Week 13 Reading Part B: Ganesha at Last

In my continuation of Ganesha goes to Lunch things have finally started to heat up, as Ganesha makes his appearance.

I was a little surprised, if I'm being honest, as to the differences between this and Sir Edmund Charles Cox's recounting of the events, which seemed quite different last week. In this version, it was Shiva who cut off Ganesha's head, while in the other version it was someone else who had a curse upon them. And that is just one of the many differences I've noticed. Personally, I prefer this version- the characters are so much more richly motivated and the plot is much tighter and more coherent- but it does make me wonder how much artistic license Kapur is taking with the original tales.

But even if Kapur is making up more of this than he is retelling verbatim, I still prefer his recounting. I mean, his descriptions are just so beautiful, and his characterizations of the gods make more sense to me than any other I've read. Especially Shiva. Shiva;s personality has always been clouded in mystery from all the different sources I'd read about him this semester. In Kapur's version, this paradoxical nature is very intentional, and indeed he even plays off it for dramatic effect. Shiva is just a much more compelling and believable character in the way the Kapur describes himself, and I find myself fascinated with him, even though I thought that I would be most interested in Ganesha's character (the reason why I picked the book up in the first place)

Family Portrait: Shiva, Parvati, and Ganesha