Story Planning: Ganesha the Remover of Obstacles

For my storybook I intend to write about the God Ganesha and the iconography associated with him. For my introduction I intend to use the book Hindu Gods & Goddesses by Sunita Pant Bansal, which I found a copy of at my house, to talk about the different iconography's associated with Ganesha and what they symbolize.

Hindu Gods & Goddesses Notes:

• Elephant head represents wisdom, understanding, and a discriminating intellect
• The right tusk represents wisdom
• The left tusk represents emotion
• The broken left tusk represents the idea that one must conquer emotions with wisdom
• The four arms represent that the lord is omnipresent and omnipotent
• The ax in the upper right hand represents that one should cut wordily attachments and conquer emotions
• The lotus in the upper left hand also represents this
• The lower right hand is shown in a blessing pose for his devotees
• The tray of laddus represents that he bestows wealth and prosperity to his followers
• The left side of the body symbolizes emotion
• The right side of the body symbolizes reason
• The mouse symbolizes the ego that a person can have
• The mouse being a vehicle symbolizes that one must control ego in order for a person to gain wisdom
• The color of the clothes he wears also symbolize something
• The yellow symbolizes purity, peace, and truthfullness
• The red symbolizes the activity in the world

A picture of Ganesha

Source

I'll probably use this image or something similar to it to show ganesha with all his iconography.