Ganesha Workshops Bandra West

Ganesha Workshops Bandra West, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

I start a new set at my Flickr photo stream, the workshops at Bandra West where Lord Ganesha is sculpted , decorated and sold to the devotees for the Ganesha festival.
There are two workshops side by side , the first one next to the Jari Mari Temple on SV Road Bandra belongs to my friends Jeetu and Chintan, and the one next to them belongs to Kedar.

At the moment the huge Ganeshas have not yet been completed , work on them will start next week.

The sculptors and the workers are usually very excited when I come to shoot their workplace ..and I share my cultural inheritance with all of you without holding anything back..

Later I shall shoot the workshops of Lalbagh at Ganesh Gully , these workshops cater to all the big pandals where later Lord Ganesha will be installed.

After I finish shooting the workshops I shall begin shooting the pandals of Mumbai when Lord Ganesha will be installed and finally the Immersion ..the Gauri Immersion and the Ganesha Immersion..



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha

Ganesha (Sanskrit: गणेश; IAST: Gaṇeśa; Ganesha.ogg listen (help·info)), also spelled Ganesa or Ganesh and also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most widely worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon.[5] His image is found throughout India.[6] Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations.[7] Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.[8]

Although he is known by many other attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify.[9] Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles[10] and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles (Vighnesha, Vighneshvara),[11] patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom.[12] He is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions.[13] Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in clearly recognizable form in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors.[14] His popularity rose quickly, and he was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya, (Sanskrit: गाणपत्य; gāṇapatya), who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity, arose during this period.[15] The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

Ganesha has many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vigneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri (Sanskrit: श्री; śrī, also spelled Sri or Shree) is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.[17]

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana (Sanskrit: गण; gaṇa), meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha (Sanskrit: ईश; īśa), meaning lord or master.[18] The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva (IAST: Śiva).[19] The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation.[20] Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements.[21] Ganapati (Sanskrit: गणपति; gaṇapati), a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord".[20] The Amarakosha,[22] an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vignesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers),[23] Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana (IAST: gajānana) ; having the face of an elephant).[24]

Vinayaka (Sanskrit: विनायक; vināyaka) is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras.[25] This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka).[26] The names Vignesha (Sanskrit: विघ्नेश; vighneśa) and Vigneshvara (Sanskrit: विघ्नेश्वर; vighneśvara) (Lord of Obstacles)[11] refers to his primary function in Hindu mythology as the creator and remover of obstacles (vighna).[27]

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pille or Pillaiyar (Little Child).[28] A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pille means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk of an elephant", but more generally "elephant".[29] Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".[30]

Obstacles
Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja, the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order.[82] He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."[83]

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time.[27] Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter).[84] However, both functions continue to be vital to his character, as Robert Brown explains, "even after the Purāṇic Gaṇeśa is well-defined, in art Gaṇeśa remained predominantly important for his dual role as creator and remover of obstacles, thus having both a negative and a positive aspect".[85]

[edit] Buddhi

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning.[86] In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect.[87] The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya.[88] This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important.[89] The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband",[90] so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".[91]

[edit] Aum

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum (ॐ, also called Om). The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound.[92] The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).[93]

Ganesh Chaturthi
Main article: Ganesh Chaturthi
The visarjan ceremony of Lord Ganesh during the Chaturthi festival in Hyderabad, India

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesh Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September.[129] The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when images (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water.[130] In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event.[131] He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra.[132] Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule.[133] Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day.[134] Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra.[135][136] The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.