Name/Title
Ganesha StatueContext
Ganesha is a popular deity within the Hindu pantheon. He is characterized by an elephant head and has from 2 to 20 arms, with 2 to 16 more common and images with four arms most popular. Ganesha is venerated as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences, and the diva or divine god of wisdom. The earliest clearly defined iconographic images of Ganesha appear in the first century of the Gupta Empire period of Indian history (320-550 CE)
Louis Bromfield made several trips to India in the 1930s and used the country as the setting for two novels. This statue of Ganesha was acquired on one of those trips. Bromfield was frequently urged to eliminate the English sparrows that nested in the recesses around this figure, but he refused to do so, not willing to kill these foreign interlopers.
- Research and text by Thomas Bachelder of the Malabar Farm FoundationLocation
Building
The Big HouseOhio State Park
Malabar Farm State Park