Among the Khmer, Ganesh was mostly known by one of his earlier epithets, Ganapati, lord of the ganas, the impish servants of Shiva. He first appears in Khmer inscriptions under this epithet in the Seventh Century AD, and it was around this time that his image was first transmitted to Khmer artists from southern India. The importance of Ganesh both as a popular Hindu god, and as a son of Shiva ensured his ready acceptance among the Khmer, and his rapid promotion through the official Khmer Hindu pantheon. Ganesh, with his elephant head, is considered a mover of obstacles, as well as a promoter of wisdom. In doing so he tapped in to millennia of pre-existing Khmer traditions about elephants, in which they were associated with strength, power, royal favour and prosperity. A uniquely Khmer attribute given to Ganesh was the martial aspect, derived from the important role that elephants played in the armies of the Khmer kings.

This remarkable figure of Ganesh demonstrates the desire of Khmer artists to move beyond the Gupta Indian portrayal of Ganesh, into creating a unique Khmer approach to his representation. Whereas the Indian iconography of Ganesh stressed the god’s chubbiness, the Khmer artists brought to the figure their own languid, flowing forms. While Ganesh is still represented as pot-bellied, befitting his epithets lambodara (‘pot-bellied’) and mahodara (‘Great Belly’), which derive both from his elephantine form but also the myth that Shiva was too allured by his son and so made him less physically attractive with the addition of a round stomach and elephant’s head, the form of the Khmer Ganesh has long languid arms and legs, and is altogether more svelte and graceful than the Indian versions. This exceptional sculpture is created from a highly polished grey sandstone, and demonstrates the clean lines and flowing forms of Khmer art. The elephant-headed god is depicted in traditional Khmer clothing, wearing the sampot seng, a short kilt worn by men and tied with a fishtail sash, as well as the collar (sarong kor) and the pointed conical crown (mokot) worn by Cambodian royalty from ancient times until the present day. Around his arms are both actual armlets, and armlets formed of king cobras (Ophlophagus hannah), another of which is also strung from his shoulder as a cross-belt. According to one legend, Ganesh went from house to house on his birthday collecting sweet cakes. On his way home, his mount, the mouse, saw a snake (naga) and reared up in fear, causing Ganesh to tumble off. His great belly split open on impact, and the sweet cakes spilled out. Unwilling to cause offence to his benefactors by letting them see the pile of sweet cakes on the road, Ganesh stuffed them back inside and fastened his stomach back together by using the snake as a belt. The snake is also strongly associated with his father, Shiva, and is among their shared iconography.

Ganesh is depicted with four arms – the god can be represented with any number from two to sixteen – in which he holds a number of objects considered his attributes. In his upper right hand he holds the rosary (rudrakśa), another attribute which he shares with his father Shiva; in his lower right hand, he holds part of his broken tusk. In myth, Ganesh was instructed by the sage Vyasa to write out the epic poem Mahabarata as he composed it. Ganesh agreed, but on the condition that Vyasa not pause in his telling. Ganesh wrote out the poem, but his pen broke halfway through; instead of asking Vyasa to pause, Ganesh broke off one of his own tusks to use as a pen. Another tale relates that in the incident recorded above, where Ganesh collected sweet cakes on his birthday, the moon saw his misfortune and laughed at him. In anger, Ganesh broke off one of his tusks and threw it at the moon. In his upper left hand, he holds the noose, and in his lower left hand he holds his favourite treat, the sweetmeat (laddus). Ganesh sits in the royal ease pose (lalitasana) with one leg folded under him, and the other resting down on the ground.