Different forms of Lord Ganesha in Chamba Rumals: An Overview

Abstract

Lord Ganesha is one of the favorite subjects among the visual artists. He is also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka and is one of the most worshipped God among Hindus. He is also known as the remover of obstacles and patron of arts and science. Before starting of any rituals or ceremonies, Lord Ganesha is worshipped first. The worship of Ganesha was very popular subject among embroiderers of Chamba specially for the rumal and the paintings.  A large number of Chamba Rumals depicting Lord Ganesha in different forms are preserved and are on display in many museums in India and abroad. This paper is an attempt to look at some beautiful rumals, housed in the collection of Canada Museum of Textiles, Canada, Indian Art Museum, Calcutta and Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba.

Keywords: - Ganesha, Chamba, Threads, Embroidery, Rumal, Pahari Paintings, Kangra, modak, ladoo