In praise of demi-gods

The Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai has this sculpture of a yaksha and a yakshi.

I was pretty intrigued by this yaksha in particular - because in typical Hindu sculpture, yaksha men are fat pot-bellied dwarves, and this guy was anything but that!

A little digging around gave me half the answer - this is a Jain yaksha, not a Hindu one. But the pot-belly still ought to apply - so how did they become so good-looking? I looked it up some more - and found a story.

The male yaksha's name is Dharanendra, and that is his consort Padmavathi. The couple rose from their sub-terranean world, to protect Parshvanatha, the 23rd Jain Tirthankara (Tirthankara = Enlightened One) from a flood. Dharanendra spread his serpent hood over Parshvanatha, and Padmavathi a diamond umbrella.

In return, they attained godhood and became perfect divine beings (so that explains their good looks!) Dharanendra's vehicle is the popular tortoise (can you see it, just under his knee?), but Padmavathi has a curious vehicle - a rooster with the head of a snake.

Go figure.

Size matters

Eighteen feet of elephantine strength, carved from a single granite boulder. The belly area was broken during the looting of Hampi. No lamps are lit in this temple because the idol is broken, so he sits there in dark grandeur. I wonder what he looked like with the lamps lit and the incense burning, decked in flowers and silk.

Narasimha and the Art of Action Sculpture

Here's another sculpture from the same mandapam.

Narasimha has Hiranyakasipu on his lap and is ripping his entrails out. I think that the different hands (except the ones holding the conch and the discus) show different hand positions in a single movement. So, what we see here is stop-action-photography of Hiranyakashipu's intestine being ripped out. Atleast, that's my guess :-)


Coming to the story being described.. You would think that after a couple of tries, the rakshasas would figure out that the boons that Brahma gives them all have a catch in them. Maybe they aren't given to introspection :-)Hiranyakasipu, a case in point. He asked that he not be killed by metals or by wood, not by man or beast, and not indoors or outdoors. He thought he was safe. So, he was killed at a doorway, by a half-man, half-lion, and by having his intestines ripped out by claws. I daresay that decapitation by the chakra (which seems to be the fate of most who oppose Vishnu) would have been a whole lot less painful.

Swordswomen

What we have here is two women (two more on the other side of the pillar) dancing with swords in their hands. I initially thought it was some kind of dandiya-type thing, but closer examination reveals that what they are holding in their hands are small swords (or huge daggers). Sword dances and warrior women date back into the mists of history.

Thiruvudanthai Intro and the Happy Warrior

Thiruvidanthai is situated on the East Coast Road about 16 miles south of Mahabalipuram. It's a nice, small, very nicely maintained temple.

This temple dates back atleast to the Pallava times apparently (7-8th Century CE) and was mentioned by Thirumangai Alwar. There was a notice by the ASI talking about how the temple had grants by Raja Raja Chozha (10th Century) Kulothunga Chozha (1100 CE). The main deity in the temple is Adhivaraha perumal. The moolavar (main idol) is nearly 9 feet tall with Vishnu, in the form of Varaha, holding lakshmi and stepping on a naga.

No photography is allowed once you enter the temple, which sucks. I can see why flashes might be disallowed, photography forbidden in the sanctum-sanctorum etc, but the outside praharams should be free game for flash-free photography. It seems to be one of those bureaucratic things (like the no-non-hindus allowed rule, which really affects only foreigners, but that would be another discussion altogether.)

I was limited to photographing a mandapam (pillared hall) outside the temple proper, where some people and some bulls were chilling out. I am not certain when it was built.

Here's the first of the photos, which I will call the Happy Warrior.

He has a re-curved sword(which looks like the sword from the Vellore temple, a dagger which is almost exactly the same shape on his hip, what I presume to be hte scabbard for his sword on his left shoulder, and he is twirling his moustache with his left hand. In all the impression is of a guy mightily pleased with himself:-)