Carved Ganesha Door Panel

Before anything else enters an Indian home, Ganesha does. The remover of obstacles is the deity of thresholds, invoked at the start of every undertaking and carved above and into doorways for exactly that reason, so that whatever passes through begins well. A door with Ganesha carved into it is therefore not decoration on a door, it is the door doing its oldest job and this one does it with the whole of the carver's art.

At the centre, Ganesha sits within an arched niche under a carved canopy, four-armed, the trunk curling, the modak in hand, the posture at ease the way he is always shown, surrounded by a frame of pillars and a lintel of pierced ornament. From there the carving never stops, scrolling vines and blossoms fill every border out to the edge of the panel, deep enough to shadow, so the whole surface reads differently at morning and evening as the light moves across it. Along the base, two elephants flank a kalash, the brimming pot, the ancient sign of abundance greeting the guest at knee height while Ganesha greets them at eye level. Solid timber throughout, carved in relief from the plank, not applied.