Sculpture - an Armchair Journey

Thanks to Vimal, I came to know about an old Doordarshan TV documentary series on the history of Indian Sculpture by Benoy Behl. Over a couple of days, I watched the entire collection, some of the episodes more than once. Behl has done a great job - it is a lovingly detailed and superbly shot series that takes you along on a leisurely journey through much of the two millennium plus old Indian sculptural tradition. And in these travel-scuppered times, it has been an immense relief!

Let me invite my few Readers to explore this series; it has been put up in its entirety on Youtube. Here I only present some stills from it and the thoughts and associations they triggered...
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A Kushana relief that is said to be one of the earliest representations of Siva (counting out the somewhat dubious two-horned Mohenjodaro seal 'lord of the beasts'):

I have often heard of parallels between Siva and Zeus. But among Greek Gods, Poseidon has at least as much of a claim to Siva-ness; for one, he weilds a trident and then, see this Neptune, who is just the Roman Poseidon:

I have visited the Tanjavur Brihadiswara temple twice but on both occasions was barred from entering the dark pathway around the inner sanctum and seeing the Chola murals there. Behl has shot an interesting specimen from there that shows a dancing Nataraja with what looks like a golden canopy above:

Behl tells us it is a representation of the Kanakasabha shrine, the core of the Chidambaram temple. Never knew the Chidamabaram temple had this golden roof from Chola times!

The Nataraja icon has won universal praise for its sublime form and execution. But one can't be too sure about how this manner of worshipping the same icon will be viewed:

An endearing bit of detail from a Khajuraho temple. A relief showing workers toiling to build that very temple:

The 'khatwanga' - a club made of bones and topped by a human skull - is said to be the the most lethal of weapons and is usually shown in the hands of the fiercest of divinities. Here is a rather comely maiden weilding a khatwanga (from Khajuraho):

More than any Desi god/goddess, she reminds me of the Russian 'Vasilisa the Beautiful' - how the girl is given a 'light-emitting skull' mounted on a stick as a torch to find her way thru a dark forest.
Aside: Vasilisa is one story that had left me quite awestruck as a primary schooler. Especially the three mysterious Horsemen - one of them all red, and the others, similarly all white and black. They suddenly appear up the wild jungle path and gallop past thunderously - without saying a word!

Here is an unusually French-musketeer-style bearded Agni from Konark:

Another very interesting detail from a Konark relief:some foreign fellows and a giraffe!

A Surya wearing boots - as Behl tells us, he is the only divinity shown thus anywhere:

:

A Kushana yakshi and Michelangelo's 'Dying Slave'. Just felt like juxtaposing the two!

Here is a vision I simply had to freeze and capture:

The bejewelled - and pretty much unclad - couple led to a lively discussion with Rekesh on clothing - and the apparent aversion to it - in our ancient tradition. The upshot: discovery of the following samples from Kalidasa's Raghuvamsam (translation by C Sivaramamurti, in his introduction to Roshan Alkazi's short book on Ancient Indian Costume):
"Upper garments delicately intervowen with jewels, pearl necklaces pendant on the ever so pale bosom and silken garments so fine they could be blown away by the softest breath"
and
"The prince sported with damsels with lovely waists, untying and playing with the garments on their hip, ... and unravelling their golden waist girdles!"
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Let me add a couple of remarks on the series: Benoy Behl plays smartly safe with certain 'slippery' matters. He avoids the words Aryan and Aryan Invasion, does not state any opinion as to how related Mohenjodaro was to subsequent Indian art, says all kinds of nice things about inter-faith relations, espcially Hindu-Buddhist relations, in ancient times, and stays mum about any possible adverse impact Islam - and its ban on representing human figures, especially scantily clad ones - might have had on Indian sculpture.
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Moving on from Behl:

Thanks to Rekesh, I also came to know about this object:

This strange assortment of wooden carvings done in Kerala style looks rather like a few totem poles planted close to one another. It has Krishna shown with his traditional green (as per Kerala canon!) complexion and once with blue skin! And among the several odd figures are two of Garuda - minus the beak, no fangs either, toothless mouth wide open in an expression of seeming shock and most interestingly, with snakes - his natural enemy and prey - winding all over his person!

Snakes winding on Garuda's body - I can recall seeing such a thing in the main icon in worship at the Pundareekapuram temple in Kerala and then only in an Amar Chitra Katha illustration showing a young Garuda - as per the myth, he was for while, a slave to serpents and often had to transport them!