Ganesha

Ganesha is worshipped before anybody else, including before the deity whose temple one has come to, and that precedence is the whole of his character. He is Vighnaharta, who takes obstacles away, and Vighnakarta, who puts them there, because the same power does both and a tradition that wanted only the first would be asking for half a god. He is the scribe of the Mahabharata, which Vyasa dictated and he wrote without pausing, breaking off his own tusk when the pen failed. In Tamil Nadu he is Pillaiyar, the noble child, and a lump of turmeric shaped by hand under a tree is as much him as a bronze in a sanctum.

An elephant head on a short heavy body, one tusk broken, a large belly and four arms, usually with the noose, the goad, a broken tusk and a bowl of modakam. The trunk most often curves to his left, and a right-curving trunk, the valampuri, is held to be stricter and is given a shrine of its own. The mouse at his feet is his vehicle, which is the joke and the point: the largest head and the smallest mount.

Son of Siva and Parvati, elder or younger brother of Murugan depending on who is telling it. The north gives him two wives, Riddhi and Siddhi, and two sons, Shubha and Labha; the Tamil country keeps him a bachelor, which is why a Tamil wedding invitation is placed at his feet and a north Indian one at Lakshmi and Ganesha together.

He is invoked at the start of every rite, every journey, every account book and every other god's puja, with the arugampul that belongs to him and twenty one of whatever is offered. The gesture of holding the ears and doing thoppukaranam, the small squat with arms crossed, is his alone. Chaturthi is his tithi, in both fortnights, and the bright one is for beginning and the dark one for getting past something.

Tamil Nadu

Pillaiyar, kept a bachelor, with a turmeric lump under a tree as valid as any bronze; Pillaiyarpatti and the Ucchi Pillaiyar on the Rock Fort are the great shrines, and the kozhukattai is his food.

Maharashtra

The ten days of Ganesh Chaturthi are the largest public festival in the state, with the Ashtavinayak circuit of eight self-manifested shrines around Pune and the visarjan processions of Mumbai.

Andhra and Telangana

Vinayaka Chavithi is kept with the clay idol and the patri, twenty one leaves gathered from the field, and the Varasiddhi Vinayaka vratam katha is read before the immersion.

North India

Worshipped with Lakshmi at Diwali and at the start of the account year, and given two wives and two sons, which the south does not.

Nepal

The four Vinayaka shrines of the Kathmandu valley are circled in one day, and Surya Binayak at Bhaktapur is taken to for a child slow to speak.

• Vinayagar Chaturthi
• Ganesh Chaturthi
• Vinayaka Chavithi · Ganesh Chaturthi
• Vinayagar Chaturthi (monthly)
• Sankatahara Chaturthi
• Sankashti Chaturthi
• Anant Chaturdashi

• Pillaiyarpatti Karpaga Vinayagar Temple Pillaiyarpatti, Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu
• Sri Varasiddhi Vinayaka Temple, Kanipakam Kanipakam, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh
• Shree Siddhivinayak Temple, Prabhadevi Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Sri Vinayaka Temple, Idagunji Idagunji, Uttara Kannada, Karnataka
• Anegudde Vinayaka Temple Kumbashi, Udupi, Karnataka

• Vakratunda Mahakaya
• Shuklambaradharam
• Om Gam Ganapataye Namah
• Ganesha gayatri
• Gajananam Bhutaganadi Sevitam
• Pranamya Shirasa Devam (Sankatanashana Ganesha stotram)
• Ganapati Atharvashirsha (opening)