Anthropomorphic God in Indian religions: Specific to Ganesha

Humanbeing has tried to make sense of the life right from the start and the God has become a pure subject in humanbeing's life in this sense-making path. The God that affects the whole practice of life has always been stuck in one's mind and, the humanbeging could not refrain from thinking about him and shaping him. As a result of this, gods have come into existence antromorphically in the majority of religions existing all around the world. In fact the antromorphic god has not only reamined in the humanbeing's mind but also it has emerged in Daily life and has kept its existence concretively. One of the countries where anthropomorphism peaks in the divine realm and the most important is India and due to the fact that Indian religions are the oldest known religion, they are very important in terms of influencing the conception of god in some other religions. In the history of India, gods have always existed in human-animal forms. In Indian religions, the function of the god is more important than the shape, and every limb depicted in the god has a task. Millions of gods in India live together with people, and human-god cooperation has been a sign of closeness to God. In this country, gods and humans need each other and are alike. While humans reside on earth, gods live in the sky. The most important of these deities today is Ganesha, the basmala (initially) deity worshiped by all the people of India. Ganesha, with its trunk on an elephant's head, inhaling the world, with its fat belly, symbolizes that good and evil are in it, and in parallel, everything is inside man. As a matter of fact, according to Hindu people, everything, including God, is inside a person, and whatever the person experiences, he gets that emotion out of himself. Considering all these, this study is divided into three parts, In the first chapter, by giving a conceptual analysis of anthropomorphism, it is aimed to compare some monotheist and polytheist religions with Indian gods by giving a rough depiction of anthropomorphic gods. Afterwards, the anthropomorphic features of the Hindu gods are mentioned and the meanings that appear and symbolize in reality are discussed, the evolution of the anthropomorphic god understanding in Indian religions in the historical process has been analyzed by keeping the principle of "everything is open to change", which is a Buddhist philosophy, in mind. Lastly, the god Ganesha, which preserves its importance in India yesterday and today, is presented to the reader in every aspect.