Bas-relief seen at Detroit Institute of Art
These temples were created by the Dravidian peoples primarily in Southern India. The carvings which cover nearly every square inch of these generally massive complexes give the impression that the buildings are supported by row after row of people and animals standing on one another's shoulders.
Reportedly, there is a temple dedicated to Lord Siva in the city of Madurai in the Tamil Nadu state of India that features individual sculptures that number in the tens of millions.
Which supposedly pales in comparison to the Hindu and Jain temple complex in the city of Khajuraho in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The temples there are said to feature millions upon millions of carved idols.
Millions. That's a lot of sculpting by a lot of sculptors for a very, very long time.
See what can be accomplished when you shut off the TV?
Indian statues are impressive. Nearly every major museum I have ever visited has an example or two of the graceful, sensual, extremely curvilinear sculptures. The forms almost always are carved out of sandstone or some other fairly easy to work mineral.
The Hindu gods and symbolism that dominate the carvings found on the walls of the Dravidian temples are incredibly detailed, and remarkably there is very little exact repetition.
Depending on when and by whom the temples were built, the most often represented god is Shiva, which makes sense as he is considered the most powerful of the Hindu gods.
However, there are also depictions of ample bosomed women with wide hips gracefully dancing, playing with their hair, posing seductively,and even engaging in sexual activity, right alongside pious disciples offering gifts to the Siva saints and multiple-armed deities in yoga-like poses, on temples all over India.
There are also some well-known rock-cut temples in the Dravidian style that feature smooth, round-faced Buddha sitting in serene contemplation, but those don't hold as much interest for me.
Hindu sculpture seen at Detroit Institute of Art
What amuses me (and admittedly, attracts me as well) about the sculptures that depict women is that they are all somewhat plump with very large breasts, without exception.
I've known a few women who trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent. During my travels in the U.K and in Europe, I have met a number of Indian and Pakistani women. With one exception, none of those women looked anything like those statues.
The proportions are greatly exaggerated, as almost all the women I have encountered who hail from that corner of the world are count-every-rib thin (the one exception is Yaz, and though her father, who looks eerily like Ghandi, is Pakistani, her mother is Dutch).
It must be a rule that, just as found in the statuary carved by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and nearly all other civilizations new and old, any depiction of the human form, especially the female, must almost always be idealized.
Small Hindu sculpture seen at Detroit Institute of Art
Which I have absolutely no problem with.
For all of us plump, large breasted women out there,....thank you! =)
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