Ganesha in world religions

Ganesha is a prominent Hindu god. He is the god of beginnings, wisdom and luck and worshipped as the remover of obstacles. Ganesha is easily recognized from his elephant head. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains and Buddhists and beyond India.

India and Hinduism has influenced many countries in other parts South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia as a result of commercial and cultural contacts. Ganesha is one of many Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.^[1]

Ganesha was a deity particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures.^[2] The period from approximately the 10th century CE onwards was marked by the development of new networks of exchange, the formation of trade guilds, and a resurgence of money circulation, and it was during this time that Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders.^[3] The earliest inscription where Ganesha is invoked before any other deity is by the merchant community.^[4]