Grinnell, Iowa — As deities go, Ganesha—or Ganesh—is hard to mistake. With an elephant head (one tusk is broken) and a potbelly, he’s known as the Lord of Beginnings, the Remover of Obstacles, and a patron of arts and sciences. He is also—and here I confess a personal interest in visiting his statue in a Grinnell College grove floored with soft pine needles—a patron of letters.
But like any deity, Ganesh has his likes and dislikes. For instance, he likes having a roof over his head when he’s outdoors, said Timothy Dobe, an assistant professor of religious studies who sat next to me at a community dinner the other night. Whether to provide some sort of a shelter for the god has become something of an issue at the college, Mr. Dobe told me, with Ganesh’s friends pressing the case and the administration responding more slowly than the friends think appropriate. (He is, after all, a god.)
The college’s engaging little stone image of Ganesh was erected outdoors about eight years ago in memory of a student—that in itself involved some negotiation, Mr. Dobe said, because in the Hindu tradition such a statue would not normally be used as a memorial. Its location is the college’s Peace Garden, nestled behind the science building, but the garden’s trees don’t keep the Iowa snow off the deity’s head.
Until some kind of shelter is put up, said Mr. Dobe, Grinnell’s students do their best to look after the Lord of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles: In bad weather, they’ll often bring him a hat and scarf.
8 Responses to A Hat and Scarf for the Lord of Beginnings
lee77 - November 18, 2010 at 9:16 am
Is the broken tusk vandalism, decay, or intentional (part of the god’s persona)?
potsdampres - November 18, 2010 at 9:25 am
As an alum from the 60′s, I love the addition of Ganesh. Whenever I am on campus, I always give a small cash offering for all of the beginnings on campus, and in my family.
martinllevine - November 18, 2010 at 9:51 am
Answer to lee77: The broken tusk is part of Ganesha’s image and has symbolic meaning.
11126724 - November 18, 2010 at 12:45 pm
If the appropriate religious practice is to provide shelter from the weather, shouldn’t that practice be respected at Grinell. Really, it wouldn’t take much, and might be a popular fund raiser for the school. Must keep the gods happy, after all–all of them.
uncnews - November 30, 2010 at 11:20 am
My Hebrew name, G’nesha, is, to the best of my knowledge, unrelated, but how could I have visited Grinnell and missed such a wonderful deity, especially one that I feel a special kinship towards? I think I will ask my son, a Grinnell junior, who is on study abroad in Sweden, to be sure to bring Ganesha appropriate attire. Mr. Biemiller, thanks for brightening my day.
mariemapes - November 30, 2010 at 4:41 pm
The Ganesh statue was placed in the grove to honor my classmate, Jamison Curran, who was killed while studying abroad in India. I think Jamis would have liked the idea of current students keeping his Ganesh warm in the cold Iowa winter…
http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2000/01/24/News/Study.Abroad.Student.Killed.While.Traveling-17289.shtml
goeringm - December 3, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Between 2004-2008 students rallied around the idea of a roof over Ganesh several times. Some wrote petitions and others wrote ballot initiatives for a campus referendum process, which syndicated the issue to every student. In the end, an administration-compiled task force declared that since religious experts took both sides of the roof debate, no protective structure was necessary. Student-donated hats and scarves seem like the most heartwarming decoration of all.