Ganesha Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz questions about Ganesha

Ganesha Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Who is Ganesha?
A: Ganesha is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon.

Hindu denominations worship him regardless of what?
A: Affiliations.

Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to whom?
A: Jains and Buddhists.

Although he is known by many attributes, what makes him easy to identify?
A: Ganesha's elephant head.

Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of what?
A: Obstacles.

As the god of beginnings, he is honored at the start of what?
A: Rites and ceremonies.

Ganesha is also invoked as patron of what?
A: Letters and learning during writing sessions.

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including what?
A: Ganapati (Ganpati) and Vighneshvara.

The Hindu title of respect Shri is often what?
A: Added before his name.

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining what words?
A: Gana (gana), meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha (īśa), meaning lord or master.

The word gana when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to what?
A: The ganas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva, Ganesha's father.

The term more generally means what?
A: A category, class, community, association, or corporation.

Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Ganas" to mean what?
A: "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements.

The earliest mention of the word Ganapati is found where?
A: In hymn 2.23.1 of the 2nd-millennium BCE Rigveda, it is however uncertain that the Vedic term referred specifically to Ganesha.

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears where?
A: In the Purānas and in Buddhist Tantras.

What is a prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language?
A: Pillai or Pillaiyar.

A.K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means what?
A: A "noble child".

He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify what?
A: "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk".

Wht is Ganesha known as in the Burmese language?
A: As Maha Peinne.

What is the widespread name of Ganesha in?
A: Phra Phikanet.

In Sri Lankan Singhala Buddhist areas, he is known as what?
A: Gana deviyo, and revered along with Buddha, Vishnu, Skanda and others.

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian what?
A: Art.

Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide what?
A: Variations and distinct patterns changing over time.

He may be portrayed how?
A: Standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, or sitting down on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by when?
A: The 6th century.

Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big what?
A: Belly.

In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a what in the other upper arm?
A: Pasha (noose).

In rare instances, he may be depicted with a human what?
A: Head.

Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got what?
A: His elephant head.

One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five what?
A: Elephant heads.

Some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, but in most stories he what?
A: He acquires the head later.

What is the most recurrent motif in these stories?
A: Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant.

Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by what?
A: Shiva's laughter.

Ganesha's earliest name was what?
A: Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken.

Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding what?
A: His broken tusk.

Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest what?
A: Statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries).

This feature is so important that according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and what?
A: Mahodara (Great Belly).

The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have how many?
A: Between two and sixteen arms.

Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in where?
A: Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts.

His earliest images had how many arms?
A: Two.

Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in where?
A: Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries.

The serpent is a common feature in what?
A: Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms.

According to the Ganesha Purana, what did Ganesha do with the serpent Vasuki?
A: He wrapped the serpent around his neck.

Other depictions of snakes include use as a what?
A: A sacred thread, wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne.

Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a what?
A: A third eye or the sectarian mark which consists of three horizontal lines.

The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a what on the forehead?
A: Crescent moon.

Ganesha is often described as being what color?
A: Red in color.

The earliest Ganesha images are without a what?
A: Vahana (mount/vehicle).

Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in how many of them?
A: Five of them.

What does he use in his incarnation as Vakratunda?
A: A Lion.

In his incarnation as Vikata, what does he use?
A: A peacock.

As Vighnaraja what does he use?
A: Shesha the divine serpent.

Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a what?
A: A mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a what?
A: Mouse, shrew or rat.

Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during what period?
A: The 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet.

The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in what?
A: The Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana.

It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of what?
A: Vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome.

According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as what?
A: Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles).

Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, does what?
A: Penetrates even the most secret places.

He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also does what?
A: Places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked.

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and what?
A: Learning.

Ganesha is identified with what Hindu mantra?
A: Om, also spelled Aum.

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides where?
A: In the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra).

Ganesha holds supports and guides all other chakras, thereby what?
A: "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as a what?
A: An unmarried brahmachari.

This view is common where?
A: In southern India and parts of northern India.

Another popularly-accepted mainstream pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are personified as what?
A: Goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives.

He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless what?
A: Servant.

He is also associated with the goddess of what?
A: Luck and prosperity, Lakshmi.

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten what two sons?
A: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit).

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions, especially at the beginning of ventures such as what?
A: Buying a vehicle or starting a business.