GANEHSA
Real Name: Ganehsa (also spelled Ganesh and Ganesha)
Occupation:
God of wisdom, patron god of elephants
Legal Status:
Citizen of Nirvana Base of Operations:
First Appearance: (historical)
"Pantheons of the Megaverse" by C.J. Carella, (recent) Wonder
Woman II #149
History: Ganehsa is one of the Devas, an
extra-dimensional race of beings worshipped as gods by the people of India. Descended
from the old Adityas or Vedic gods, Ganehsa is one of the most important gods of
the modern Hindu religion. Parvati had given birth to Ganehsa to be a countenance against
good and evil deeds and altered his appearance that he would be too handsome to
marry or take a wife. However, because of her spell, Shiva could not recognize
his son when the young god was guarding her bed chambers as she took a bath. Not
realizing the young god was his son, Shiva ripped Ganehsa's head off of his body
as he cast
him aside to be with Parvati. Ganehsa's death shocked Parvat and all the gods, but Shiva
rectified the matter by promising to restore him to life with the life-force of
the first living thing he found. His servants quickly discovered Airavata,
the elephant-mount of Indra the thunder-god and took it from him as penance for
Indra's slaying of Vritra, one of the Naga-gods. Possibly as some required side
effect of the spell, Ganehsa began to resemble a elephant with the body of a
man. (According to later myth, Shiva had simply just replaced Ganehsa's head
with that of the elephant.) Parvati was not satisfied with this accomplishment
of repentance and wanted more. Shiva then granted Ganehsa himself a boon and
promised him that all Hindus on earth would acknowledge his existence before
starting any task or undertaking. The wise elephant-god was soon called upon by
all his worshippers for any mortal endeavor they started. Ganehsa was the brother of Skanda, the war god and they
decided to compete between themselves for wives. They chose to race
around the world to decide who was worthy to marry, and Skanda set off to race
around the world. Ganehsa, however, proved much more the wily god in his
brother's absence by circling his father, Shiva, who under Hindu religion
represented the epitome of all creation. He debated the feat with his
father by holding up the veracity of the Vedas and the Sastras, the two most
holy tomes of the Hindu gods, and Shiva praised him for being clever and
intelligent. He took the sisters, Siddhi and Buddhi, daughters of one of the
Vedic gods, to be his wives, and they each granted him a son. Ganehsa was well worshipped among the Hindu gods for centuries
and still has countless worshippers today. In recent years, however, the Titan
Cronus invaded Nirvana as a stepping stone to conquering Elysium, the
Judeo-Christian afterlife. Ganehsa and the Hindu gods fought against Cronus and
his gathering of rogue Titans and Rakshasas and with the help of Wonder
Woman and the Gods
of Olympus managed to defeat Cronus and exile him back to the
underworld. Unusual Physical Features: Ganehsa resembles a huge
humanoid male with the head and tusks of an Indian Elephant. Ganehsa also seems to be able to tap into and manipulate
mystical energy to perform feats of magic, but he is no where as powerful as
gods like Shiva or Vishnu. He has remarkable mental acuity, capable of assessing
and estimating facts and estimations although he is often distracted by his
baser emotional instincts. His reasoning and deducting skills are superhuman
with his rationalizing ability and fourth-dimensional acuity above par. Ganehsa is also an extremely powerful deity given his size and
girth. His skin is impervious to weapons and he can use his tusks to incur
damage. He can use his trunk as an extra limb to move or lift objects up to
fifty tons in weight. Abilities: Ganehsa is an extremely wily yet beneficent
deity. Last updated:
04/18/07
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Ganehsa except as a
mythological character.
Other Aliases: Ganapati, Gajendra, The Elephant-god
Place of Birth: Kailasa in the Nirvana dimension
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives: Shiva
(father), Parvati
(mother), Skanda
(brother, alias Kartikeya), Kali
(sister), Siddhi, Buddhi (wives), Ksema, Labha (sons), Dharma, Padma, Vach, Daksha, Kama (cousins), Lakshmi,
Sarasvati
(aunts), Vishnu,
Brahma (uncles),
Visvarupa (father-in-law), Himavat (grandfather), Gaea
(grandmother, alias Ammavaru),
Group Affiliations:
The Hindu Gods
Height: 7' 2"
Weight: 745 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: None
Strength Level: Ganehsa possesses superhuman strength enabling him to
lift (press) around 50 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Ganehsa possesses the conventional physical attributes
of the Devas or Hindu gods. Like all Devas, he is extraordinarily long lived,
but he is not immortal like the Olympian gods. He has not aged since
reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all
Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If he were somehow
wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It
would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his
bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
a god of significant power, such as Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva or for a number of
Hindu gods of equal power working together to revive him. Ganehsa also possesses
superhuman strength and his Deva metabolism provides him with far greater than
human endurance in all physical activities. (Deva flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman
strength and weight of the Hindu gods.)
Pets: Ganehsa rides upon a giant rat.
Comments: This bio pretty much involves Ganehsa in the DC Universe. It is
unknown if he has appeared in the Marvel Universe except behind the scenes.