'Kerala's Parthenon' and other oddities

One often gets to read how the Parthenon looks so elegant because of all sorts of subtle visual mathematics it incorporates - golden ratio and all. And there is Giotto's Campanile which embodies some really cool off-vertical angles to create an indelible visual impression. The Qutub Minar too can look very graceful but, in my experience, only when viewed from within a limited range of distances.

Here is a building that I see almost everyday - the western Gopuram (ceremonial gateway) leading into the sanctuary of the Tripunithura temple in Kerala. Very little is known about its age - semi-informed guesses I have heard range from 300 to 1000 years. Nobody really knows who designed it. But take it from me, it has a knack of looking real good whatever the distance and angle of viewing. If the following pics fail to convey its uniquely understated magic, hold me responsible as a mediocre photographer - and all those who have over the centuries managed to surround the edifice with all sorts of stupid clutter!

I often think of photographing this gopuram extensively from all sorts of angles and distances and recreating it as a standalone work of art so as to bring out and highlight its special proportions but that is a job for a better trained and equipped person. To my knowledge, no serious study of its proportions has ever been carried out and no one authority has so much as talked about these proportions:
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The Canterbury cathedral, to me, is the most Hindu of Christian places of worship. The reason lies in its crypt. The Romanesque pillars have really cool fantastic beings carved on them, just like in desi temples - and very unlike most later churches which are more focussed and far less 'idolatrous'. Photography is supposedly banned but happens. And here are some pics:

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We now move from a medieval Brit crypt to a spanking-new, 21st century Desi one:

About a year back, Rekesh told me about his writing a thriller (while at school) set in an underground crime city. After a recent visit to the spanking new Panchamukha Hanuman temple near Aluva in Kerala, I could say: "Hey, there is a precedent for such a city in the Patala Lanka of Ramayana!". Here is a quick summary of what is a remarkable side-track from the epic (perhaps not part of the primordial Valmiki version):

Mahiravana, the sorcerer-king of underground Patala Lanka, spirits away both Rama and Lakshmana, drugged and utterly limp, to offer as sacrificial victims to Kali; Hanuman tracks them down, kills the villain and saves the brothers. In a vital episode, Hanuman assumes the Panchamukha (five-faced) form to catch and gobble five bees simultaneously - the insects represent the five life-breaths (one of those breaths being well, the fart) of Mahiravana.

The Aluva temple is a deep undergound affair. At the bottom is a chamber with an idol of Hanuman in his fiercely protective Panchamukha form. Right next is a sculptural group showing Rama and Lakshmana lying tied and trussed like turkeys before a Kali idol. Photography is banned and I didn't dare to violate it. But from the side of the stairway leading down I caught this picture of Mahiravana entering his fiendish realm with the helpless brothers.

Even the adjoining Dattatreya temple (another 21st century creation) features many colorful sculptures that rise way above the level of mere 'calendar art' - indeed, one feature of Hinduism that has continued to impress me is its ability to keep finding new idioms of religious art and iconography. Here is a sample, featuring Agni and bestial allegorical figures representing the Vedas.

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A recent visit to Wellington Army Base at Coonoor brought up a bit of serendipity; one wandered onto and into the St George Church, a little 19th century Brit-built object complete with neat flying buttresses (not sure if such props were really needed in this quite modest-sized edifice) and a proper organ. Here is a bit of the woodworked vault that hovers over worshippers like a big trilobite:

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It was just the other day that Rekesh (him again!) told me about 'American Gothic', a painting I hadn't ever heard about:

Something about the painting - maybe the unusually long-faced an pensive male figure, maybe the calm air about it,...- reminded me of a more familiar masterpiece and I texted back: "get this feeling, if the Arnolfini Couple were to age, they would look like this pair!". "Very plausible!" came the reply.

And then, searching online, I saw this and several more pages that say similar things!!
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And today, Vimal wrote in about the Basquiat 'Skull' fetching a phenomenally high price. I am puzzled by the sheer scale of the deal, because, to me, plenty about this admittedly impressive painting is very derivative, especially from Picasso's Weeping Woman!
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And finally, here is yet another 21st century Hindu sculpture - built like a gorilla, this odd guardian figure crouches over the entrance to what looks like a minor shrine on the immense grounds of the Isha Foundation near Coimbatore.

Ayodhya - Modified

"The Ramayana is but a story from a long-gone time. But now, when news of the world war, atom bomb and Japan's surrender sweep the world like a firestorm, it is strangely relaxing, indeed soothing to escape into the capacious embrace of the epic and wander the imperial realms of Ayodhya..."

Ayodhya was on my travel wish-list for many years - perhaps ever since I read Pottekkat's article on a 1945 daytrip there in the company of nationalist firebrand Mathai Manjooran (who was then on the run from Brit police).

A pleasant november morning in 2023. We drove out of Allahabad and headed north past fertile cropland, dense villages and awfully congested towns. In contrast to a similar drive (to the south) from Jhunsi that happened six years ago, this one featured a recurring and very energizing sight - large troops of children, all in uniforms, going to school, with girls almost invariably outnumbering the boys. So, in the backwaters of UP, they have at last begun to padhao the betis.

Till the 1980s, Ayodhya must have been pretty much a sleepy, fly-blown pilgrim outpost, loosely attached to the larger town of Faizabad. Pottekkat never mentions the Masjid which must have been a very conspicuously big building in 1945.

Even post the fateful events of 1992, Ayodhya proper must have remained rather low-profile. I can only recall a TV interview in Malayalam of education magnate Fazal Ghafoor who visited the makeshift temple that stood for decades among the rubble of the mosque. Till I myself visited, I had known exactly one other person who had been there.

It would be interesting to quote a bit from Pottekkat about the 1945 Ayodhya:

"Buildings, many painted saffron, that densely clutter the narrow gallies bear no sign of affluence - they only display a certain fake religiosity that pays homage to an imagined past...Open Dharamsalas, humble hovels of the poor, dwellings of the Panda priests, pervasive filth...

Kanak bhavan is an elegant modern edifice, believed to have been built over an ancient palace where Rama and Sita dwelled.... inside, a beautiful carved mandap bears idols of Rama and Sita and an attendant operates a big Punkah over them. I must say the devotions done to those cheap effigies are an affront to our basic intelligence. Kanak Bhavan too, in its many-times-reworked modern avatar is an intense disappointment. Indeed, to me, even if Kanak Bhavan were a grand Taj Mahal-like structure, the dusappointment would remain. For Rama's grand citadel that flourished many millennia ago belongs purely in our imagination; the sanctity of the site would be truly enhanced if they merely dismantle everything to the last brick and plant a simple board "here stood Lord Rama's palace"!

The Ayodhya that I saw consists of (1) a row of ghats lining the Sarayu river - plus an artificially created inlet lined by very out-of-some-cheap-film-set looking religious edifices, (2) a new-looking and wide 2 km long double road (ideal for 'road shows' I guess) that connects the ghats with the core area of Ramkot and (3) the 'Janmabhumi' area which lies a further half kilometer beyond.

Ramkot still appears to retain something of the old Ayodhya; narrow gallies, clusters of temples, none - with the possible exception of the Rajdwar temple - possessing any real grandeur but very bustling and vital nevertheless and throngs of devout pilgrims. On some of the roads leading away from Ramkot stand old and dusty mansions mostly built by religious orders. I suspect the double road, so manifestly a very recent creation of Modi's, must have flattened many buildings, dwellings, bazars and shrines.

Ayodhya has no stray dogs but hordes of monkeys and most possess lotus-colored backsides that once got the goat of Ramanujacharya.

I love pastiche architecture (mostly religious, mostly of Hindu persuasion) and have written here about the 'folkified' Shah Jahani arches and brightly painted domes of Chitrakoot . (Pre-Modi) Ayodhya too adopted those Mughal innovations bigtime but it also displays an even greater fascination for heraldic beasts (mostly lions) and Corinthian columns (well, what one sees are mostly fancy pilasters rather than proper columns but what really beats me is the question "Why Corinthian?" - one hardly sees, for example, ionic columns in modern Hindu buildings!).

What follows is a little gallery - it also features some elegant and partially ruined mansions with other ideosyncratic traits like 'arches embedded in arches'. Can you spot, in one of the pics, a Corinthian object that is both horizontal (!) and double-headed(!!)??

But the greatest surprise for me was this object:

Looking like a big set-square (btw, 'set-square' is not a square, so it's a compound that is not a tatpurusha), it is a monument to Princess Hui or Heo Hwang-ok who traveled from here ('Ayuta' as per tradition) to Korea, married a prince there and is a sort of 'mitochondrial Eve' to a large fraction of the Korean population.

I missed to ask around about Kanak Bhavan. But instead of Rama-Sita being reverentially fanned, I got to see Radha-Krishna ceremonially rocked - of course, at this roadside shrine, one is expected to pay for the right to work that swing!

Approaching the site where a mosque once stood and Modi is building an immense new temple, the guards told me it would open only in the afternoon and that one has to leave even cellphones in some cloakroom. From where I stood I could see a very persistent cloud of dust and huge cranes. I chose to retreat; maybe I shouldn't have.

Lakkundi

Lakkundi is situated deep inside Karnataka in the middle of a vast expanse of black cotton soil and lies just off the highway connecting Hampi and Badami. An overgrown and cluttered village with lousy, broken roads. Monsoon showers turn the pervasive filth pretty much unbearable. And the place isn't nearly as well known as the two places mentioned above.

But Lakkundi emphatically ought to be a lot more than a mere pitstop. And quite a few of the locals are now aware that the dozens of ancient temples dotting the village hold considerable interest to at least a few tourists and sometimes act as peddlars of historical gyan. Many of those temples would be in ruins now but one doesn't really know - our own activities were limited by some nasty weather to a cursory exploration of only a couple of fairly intact specimens.

As opposed to the solid granite of Hampi and the sandstone of Badami, Lakkundi is about chloritic schist - a black stone with a subtle tinge of green that seems relatively easier to carve intricately and can be polished to reflectivity. The heyday of the place was under the Kalyan Chalukyas who flourished around 1000 AD. Some restoration/enhancement of the Chalukya work was done by the Hoysalas a couple of centuries later.

While they are very much south Indian edifices, the Lakkundi temples, from some angles at least, are more reminiscent of Prambanan and Balinese temples than any Indian one.

As for the sculptural decoration, the closest Desi comparison would be to the Hoysala art of Somnathpur-Belur. The lathed and smoothed pillars in particular are very Hoysala.

Some of the intricate decorative work as well..

But in terms of sculpture proper, Lakkundi ranks way higher than the southern Chalukyan sites, at least in my book - for I haven't really been much of a fan of figures of this type

that almost "obliterate" the walls of temples at Somnathpur and especially, Belur.

Here are two narrative sculptures from Lakkundi (the really sad part: far too many figures on the temple walls have been defaced; not sure how much of the damage was deliberate and who did it):

Bhima locked in a duel with elephant-riding Bhagadatta:

a uniquely composed Gajasamhara - Siva has just torn off the hide of an elephant demon and is about to wrap it around himself.

I really loved this doorway:

Details of the decoration - with all those putti musicians among the vines. IMO, the workmanship deserves as much exposure as the glorious margins of the Book of Kells, nothing less!

Some more...

I can't resist adding a couple more pics...

A very Hoysala Brahma stands within a Jain temple on a pedestal better suited to a Shivalinga.

I conclude this brief note with a 'Half Vishnu' on display at an apology of a museum here - photography isn't allowed and this pic was taken before we were warned by the staff. I am sorry!

Badami - Why it Matters

Badami, once upon a time, a major city and capital of Chalukyas, had shrunk to a sleepy and biggish village by 2006 when I was a first time visitor. I was back there a few weeks ago. The place has now grown into a very crowded town and lies lapping at the feet of those magnificent cliffs. The following pic

could give an impression that modern human settlements actually add to the visual magic of sandstone - quite the opposite is the case; Badami is spectacularly dirty and teems with the filthiest of pigs. And I know at least one visitor who chickened out of all but the most basic of sight-seeing, stayed cooped up in his hotel room and got the hell out as soon as he could! The powers that be ought to clean up the place, fast, for the present state of Badami is a scandal, even by Indian standards.

Badami (by Badami one means the entire Badami-Pattadakal-Aihole-Mahakuta cluster of sites) must be, by far, the south Indian city whose history witnessed the maximum number of distinct Muslim periods. From the invasion and brief occupation by the Delhi Sultanate (14th centuty), we see the Adil Shahi period (1560s to around 1700), a brief period when Aurangzeb came calling and a long spell under the Hyderabad Nizams interrupted briefly by incursions of Hyder and Tipu from Mysore(*). And, apart from a couple of arches and domed sandstone tombs and some walls, practically everything historical around Badami is ancient Hindu or Jain, the legacy of the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas etc (500 AD to 1300) - all those Muslim periods left the earlier relics of idolators practically untouched!

There is a even certain 'Lad Khan temple' at Aihole, a 1300 odd year old temple named after an obviously Muslim-named chap who used it as residence and left its multitude of sandstone sculptures pretty much as they were!

The contrast to the Quwwat ul Islam mosque - and its 'reused' temple pillars - or indeed, the glaring absence of pre 1700 Hindu-Buddhist-Jain structures in pretty much the entirety of the Indo-Gangetic plain cannot be starker(*)!

Aihole is a village that has grown around 7th and 8th century Chalukya sandstone edifices. The manner in which great ancient art and archicture lies embedded in 21st century life with all its filth and conjestion - and ultra-modern, bathroom-tiled shrines - is a sight in itself. Our stay here was curtailed by a severe cloudburst so let me only record a suspicion that at least a few genuinely ancient strucrtures have been repurposed as houses, cattlesheds or whatever. I am not advocating a summary 'recovery' but some kind of regulation that couples preservation with educating the locals on the treasures to which they are (sometimes unknowing) custodians.

Although the Aihole leg of our visit was marred, the weather was otherwise ok and we could do the trek from Badami to Mahakuta and back; it took about five hours of hard tramping through a rugged and otherworldly sandstone landscape, mostly in solitude. The path is not well-marked and one can get into trouble with aggressively territorial shepherd dogs but overall the experience measured up to the expectations - that I recorded a generation ago thus: "I am told there is a lonely trail winding past the lake and up among the boulders towards the sylvan precincts of the ancient Mahakuta temple..."

Just a couple more of observations: A lengthy safari across Karnataka undertaken in July made me revisit both Badami and Hampi many years after I had seen them for the first time. Hampi is still a magnificent realm but for me, it has lost its power to overpower, become 'domesticated'. But Badami is a different beast altogether. I want to go back there!

Despite the great heights they touch, the Badami sandstone sculptors were probably unaware of (or maybe uninterested in) the kind of polish sandstone can take; or maybe the stone in Badami is fundamentally different to what the Mauryan craftsmen got to work with!

Here is a jumble of pictures gathered from Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal with emphasis on details that struck me as unusual.
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I have never seen such steep crowns/hair-dos as sported by these three goddesses (only the Srilankan 'Bronze Tara' statue gets close):

A very stylish Kinnara couple:

Throughout this 'safari', I was looking for carvings of playful gobblins (a major subject in itself, actually) and such oddities. Here are a few unusual figures from the wall of a step-well; in the murky waters resides an eight foot plus cobra!

I don't remember seeing such a figure as this anywhere (he adorns the portion of a wall above a doorway):

Decorations on a pillar, including the almost ubiquitous, necklace-spouting 'Green man':

What sets this Mahishasuramardini sculpture apart is the buffalo; it crouches at the Goddess's feet like a docile pet - nothing demonic about it - and She is about to impale it!

On the pillars of many of the temples are carved amorous (not erotic) couples. Here is one such - a figure has been decapitated; one of the v v few such.

Another couple. What is unusual is the baby:

One more:

The finest such specimen (to my eyes):

A bit of decorative work from a ceiling, lotus, fish and all:

Two fantastic beings, seemingly with little love lost between them. One of them looks rather Grecian, curly hair and all, from waist up:

A graceful Salabhanjika:

More goblins; look carefully; one of them looks like Samuel Johnson(?)

Some Grantha inscriptions, the latter one quite elegant...

A beautifully done panel... note those rich crowns...

Vishnu, as Trivikrama, goose-steps into the heavens; an armed adversary, puny in comparison, has been sent flying. Among the figures paying the Uber-lord obeisance looks very Buddha - I know of no other ancient art piece anywhere that delicts him as part of the Hindu pantheon (although Indra etc can be seen in Buddhist art from even Sanchi - predating Badami by half a millennium).

The colors of sandstone:

Something of everything here with Siva, the dominant central figure:

Fluid patterns of rock colors convey a sense of the heaving cosmic ocean from which Varaha lifts Mother Earth:

Seems the dominant styles of temples in the north and south India both originated in these parts and diverged. What puzzles me is how such a graceful form as the foreground superstrcture fell totally out of favor in the south!

Here is an unusually multi-storeyed south Indian style temple:

A figure somewhat similar in pose to the iconic Ajanta Padmapani - am unable to locate him in the usual Hindu pantheon:

A magnificent 'Gajendra Moksha', an equal to the much more famous (and perhaps 2 centuries older) specimen from Deogarh.

Signing off with the famous Enthroned Vishnu

and Dancing Siva (facial features seem smoothened out, perhaps deliberately; somewhat reminiscent of some 'minimal Vandalism' that appears to have been done to temples at Lakkundi. And see how he holds a serpent up - reminiscent of how some folk dancers wield the 'thundu' or a multicolored towel):

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(*) The Muslim ascendancy was occasionally interrupted by the Marathas but the Banashankari temple apart, they seem to have added precious little value to the place. Arguably, the most intriguing character from the lengthy and often spectacular history of Badami was "a blind Brahmin(!) by name Narasimha Dattatreya, who entered Badami in 1840 with a fierce band of Arab(!!) mercenaries, took possession of the place and its treasury and proclaimed himself King(!!!) (only to be) dislodged within a week by a modest British force" (as per the quite interesting, though somewhat overpriced, guidebook written by George Michell; the exclamations are mine).

Michell's book also mentions damage done to some mandapas and the two Shivalayas at Badami with suggestions that Pallava invaders (7th century) and not later Muslim conquerors were responsible - and a pic of a Mutilated Buddha carving with no acccusations attached.