The dancing Ganesh, Nritya-Ganapathi, is a special manifestation of the deity whose dance is as significant as the cosmic dance of a lord Shiva. The dance of Ganesh reveals the heartbeat of the cosmos and its underlying rhythm. While he dances, the mouse (his is choice of vehicle) sits at his feet. He holds a conch shell in his left hand. The spiraling of the conch shell represents the turning of the universe. He has only one tusk, since it is believed he broke off the right tusk and used it to inscribe the Mahabarata, one of the major Hindu religious works. Ganesh used one of his tusks to record the epic so as not to interrupt the flow of the narrative. The two tusks, one whole and the other broken, also reflect the existence of perfection and imperfection in the physical world. The combination of the elephant and the rat or mouse ensures that all obstacles, of whatever size, are removed.