His Ganesh was traded into my friend as the family who owned him wanted a new bronze Murti of Ganesha. He had been with the family since the 1920's as one can see from his magnificent, antique green, verde-gris patina. This Ganesh statue shows the him standing while holding his broken tusk, an elephant goad, noose and a mango.This Ganesh statue is a hand made, one of a kind, bronze sculpture cast by the artists of South India using the lost wax process, a skill passed on for generations since the Chola period .The son of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles.The elephant head denotes wisdom and its trunk represents Om, the sound symbol of cosmic reality. The broken tusk that Ganesha holds like a pen in his lower right hand is a symbol of sacrifice, which he broke for writing the Mahabharata. His fan-like ears convey that he is all ears to our petition. And he is humble enough to ride the lowest of creatures, a mouse. Ganesha is the most beloved and worshipped of all gods in the Hindu pantheon.