The birth of Ganesha

Here there is no doorway and no trident. Parvati longs for a son; Vishnu, pleased with her, promises to be born to her. The child comes and the gods arrive to see him, all but Shani, who keeps his eyes down because his glance destroys whatever it falls on. Parvati insists. Shani looks from the corner of his left eye and the baby's head drops off. Vishnu flies to the Pushpabhadra river, finds an elephant sleeping with its head to the north, takes its head and joins it to the child, who lives.

The Linga Purana has Shiva create Ganesha directly, at the gods' request, as a being to obstruct the demons and to remove obstacles for the pious; the elephant head and the round belly are his from the start.

In the Varaha Purana the boy is a joint creation. In one strand Shiva's laughter takes form as a radiant child, and Shiva, seeing the goddess charmed by him, gives him the elephant's head and the belly; in another Shiva and Parvati make him together.

The Matsya Purana derives him from the goddess's bath alone: from the unguents and water of her toilet she forms a figure that comes alive as her son.

One more account makes an elephant-headed goddess, Malini, his mother: Parvati's bath-water, drunk by Malini, produces a child with five elephant heads, which Shiva reduces to one and gives to Parvati as her son.