Author: Maqbool Ahmad
Publisher: Asian Publication Services
Year: 1993
Language: English
Pages: 82
ISBN/UPC (if available): N/A
Description
This work dwells on the relationship and meaning of Erotica and Temple worship.
The Art of Khajuraho is the Art of Temple Architecture. In the sacred atmosphere of these temples of Khajuraho, one witnesses the intense moments of union of couples in various moods and forms. They depict no ordinary union of men and women. Instead they are the manifestations of the cosmic form Purusa the God with Sakti the mother form, the Prakriti
The temples were regarded as the symbols of righteousness of law and cosmic order. Since at the peak of sex, man and woman dissolve into each other and become one, they attain the state of nothingness, a vacuum, a void - a stage which has been strived to be attained by the sages and the ascetics, the ascetics of old times, advised people to attain salvation through the practice of sex, to practice it religiously and as a religious form.
Hence the architecture of Khajuraho is full of copulating couples in various stages of coition, practicing sex as a form of prayer and ritual, their faces calm and serene which have been carved by the marvelous chisel of the artists who worked in veneration to produce these marvels of history, to give shape to the puranic and tantric thought. They placed them outside and inside the temples to evolve a unique style of temple architecture.
Contents
Preface
Foreword
PART I
Introduction
CHAPTER I
Brief History
CHAPTER II
Tantra Religion
CHAPTER III
Origin of Temple - Architecture
CHAPTER IV
Development of Temple - Architecture
CHAPTER V
Khajuraho Temple Architecture
CHAPTER VI
The Monuments
CHAPTER VII
The Erotic Sculptures
CHAPTER VIII
Significance of Erotic-Sculptures
CHAPTER IX
Conclusion
Bibliography
Architectural Terminology
PART II
Illustrations