This is Ganesha and, of course, he needs no introduction. In his hands are tusk, elephant goad, noose and sweets, starting with the lower right hand and clockwise. His trunk is reaching out to the sweets. Ganesha’s vahana, the rat, is on the pedestal. Ganesha’s sitting pose, Lalitasana, accommodates his ample belly.

This iconography of four-armed holding broken tusk, elephant goad, noose and sweets is the most popular among the several forms of Ganesha.

What makes this Vigraha special is it is single cast with its base and Prabhavali. And it is still intact. Another aspect worth noting is its age. The thin trunk is a stylistic feature dating to the sixteenth century.

The closeup photo (4X magnification) of his face shows a fair amount of ‘pitting’ because of corrosion. That is what prompted one of my dealer-friends to suggest this Vigraha is from the Chola period (9th -13th century). Validation of that observation is pending.

This Vigraha is about 4.5 cm in height, and it is from Tamil Nadu.

Such well-cast miniature Vigrahas are rare and they always have a place in my collection. Two other such complete Vigrahas in my collection, Lakshmi and LakshmiNarasimha, are shown below for study purposes.