05-17-2007, 09:46 PM
Indeed - since this mystery probably does represent a loss of narrative - let me cross post an explanation given by an old friend in another forum
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->..it is not at all unusual -- except for it's location.
What we need to recognise -- to begin with -- is that all of this, in toto, was meant as a form of visual and symbolic communication. When we go back that far in time, more than 1,500 years ago, we see that the mentality itself is more symbolic than analytical ( as it is with us today). Therefore the expression was symbolic -- much like the traffic signs we have today on our highways indicating a U turn or bend etc.
In the classical South Indian style of temple architecture, we have the 4 "Gopurams" or entrances to the temple and typically the entrance Gopuram ( facing the East) has 7 levels or storeys of which the first two can have explicit sexual imagery. As we go higher to the upper storeys the theme becomes less sensual, and more "lofty". The idea is to depict the usual path taken in the "Godward" climb of a human being through the paths of hedonistic pleasure initially; and for those who can see beyond it , the greater vistas of understanding and experiencing the complex warp and woof of cosmic existence.
What may seem to us as titillation was often not intended that way. It was mere depiction of the "way of all flesh" as well as what can lie beyond for those who were able to generate enough psychological "escape velocity" to go beyond it.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->..it is not at all unusual -- except for it's location.
What we need to recognise -- to begin with -- is that all of this, in toto, was meant as a form of visual and symbolic communication. When we go back that far in time, more than 1,500 years ago, we see that the mentality itself is more symbolic than analytical ( as it is with us today). Therefore the expression was symbolic -- much like the traffic signs we have today on our highways indicating a U turn or bend etc.
In the classical South Indian style of temple architecture, we have the 4 "Gopurams" or entrances to the temple and typically the entrance Gopuram ( facing the East) has 7 levels or storeys of which the first two can have explicit sexual imagery. As we go higher to the upper storeys the theme becomes less sensual, and more "lofty". The idea is to depict the usual path taken in the "Godward" climb of a human being through the paths of hedonistic pleasure initially; and for those who can see beyond it , the greater vistas of understanding and experiencing the complex warp and woof of cosmic existence.
What may seem to us as titillation was often not intended that way. It was mere depiction of the "way of all flesh" as well as what can lie beyond for those who were able to generate enough psychological "escape velocity" to go beyond it.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->