We read often in newspapers about idol theft, but nothing prepared me for this.
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Kbal Spean is a an amazing treasure trove of Hindu Art deep into the jungles of Cambodia. We see an entire river bed carved into a thousand stone lingas ( will feature in a separate post). across the small water fall we see a lovely bas relief of Vishnu in his characteristic sleeping pose, with Brahma the creator emerging from his naval via a lotus flower, Lakshmi his consort by his feet…three shrines are depicted to the right and a separate depiction of Brahma to the left…
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Now come the looters – art thieves -who first took away the face of Lakshmi. The local papers published these pictures….but guess no action taken, at least on the positive side when the looters struck again. This time taking away the face of Vishnu.
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What a sad sight. Anyway some good soul has restored the monument through in a crude manner.. the loss is indeed too great to even comprehend. Guess until the buying stops the killing wont stop for these as well.951
Author Archives: Vijay
Pra(e)ying Cat
We say the main actors in the mallai penance panel. Now for a couple of light hearted posts.
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Towards the bottom of the panel, just in front of the majestic tusker, we see a very curious scene being enacted.
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You saw earlier the boon seeker ( arjuna / bagiratha) engaged in severe penance – standing up on one leg. Now you see a cat mimicking this and to add to the humor there are a couple of mice who seem to be in the act of worshiping the praying cat. What would be act 2 of this scene once the cat breaks his fast …breakfast.
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Maybe we could still draw some lessons from this story
If pride goes before the Fall – this is the lowest it can fall
We saw the Cambodian version of the humbling of Ravana by Shiva when he tried to uproot Mount Kailash in an earlier post. This is another interesting depiction from Ellora.
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This verse has been sung often in Shivite saint Appar’s works, but those have been discussed in depth in the tamil version of this post. However, crux of the story is Ravana is stuck and humbled. To what extent. Have a look at the sculpture.
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You can see the massive twenty armed, ten headed asura stretched underneath the mount, on top the sublime divine calmness in the faces ( though heavily damaged) of Shiva and Parvati are still evident.
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If you notice carefully, Shiva Bootha Gana – demon assistants are making fun of ravana. As you face the image to the left, you can see a Gana making obscene gestures by bending down and showing his back to ravana, while the other one has taken a stick and is hitting his knuckles. On to the right the little gana pulls out his tongue and is making faces at him. What an insult to the King of Lanka.
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To get to truly appreciate the composition i kept this picture ( of a friend) to the last – now you get a fair idea of the size and scale of this sculpture.
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Btw, how did Ravana get out of this predicament, and how he was humbled many more times we will see in coming posts, along with some more beautiful depictions of the above story in various places.
The Majestic Elephants of Mallai
A full grown tusker marching majestically is a sight that will always inspire you. No doubt it inspired the Pallava artist as well. But then the greatness in him that he breathed life into the hardest of stone and left us this superlative herd of elephants. They have been exposed to the elements for a 1000 years ( ok 1300 years), yet they still retain their essence inside this maze of characters in the great penance panel.
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Inorder to truly appreciate this, we need a series of pictures. How much the pallava artist observed the elephant, to not just depict it in stone – meaning like a fixed sculpture, but to show it with grace, elegance, the majestic walk, the slight twist of the trunk, the fullness of the tusk, the delicate flap of the ear….the bump of the forehead.
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Well, a friend did me a favor by framing these goats, to give new viewers an idea of space and dimension of the panel.
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Compare this with a live elephant picture may assist in appreciating his craft more
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Throw in the cute babies of the family happily sporting under the protective masses of their parents…not a full body, just a profile, a head here, a small cute trunk there. enough to bring you cheer. Its fills your heart with joy, love. truly a moving composition, a timeless beauty.
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A testing Penance – opps a test penance Panel
The Mahabalipuram penance panel which we saw in the last post is the largest open air bas relief sculpture. Just prior to embarking on such a massive sculpt, the sculptors seem to have tested the concept nearby…the little known test panel – but does it give any clues to the mystery of whether the Penace panel depicts – Arjuna’s penance ( to get the pasupatha astra from shiva) or Bagiratha’s penance to bring the ganges down to resurrect his ancestors!!
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Lets analyse the test panel – the depiction of the lighthouse will give you a rough idea on its location. Similar to the Main penance panel, the artist chose a cleft in a boulder to depict his theme – but here the two boulders are split into two.
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Why we call it a test panel is the story is carved in low relief.
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The majestic elephants have not yet been obviously brought into the theme, though a few heads do appear.
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The flying celestials are all these, but seem to be moving away form the boon giving area towards the descending ganges – to witness this great spectacle. So its a definite give away as to the main story of the test panel – thankfully the boon giver and seeker are much farther away from the cleft ( infact their positions are transposed – left to right)
The most important clue is the absence of the weapon in Shiva’s hands!
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So if this were to be seen in isolation, its a pure story of the descending ganges and thus bagiratha’s penance. This story has been delightfully mixed with Arjuna’s penance in the main panel to come up with a puzzling combo…or is it just two in one or is there another twist to the plot….is it three in one..!!777806
The World’s largest open air bas relief sculpture – intro post
The opening picture we put in the introduction pages, raised a few comments. We could have easily put a better picture of the same relief, or a beautiful sculpture but what we wanted to highlight was the lack of awareness about these great works. So inorder make amends, thought we will make not one but a series of posts as a tribute to this greatest marvel of pallava art – the world’s largest open air bas relief sculpture.
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There are no parallels to this work before and since, what inspired the pallava artists to let their imagination and skill run riot on a canvas of this size, 200 feet wide by 40 feet tall, that continues to entrall audiences 1300 years after the last chisel blunted its edge on this hard rock face.
The grace of the flying celestials, the majestic elephants, a host of animals and birds, the emaciated book seeker, the benevolent boon giver, the host of attendants, the naga royal couple, well it does call for this series on mallai penance panel.
The giant composition is a giant puzzle, a living testament to the fertile pallava mind, to start with – the name itself is a puzzle. Is it Bagiratha’s penance (the descent of the ganges) or Arjuna’s penance to get the Pasupatha Weapon of Shiva – Descent of Ganges couldn’t be more apt – for the choice of the natural cleft in the rock face, and the deft use of this to frame the relief. But lets look at both the legends and also the subsequent post on the test penance panel.
Bagiratha’s ancestors are cursed to ashes and inorder to resurrect them, he needs to do severe penance ( not he but his whole clan) and it is he in the long list who manages in his persistent best ( even today he, sadly along with Md Gazni, are examples for being persistent to succeed). Ok,he finally manages to please the gods and the Ganges is forced to come down ( we saw her ego being abated in the earlier Shiva Gangadhara post). So the penance panel has been artistically conceived in such a way that during heavy rains the water would be engineered to flow through the crevice ( there are remanents of a catchment tank above the penance panel…maybe used to entertain the kings in the non rainy seasons)
Ok, the second plot in the puzzle is set in the Mahabartha just before the Kurukshetra War. Arjuna is building his arsenal of deadly opps divine weapons. He does severe penance to obtain the Pasupatha Astra from Shiva ( see the emaciated condition of the boon seeker in the panel …cant but compare with the current nuclear deal that India is being so wanting to sign…are we so emaciated !!) compare this with the divine beauty and grace of Shiva ( check out his ornaments – the different ear rings on each ear) ..the astra looks a kind of oversized spear – not like the regular arrow or the trident so associated with Shiva.
There are few more puzzles to be answered, the praying cat, the headless scribe, the forest scene, the belly face in the shiva bootha gana etc etc which we will see in the coming posts
Amazing action sculpture pillars of Srirangam Temple
Today we are going to look at some unique pillars from the amazing Srirangam temple. The temple is the foremost among temples for Vaishnavites and has been the centre of the spiritual movement of Lord Vishnu ‘ The Preserver’. The temple has various legends associated it with and for viewers who are interested to read more, below site has an excellent account.
http://www.thiruvarangam.com/history.html
The temple has such has undergone many restorations and has been the beneficiary of many a generous endowment. One such later addition is the pillared hall – an artistic wonder and a treasure trove of intricate stone work.
Lets analyse just two of these splendid pillars. The entire composition of these pillars is stupendous with every inch of space covered with miniature sculptures..such intricate work on this scale and complexity..with no margin for error in the hardest stone is a living tribute to the mastery of the craftsmen. We would look at these in more detail in subsequent posts.
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The main plot in the two pillars is what we are to see in this post. Take a minute to drink in the beauty of these two pillars.
The artist has chosen two widely varying themes for these two adjacent pillars. The first one is obviously a hunting scene and shows a mounted hunter ( what a wonderful despiction of a rearing horse ..and its splaying hooves)…he is spearing a leopard ( watch the spear piercing the jaw and coming out of the side
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….a foot soldier and his assistant are shown under the rider….the foot soldier is thrusting his broad sword into the animal ( it too has been sculpted to pierce the flesh and exit in the back …the foot soldier is shown having a shield …to see more clearly you got to switch to the other side of the pillar, where another foot soldier is thrusting his sword into the leopard….what a splendid work in stone with each trust passing through and exiting the other side.
The second pillar is a puzzle
it shows well built man carrying a lady on his broad shoulders …..but surprisingly he is being stabbed from behind in his thigh…what does this depict….we need to go closer to the pillar to study this….so wait for next post….
Darasuram – a delightful Hand rail
Darasuram forms the pinnacle of Chola art, a must visit in the golden triangle of middle chola art, Tanjore, Gangai Konda Cholapuram and Darasuram.
What you are seeing is a staircase leading to the hall,the humble handrail has been transformed into a splendid interplay of beautiful mythical animals – a delightful concoction of animal figurines ,called yaazhis ,..mythical beasts of gigantic proportions ,. Bulging eyes, horns, claws ,..the artist imagination is running riot here,.due to predominance of the elephant motif here, we will call it an elephant yaazhi which is set off at the bottom by his aquatic counterpart ,.a fish yaazhi,.if you watch closely you can spot the solider on top of the elephant yaazhi complete with as assortment of arms ..sword and shield ..and another one emerging from the mouth of fish yaazhi below!!
We are now looking at a similar flight of stairs ..but this has been crudely repaired by the powers to be !! you can compare the two side and by side and notice that the centre block just under the Yaazhi doesn’t fit.. its been crudely set into the composition, anyway lets look at what is depicted there,looks like some form of martial school, two people jesting in sport and another pair sparring with swords, in between the two pairs is the master..overseeing her wards,yes all are women fighters !!!
Thanks to my young friend Shriram, got better pictures of the rail and inlay panel. 1115
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Just a Chain, in stone
In Tamil
This stone work is truly the inspiration behind this blog. It is from Varadharaja swami temple,in Kanchipuram, a town on the ourskirts of chennai, which is a honeycomb of temples and steeped in tradition. The stonecraft of this temple, especially the Kalyana mandabam ( marriage hall) is simply astounding,yet due to lack of proper upkeep the only safeguards are a few shrubs of thorny branches.254
What you are seeing,believe me is not just a chain,but one carved out of single stone,its hangs from the stone ceiling and is living testimony to the greatness of the divine sculptor.
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for how else can you describe this piece of art,thousands of years of sculpting knowledge resulting in this sheer essence of architectural brilliance by the master sculptor,imagine the pain passing through his veins as he delicately brought forth his years of knowledge filtered though generations by word of mouth, passing through his blistered hands, into making this poetry in stone, hoping that they will stand till the sun and the moon shine, a testimony to his work…unsigned. The stone too kept up its word, its withstood the onslaught of invaders, forgive them for they were a hostile crowd, at war, but how to forgive the wanton destruction that’s happening now. Sometimes we are left to wonder, if they are better served by art thieves selling them to European museums …at least they will live there, lest stand and rot in the dust here,unappreciated, forgotten, that is the greatest insult to the art and the artist.
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Two versions of the same story, or are they, a comparison of two special depictions of Varaha ( boar) incarnations – mallai and Udayagiri
One of the favorite depictions of the Indian sculptor was the act of saving the earth ( lady earth…booma devi) by Lord Vishnu – who takes the form of a boar. There are many different depictions of this but to see the beauty of the sculpture and the delicate interplay of sculpture with literature is seen in these two forms…
what started off as comparison between the varaha images in udayagiri n
mallai lead to this post . Was always fascinated by so many depictions of this scene n had
wrongly surmised that canons for such sculpture was not existent then.
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For eg, u hv already seen the mallai explanation when the lord is lovingly embracing mother earth
( ok he is lovingly nuzzling her)….
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but in udayagiri she is shown as dangling from his tusks……The mallai sculpture brings out the delicate emotions as the lord gently lays down the earth on his lap….( ok this image needs a seperate post by itself)
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It was only after i read Andaal’s verses that I realised both were
correct……just that they were two acts of the same story
Aandaal had ….. Fallen in love with the lord n composed some of the most divinely inspired verses on the Lord …of her love to him
She sings thus…. The lord who sleeps in srirangam n stands in
tirupathy who took the form of the shameless boar having dug up the
earth from the deep depths … Seeing her beauty just swallows her up
( like a boar would do witha tuber he found) but immdly realises his
folly spits her out….n seeing her disheveled beauty embraces her in
his broad shoulders…… N then continues that he wears the victory
garland vyjayanthi mala for the feat of restoring the earth.
Now if u look at the pictures… Udayagiri is the first act n mallai the next.