A rare and highly innovative form of the elephant god, this statue, cast in brass but anodized in copper, represents Lord Ganesha marching with firm strides towards the battle-field. With fury on the face, determination in mind and sternness in the entire being this statue represents Lord Ganesha in an absolutely different image so unlike his popular image. The lord of auspiciousness containing the detrimental forces by his sheer presence, not by using force or arms, in this statue he is quite agitated and eager to resort to arm. Though conceived by blending elements of the sixteen-armed Vira Ganapati and eight-armed Durg Ganapati forms of his iconography, this fully armed form of Lord Ganesha manifests him in a new iconographic idiom that a term like Yuddha-Ganapati, or the warring Lord Ganesha or Lord Ganesha in battlefield, better defines. As mentioned in various scriptures, Modagalya Purana in particular, Vira Ganapati and Durg Ganapati are two of the thirty-two classical forms of the elephant god’s image manifesting his valiant and victorious forms.
