How Ganesh got his Elephant Head

Key ideas: Hindu, Ganesh, loneliness, caring


Shiva, the mighty God with the blue throat, lives high up in the Himalaya mountains with his beautiful wife, Parvati. Sometimes, life is not much fun for her, for Shiva is often away for years at a time on his usual business of creating and destroying people and dancing on top of the world to keep it going.
On one occasion Parvati did not know when he might return. She was bored. There was not much she could do all by herself on a mountain peak, and she was feeling exceedingly lonely. It suddenly occurred to her that she was, after all, a goddess and could do whatever she wished. What she needed was a playmate ... not a playmate that would annoy Shiva, as his anger could be deadly in more senses than one, but a sweet, innocent playmate.
Parvati kept thinking along these lines. Finally, the perfect solution dawned on her.
'I will make myself a baby,' she cried with happiness, 'I will make myself a baby boy.'
Parvati found some clay and water. She pounded the clay until it was soft and pliable and then she began to shape a baby. The first form she made looked too ordinary and not cuddly enough. So she began to add clay to its stomach until it was fat and round. Parvati laughed to herself. She was beginning to love the baby already.
Parvati then took her right forefinger and poked it into the baby's stomach to make a belly button. 'Oh, it is going to be a lovely baby,' she said to herself.
She put the baby in the sun to dry. Soon it opened its eyes and began to smile. Parvati was overjoyed. She had found the perfect playmate.
Everywhere Parvati went, she took her baby. She cooed to it, talked to it and spent many hours laughing at its antics.
Several years passed this way. One day, Parvati took her son for a long walk. They were both quite tired and when they came to a pool of water Parvati wanted to stop and bathe in it, but she felt shy about being seen by a passer-by. So she said to her son, 'Could you please be my guard? Don't let anyone come near the pool while I am bathing.' The roly-poly boy sat down upon a large flat stone while his mother made her way into the refreshing water.
Now, it so happened that Shiva had just finished dancing on a mountain top and was returning home. He heard some splashing in a pool and knew that it had to be his wife. He was about to walk towards the water when he found himself stopped by a fat little boy.
'Don't go any further,' the boy ordered.
Shiva was not used to taking orders. He tried to brush the boy aside but the boy resisted and fought back. Shiva's anger began to mount. His throat became bluer and the veins in his forehead began to swell and throb. Suddenly, without warning, Shiva drew out a sword and cut off the boy's head.
Parvati, hearing a commotion, slipped into her clothes and rushed towards Ganesh. She let out a scream and fell sobbing to the ground.
Shiva watched in amazement. He realized that he had done something terrible but did not know what it was. He apologized, hoping that would calm his wife, and then asked her what he had done to upset her so.
'It's your vile temper,' she answered.
'But,' he said, 'you knew about my temper when you married me. Surely that is not what is upsetting you now!'
'You have murdered our child.' Parvati was quite hysterical by now. 'Our child?' asked Shiva. This was the first he had heard of a child. 'You never understand anything,' Parvati screamed. 'You stay away for years and years on distant mountain tops. You don't care what happens to me.' Shiva did not seem to understand.
'You said that I had killed our child. But we have no child!'
'Of course we have,' Parvati said. 'We have a child because I made one. I made one because I was lonely. I was lonely because you were away. Of course we have a child. I should say that ... we ... had ... a ... child.
The pieces in the puzzle suddenly locked into place. Shiva was so sorry that he begged his wife to tell him what he could do to redeem himself.
Parvati said, 'Go out into the forest with your mighty sword. I want you to cut off the head of the first living creature you see and bring it back. Fit the head on our child and give it life. That is what I want. If you do not do this for me, I will never speak to you again.'
Even though Shiva's work took him away for long periods, he did love his wife and did not want to lose her. So he did as he was told. He went into the forest with his mighty sword, looking for a living creature.
Well, the first living creature he saw was an elephant. Shiva cut off its head and dutifully brought it home. He fitted the head on to the child's body, breathing life into it as he did so, and waited for his wife's reaction.
To his surprise, Parvati was enchanted. She stroked the child's trunk and declared that this boy was even better than her first creation.
Shiva sighed with relief. By now, he was beginning to get very fond of the child himself...