05-12-2007, 10:16 PM
I was out of town for a few days - in Coimbatore specifically. I visted an ancient Shiva temple at Perur yesterday. Fresh in my mind when I went there was this excellent (300 MB) documentary linked by Bharatvarsh in another thread:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...raja+raja+chola
The temple's inner sanctum is about 1500 years old, but the outer portions date back to later eras - right upto the Vijayanagar kings.
The place is too big and too ornate for justice to be done in the 20 minutes I had to see the place. But what caught my eye intrigued me.
Every pillar has various figures carved as bas-reliefs. Presumably each figure has a story totell - each is a narrative that I would like to understand and hear about. But one pillar caught my attention because it had the figurine if a female in meditation. She was not merely topless - all the female figurines have exposed breasts - but this figurine showed the genitalia as well - but she is obviously meditating. Suddenly - I realised that on a face of the pillar at right angles to this woman was the carving of a man with a pointed beard. A pointed beard such as is depicted in pictures of the Portuguese. The man is shown with a wide grin on his face - this is the only figurine that I noticed showing an expression of emotion and also the ONLY figurine of a bearded man. All other male figurines are clean shaven. What is remarkable about this pointy-bearded grinning man is that he is shown with a huge erect penis pointed at the meditating nude woman around the corner of the pillar.
I do not know what this means - but somehow - I cannot dismiss the thought that this depicts a lustful invader slobbering after a woman in meditation (the woman is facing the sanctum) I could be mistaken. This could be a story from Hindu mythology. But it is a mystery. No photos allowed - so I will probably do a drawing of the man from memory and post a link. But I swear that this is the face of the man - same lips - but grinning
http://www.surcouf.net/leshommes/image/vdegama.jpg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...raja+raja+chola
The temple's inner sanctum is about 1500 years old, but the outer portions date back to later eras - right upto the Vijayanagar kings.
The place is too big and too ornate for justice to be done in the 20 minutes I had to see the place. But what caught my eye intrigued me.
Every pillar has various figures carved as bas-reliefs. Presumably each figure has a story totell - each is a narrative that I would like to understand and hear about. But one pillar caught my attention because it had the figurine if a female in meditation. She was not merely topless - all the female figurines have exposed breasts - but this figurine showed the genitalia as well - but she is obviously meditating. Suddenly - I realised that on a face of the pillar at right angles to this woman was the carving of a man with a pointed beard. A pointed beard such as is depicted in pictures of the Portuguese. The man is shown with a wide grin on his face - this is the only figurine that I noticed showing an expression of emotion and also the ONLY figurine of a bearded man. All other male figurines are clean shaven. What is remarkable about this pointy-bearded grinning man is that he is shown with a huge erect penis pointed at the meditating nude woman around the corner of the pillar.
I do not know what this means - but somehow - I cannot dismiss the thought that this depicts a lustful invader slobbering after a woman in meditation (the woman is facing the sanctum) I could be mistaken. This could be a story from Hindu mythology. But it is a mystery. No photos allowed - so I will probably do a drawing of the man from memory and post a link. But I swear that this is the face of the man - same lips - but grinning
http://www.surcouf.net/leshommes/image/vdegama.jpg