interesting symbolism is also pivotal to ancient concepts of creation in India. While evidence for Ganesha dates back only to the late centuries BCE in India, comparative studies tie him to ancient African and Egyptian concepts that originated thousands of years earlier. These references provide us with a sensible context for Ganesha's symbolism, described in distinctly scientific terms. These link his various incarnations, attributes and icons to root dynamics of energy - the very ones that modern-day science tells us lie at the heart of concepts of material creation. Those dynamics, along with important clues uncovered in ancient language and myth, make it possible to reformulate a sensible myth of origin for Ganesha, in much the same form that it may have originally taken.