How many of you all know that Lord Ganesha’s picture is inscribed on the 20,000 rupiah note of Indonesia? Most people must not have known it. However, it was made popular by the film producer Tanuj Garg who took time to tweet about it.
‘The only country on earth to have Lord Ganesha on a currency note is the largest Muslim populated country – Indonesia’, Tanuj Garg had captioned the post that also accompanied a picture of the currency note.
The picture of Lord Ganesha is printed on the note beside an inscription of Ki Hajar Dewantara, a celebrated Indonesian independence activist.
A picture of a classroom has also been engraved behind the note.
In Indonesia, 87.2% of its population is Muslim while only 1.7% are Hindus. To make things much more interesting, Lord Ganesha’s picture which is inscribed on the currency note astonished many people. But the untold story is that the Indonesian archipelago has been under the massive influence of Hinduism since the 1st century.
Though there are many Hindu patterns present throughout the country. Like the Ramayana and Mahabharata tales are broadly frequent among the natives, there is a Krishna-Arjuna statue at Jakarta square, the Indonesian military has Hanuman as their mascot. Interestingly, Bali tourism logo is also highly motivated and inspired from Hindu mythology and its symbolism.