Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the biggest Hindu festivals of the year; Ganesh’s birthday. Across India millions of devotees flock to Ganesh temples to worship and receive blessings for the coming year. Ganesh is the Hindu God of beginnings and good luck, so is often referred to as the Lord of Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles.

The Ganeshji Temple next door to the India Beat office is one of the most famous in Rajasthan and will receive more than 100,000 people for prayers today.

Ganesh is the son of Shiva and Parvati, when his mother was pregnant with him his father left home to meditate. He returned years later to find the boy guarding the entrance to his house as his mother was taking a bath. When the young boy stopped his father entering the house he flew into a rage and cut off Ganesh’s head. Devastated to see her son lying dead on the ground, Parvati explained to Shiva that the boy was his son. The distraught parents asked Bramha, the creator god, to save him, he replied that they could only replace his head with that of the first animal they saw when they left their house. By chance an elephant happened to be there so they chopped of it’s head and attached it to the decapitated body of Ganesh. This is why Ganesh is always depicted with the body of a man and the head of an elephant.

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