Shashi Tharoor wrote a massive book back in 2018 to explore the paradoxes that constitute the man called Narendra Modi. Paradoxes dominate present Indian politics. One of them is what’s called the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). What constitute the paradox here are two parallel realities: one genuinely valuable, and the other deeply regressive. The contributions of Aryabhata and Brahmagupta to mathematics, Panini to linguistics, Vedanta to philosophy, and Ayurveda to medicine are genuine traditions that may deserve due attention. But there’s a hijacked version of IKS which is a hilariously, if not villainously, political project. Much of what is now packaged as IKS in government documents, school curricula, and propaganda includes mythological claims treated as historical facts, pseudoscience (e.g., Ravana’s Pushpaka Vimana as a real aircraft or Ganesha’s trunk as a product of plastic surgery), astrology replacing astronomy, ritualism replacing reasoning, attempts to invent the r...
Lovely art!
ReplyDeleteNice post!
Relevant question!
If only the culture-guardians understood it, Amit!
DeleteNice artistic work. i agree with you.
ReplyDeleteWhen politics enters, art acquires many meanings which are not dreamt of by the artist!
DeleteA good thought with a meaningful question . Thanks for sharing .
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Vishal.
DeleteI hope that these Indian talibans don't take it one day as their life's mission to destroy heritage of Khujaraho and Konark because "it is against Indian culture"!
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what I fear too, Sunil ji. Perhaps, our country is getting a bit too religionised!
DeleteYou do not need to go to exotic places to see erotic art in temples, Matheikal. You send the Durga Vahinis to Kanchipuram, that holy town not too far from Chennai and I will shock them. It should be the same in Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Srirangam ... no temple artist was devoid of human urges to showcase his, what we call pornographic talents!
ReplyDeleteI may be wrong, but the first photograph, I remember to have read or seen in an article about historic sculpture, recently found somewhere in Kerala.
RE
Yes, I too have seen such works of art in many temples.
DeleteI'm really not a connoisseur of painting and sculpture. Sometimes I too wonder where lies the difference between art and pornography.
What I find more detestable is when the so-called guardians of culture and religion choose to attack some and leave the others...
The present art exhibition of the nude and the naked in the Delhi gallery has paintings and sculptures from olden periods too and from other places as well. Even Ravi Verma's paintings are there. So the present one must be the same as the one you're referring to. I took it from the website of the Delhi Art Gallery. I don't visit art exhibitions, in fact.
Very relevant question.. i don't know the answer.. but i don't like this hulla baloo created over such issues. most are politically motivated.
ReplyDeleteEvery religion has such groups, unfortunately. Look at what they did to the 3 girls in Kashmir. Vishwaroopam. And now, Mani Ratnam's Kadal is facing the Christian ire...
DeleteReally.. this is sheer non sense. I wonder how much time people have got for these worthless activities. This world is strange.
DeleteI dont think there is any explicitly sexual depiction in Ajanta and Ellora caves!!
ReplyDeleteApparently those people in those times were not so afraid of the body and the nature of humans as much as today society is. Sex is natural. Priest and people who denounce that art just taking the human mind away from what is natural and present everywhere. the more this is oppressed the more it will be in your face because its natural to be natural in the whole universe. Why don't they cover the statue of David since his penis is showing? You body is your spirits only vehicle, why would it want to hide it?
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