The Compendium on Ganesa

Ganesa’s popularity is manifold. He is the favourite god of the masses. He is also the favourite subject for curio-hunters and collectors of icons. Painters and sculptors have revelled in depicting this god in a varity of forms and postures. The Tantrik practitioners have found in him a beneficent poer, quick to acquire and enduring in nature.

Literature about Ganesh is remarkable, varied and large. Works in Sanskrit, which appear to have provided the main source material for all of them, are themselves large in number and varied in nature. An attempt has been made here to present a comprehensive picture of Ganesa that is of interest to an Indian mind. The picture assumes the Vedic origin of Ganesa and the Smrti and the Tantric involvements of the deity. It recognizes the primal importance ogiven to this god in the daily life of millions of Indians. It seeks to provide authentic information about Ganesh from texts.

The books contain drawings of numerous Ganesa icons, worshipped in temples or preserved in museums.

Vidyalankara, Sastra-Chudamini, Sangita-Kalaratna, Professor Saligrama Krishna Ramachandra Rao, is a well-known scholar who combines traditional learning with modern research. Well versed in Sanskrit, Pall, Ardhmagadhi and several modern Indian languages and acquainted with Tibetan and some European languages, he has written extensively on Vedanta, Buddhism, Janism, Indian Culture, Art and Literature.

In his professional career, however, he was a Professor of Psychology. He has headed the Department of Clinical Psychology in the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore and the Department of Indian Culture in the Collision College Study Center of the University of the Pacific (U.S.A.) He was the senior associate of National Institute of Advanced Studies (Indian Institute of Science), Bangalore, and Guest Faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and member of the Governing Council of TTD (SVCL Research Center), Tirupati. He has been member of Karnataka State Lalitha Kala Academy and Sangita Nritya Academy and Sangita Nritya Academy; he has served on the Agama Board (Govt. of Karnataka). He is President of Silpa-Kala Pratisthana. The Govt. of Karnataka has honored him with the 1986 Rajyotsava Award. He has received awards from Lalita-Kala Academy and Sangita Nritya Academy. He has been awarded the Veda-Sanman for the year 2000 by the Govt. of India (Ministry of HRD, Sandipani Mahavidhyalaya, and Ujjain). He has written more than Sixty Books in Kannada, a Play in Sanskrit, and a Pali Commentary on a Buddhist classic. One of his books on Iconography in Kannada has won the State Sahitya Academy Award, as also another of his Book on the Tirupati Temple.

Among his numerous English Publications are three Vols. of Encyclopaedia of Indian Iconography, Tibetan Tantrik Tradition and Tibetan Meditation, Consciousness in Advaita, and a series of Six Books on Indian Temples Origins of. Indian thought. He is also Musicologist, a Sculptor and Painter, and has held some one man shows.