An auspicious beginning to any task is with "Sri Ganesha," the most beloved of all gods. People have an emotional attachment to this god. They feel closer to this god than to any other; perhaps this is why they take more liberties when creating forms of Gajanana, whether an idol or a graphic image. For example, people accepted the Ganesh form as a paper weight, flower vase, pencil box, etc. It has become a decorative piece with a lot of expression. Another reason is that the god having an elephant head and a human body lends itself to very interesting combinations. This phenomenon of variation in a given form is known as "mutation," though this is not its dictionary definition.

Mutation is the process of deforming by removing a material part. Mutilate means to damage by breaking, tearing, or cutting off a necessary part, destroying the use. God's form is shown in such a way that it lost its original identity as a divine image and became an artist’s creative character. Here mutilation is not in the literal sense, it is transformation to a great extent. People are depicting the elephant god form for many different purposes, so the transition is too much.

Mutilation is not only because of Ganesha's popularity, graphic potential of this half-human, half-animal body gave enough scope to create so much of his interesting form. Not only that, but the psychological attachment that people have with this god is also responsible for this. It is not possible to mutilate other god forms as it is happening with the elephant god form because many factors are involved in this, including sociocultural factors, psychological factors, and religious factors.