CELEBRATION OF 'KAMA' - LOVE - FROZEN IN STONE Part I

PHOTOS FROM MY DIARY OF TEMPLE VISITS 
IN FEBRUARY,2011 - I

NOTE OF WARNING -  Those who are below 18 years  OR dislike discussions on 'erotic' work of art in Hindu temples are requested to stay away from this Blog.

Dance of 'Kama' under tree of life. 

Man dances with his woman held in tight embrace - posture resembling 'Tantrik Bouddha' depictions. Does the man have a 'jata' - matted hair - and a snake on his right upper arm? Siva and Shakti  in union , tree of life blooming in joy ? 

Obscure and damaged ,yet a remarkable wall-relief at Virupksha temple,Pattadakal
( Note - Can a viewer please tell me - what I have described as 'tree of life'
is actually a collage of celestial viewers ?)

During  my visits to the temples of SriMukhalingam, Hampi, Pattadakal and Aihole, I often wondered what was the attitude of the creators of these temples  - the kings, religious leaders and the society in general - towards  'Kama' , the primal urge . A lot has been written analysing  Hindu scripture , religious practices and Hindu art through centuries.  I am no student of sociology - but, I felt, 'Kama' was ever-present in the mind of the people who 'created' these temples. The society did believe that expressions depicting  primal urge need not  be be put away from public view. The society were told that 'Dharma' - religion, 'Artha' - money,'Kama' - primal urge and 'Moksha' - salvation form the core of human strives. Meaning of each word has been expanded - yet, each segment of Hindu society, through ages, interpreted those words in their own way.

Excellent craftsman ship in this wall-relief of 'Mithun murty'.Woman stands  with a slight 'bibhanga', her right hand around the trunk of a long and slender tree, a 'kamandalu' - water-pot in her hand. A hermit with matted hair , standing in 'swastika' pose, touches her chin tenderly.

SriMukhalingam temple.

'Kama' - is it Love or Lust ? It is Desire  and there is a force,an urge  inherent in this word. Like any feeling , it has shades of varying range. The borders between these shades are not so distinct - and as I go through the photos of numerous  'Mithun murty', sculpted by different artists, in different centuries, the study looks very interesting. Physical proximity - postures showing eagerness of the poignant moments - or lack of it - was brought out in varying details. Some of these  'Mithun murty' were sculpted by inexperienced hands , therefore do not  have much artistic merit. Such wall-reliefs were often placed away from the most-visited areas, yet, worth a 'dekko'. I have posted photo of one such wall-relief in this blog.

 The couple is stimulated. Man pulls  the woman  closer during embrace.She  is all but naked - her lowered girdle highlights her nudity.Man's right hand holds forward a full bloomed lotus which covers his erected  phallus.  She is  pushing  down the man's girdle. 

The companion's lower body is covered. She turns away from the ensuing 'act'. 

Durga temple,Aihole.

The couple is stimulated. Woman pulls  the man  closer during embrace.She  is  explicitly working on her companion's crotch . Man's right hand holds  a flower which is yet to bloom. The sizes of the flowers indicate the states of male excitement ! 

Huchchappyana Matha,Aihole.

We can see the fervour of 'Kama'  brought out through postures of couples - 'Mithuna murty' , gods and their consorts - in standing and seated postures. Then the sculptors often took a step forward - they added companion/s to the 'twosome'. As the postures evolved with the society ,'Tantrik' practices  came out on the open. In this phase, we find men and women engaged in coitus and other acts of sex , often in groups.  Michael D. Rabe, in his well-researched book - 'Tantra in practice' - has devoted a big chapter to 'Secret Yantras and Erotic Display for Hindu' . Here, he has correlated 'Tantrik Yantras'   with the sculptures created.

 'Kamakala Yantra' superimposed on a famous sculpture from Khajuraho temple. 

Source - Internet .

In this blog , I  have brought out 'Kama'-enriched work with 'Mithuna murty' which I came across  my February,11 visit and shall leave out  those where acts of sex have been shown explicitly.  Explanatory notes and my comments are in the descriptions of the photos.

 A near-Rape scene. Crudely sculpted, yet the postures captured the woman's resistance 

to the act of violation.

Huchchappyana Matha,Aihole.

Passion of Sugriba.

Vitthala temple,Hampi.

Note - Part II in http://orange-leaves.blogspot.com/2011/06/celebration-of-kama-love-frozen-in.html

THE 'URGE' AND TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES

TOI of 5/4/09 brings out a story from South India about a man who killed his wife when denied sex. It was an afternoon. He was drunk. From the story below, it appears he was hungry too. Having an arousal , in an empty stomach, that too in the afternoon, cannot be an uncontrollable situation ! But, it was different for Subhash ........ with 10 years married life.....who is very likely around 35 years . He lost his sanity , killed his wife and ruined the life of his children .

Man kills wife, has sex with her body

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: In an incident too grotesque to believe, a 30-yearold man allegedly strangled his wife, had sex with her body and left deep bite marks on it after she refused to have sex with him. Police, who arrested the man on Friday, said that it was the first time that they had come across such a case.
A police officer said Subash, a resident of Poonamallee in Chennai, who earns a living by selling soft drinks on a push cart, came home drunk on Thursday afternoon and asked his wife, Shanti (28), to have sex with him and she refused. ‘‘After this, he said he was hungry and asked her to give him food. An angry Shanti told him there was no money to buy groceries and, hence, she hadn’t cooked any food. She began scolding him for seeking physical pleasure when he wasn’t providing money for household expenses,’’ said the police officer. Subash apparently slapped Shanti, who fell down unconscious, after which he strangled her to death with a skipping rope. Subash then allegedly had intercourse with his wife’s lifeless body before inflicting injuries upon it. Subash and Shanti were married for more than 10 years and have two sons, aged ten and seven.

No less bizarre is another story from South India. This is in the front page of TOI of 7/4/09. It may appear to be funny to some readers. But, this also shows how a person loses control over his urges . In this case also, Daniel,the man in the centre of the story was under influence of alcohol. Fortunately, the episode did not have a tragic end like the incidence above.

Sex romp on flight from B’lore

London: Passengers on board a Bangalore-London flight were in for high drama recently, when a drunken model got enraged after catching her boyfriend romping with a woman next to him.
Sources have claimed that blonde Sarah Hannon woke up from a stupor and found Daniel Melia enjoying a sex act with pretty Clare Irby, with whom he had gotten friendly on board.
Sarah, a magazine cover girl, went mad and had to be calmed down by the crew at 30,000 feet.
According to sources, Sarah dozed off on the nine-hour flight after boozing with Daniel before and during the flight. Then, Daniel got on well with Clare under a blanket but was stopped by hostesses, at which point Sarah woke up and started screaming. When the Kingfisher Airlines Flight IT001 touched down at Heathrow, armed police entered the jet and arrested the trio.
Daniel (36) and Clare (29) were nicked for alleged gross indecency, while Sarah (35) was held for being drunk on an aircraft. All three were released on bail.
They certainly put the bang into Bangalore, the Sun quoted a police source as saying. ANI

What is the morale of these stories.... the readers may please drop a comment or two.