Lord Ganesha: the idol neurosurgeon

Abstract

Ganesha (also spelled Ganesa or Ganesh) is one of the bestknown and most-worshipped divinities in Hinduism. Although there are many descriptions, Ganesha’s elephant head makes him easy to identify (see cover illustration). There are many mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and life history. Ganesha is worshipped as the lord of beginnings, of obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and of intellect and wisdom. Ganesha appears as a distinct deity in clearly recognizable form beginning in the fourth to fifth centuries, during the Gupta Period. The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The translation “Lord of Hosts” may convey a familiar sense to Western readers. Unlike some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variation with distinct patterns changing over time. Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the sixth century. A statue of Lord Ganesha has been dated between 973 and 1200 by Martin-Dubost [2]. He has the head of an elephant and a big belly. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, in most stories he acquires the head later, with several accounts given. The most common motif in these stories is that Ganesha was born with a human head and body and that Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha’s original head with that of an elephant [2]. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary according to different sources. It is widely believed that Lord Shiva wanted his son to have divine attributes and hence he performed the first documented and successful transplant surgery of the brain, which the neurosurgical fraternity still strives to achieve [1]. Lord Ganesha hence became the recipient of the first brain transplant. The Lord had many attributes, which could be a neurosurgeons’ delight. Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of Intelligence. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, where many stories showcase his cleverness and love of intelligence. On a symbolic level, Ganesha was blessed with wide ears and a small mouth so as to listen more clearly and at all decibels and speak less, with a very active eight-nerve function system that every neurosurgeon must desire for all his patients, irrespective of his caste, creed and socioeconomic status. He possessed a large head, meant to think big and have large memory, which easily are the qualities every neurosurgeon aspires for. The small eyes gave him power to concentrate and have focus, which in a microscopic era would be desired by all neurosurgeons. This may be likened to the neuronavigational systems, which we want to emulate. The number of Ganesha’s arms varies; his bestknown forms have between two and 16 arms. The Robotic arms, which we utilize and wish to have, were possessed by the Lord Ganesha. One tusk, which he had, represented the ability to retain the good and discard the poor. Is it not the essence of what neurosurgery is all about? The trunk represented high efficiency and adaptability, which we feel is the bottomline of neurosurgical practice, taking instant and stable decisions. Ganesha’s protruding belly appears as Childs Nerv Syst (2008) 24:287–288 DOI 10.1007/s00381-007-0507-2