We are all fascinated by looking at movements in nature. The sky, with its passing clouds, the ocean, with its curvy waves, the trees, with its fluttering leaves fascinate us! We miss seeing such movements in temple sculptures. Generally, the stories from the epics are depicted using multiple sculptures. The sculptures on the stones had the limitation of not able to depict the movement of an action with in a single frame. This was my belief until I saw few sculptures in Ulsoor Sri Someshwara temple at Bangalore.
It is very common to see a variety of imaginary creatures
in temple sculptures. It starts with Lord Ganesha, who is usually depicted with
a human body and an elephant head. This concept extends all the way to mix and
match of various animals and birds. For example, the imaginary animal Gajasimha
is a combination of an Elephant and Lion.
I came across this interesting sculpture on one of the
pillars in the mantap of this temple. It kindled my imagination as to what this
sculpture tries to depict!
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| Sculpture on a pillar at Ulsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
It is easy to ignore this sculpture as yet another imaginary
bird with three heads. But how about dropping this idea and stretching our
imagination along with the sculptor a little further. We can arrive at few other
possibilities too.
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| Sculpture on a pillar at Ulsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
Those who are familiar with classical dance may recollect
how a Kali or Mahishasamarthini with 8 arms is enacted on stage. It is very
easy to attach a prop with 6 arms on the
back of the dancer. An innovative team will go beyond this and have 3 dancers
lined up behind the main dancer. All their arms will be outstretched in
different positions. Wow! Now, we get the
view of a single dancer with 8 natural arms!
How about applying the same concept to this sculpture too? There is a possibility of 3 birds standing one behind the other in perfect formation, their heads in different positions so that we see only a single body! What a novel attempt by the sculptor!
If we stretch our imagination a little further, we can ask ourselves why shouldn’t
this sculpture depicts the movements of a single bird? Such a depiction is possible. Isn’t it?
I have tried to
highlight the 3 different possible postures as well their movements below. Hope
you will see my point of view too.
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| The head is bent down and looking at something. |
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| Head up and observing something far |
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| Having been busy so far and out of tiredness, has decided to rest it’s head on its feathery back! |
It is a pleasant surprise to see a similar sculpture at the doorway of the main entrance tower too.
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| Sculpture at main entrance, Ulsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
The next sculpture is even more challenging. We are progressing from a sculpture with single body, 3 heads to a sculpture with 4 bodies, 2 heads!
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| Sculpture on a pillar at Ulsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
Our beloved ancestors in action! The monkey which is lying
down and the one sitting on the left share a single tail which is shown at the
bottom in a stretched “S” shape. The monkey
on the top (flying in air!) shares its head with the monkey on the left. Next, the
monkey which is standing upside down(Shirshasana?) is sharing its tail with the flying monkey. With
all these combinations, what does the sculptor try to convey to us? Here again, one can visualise different possibilities
as to what this sculpture can depict.
If we consider there are two monkeys in action, what
happens? The first monkey seems to be holding something in its hand and enjoy
eating it. Meanwhile, the second monkey tries to snatch it and succeeds too.
When the second monkey is enjoying the food, the first one snatches it back. And
this drama continues between these two monkeys till the food is fully consumed!
If we take a fast motion snapshot of these motions it may look as though both
the monkeys are having the food in their hands and they are in different positions!
If we consider there is only one monkey, what happens?
To start with, the monkey is lying down and enjoying
the food. Probably it got jolted by a loud sound or the arrival of something.
As a natural reaction, it jumped up and ended up in a somersault
circling around!
Which one do you think is more suitable here or do you
have a different explanation for this sculpture?
I took the support of technology and to tried to
animate their movements. The result is interesting and here it is.
Another pleasant surprise! Similar sculpture of monkeys formation is seen on a pillar in Melkote Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple (Karnataka) too.
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| Melkote Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple, Photo credit: Sudeesh Kottikkal youtube channel |
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| Sculpture on a pillar at Ulsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
This sculpture is the ultimate one! It was on the top of a pillar in Ulsoor Someshwara temple. It was very difficult to comprehend. Looks like the sculptor has become the most mischievous and challenging us further.
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| Sculpture on a pillar atUlsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
The bodies seems to be intertwined.
Difficult to figure out where the legs and hands are. On a closer look, we can
notice a head looking at us and another head is upside down. If we look carefully,
we can notice one person is holding the legs of another person tightly and viz
versa. The curvature of the bodies make a full circle. What are they doing?
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| Sculpture on a pillar atUlsoor Sri Someshwara temple, Bangalore |
Actually, this sculpture depicts two Gymnasts in
action. They are rolling on the floor as a human wheel! To do this, they have
kept their legs wide apart; their legs and hands are intertwined tightly so
that they do not get separated during their roll. The sculptor has skilfully
carved this intricate bond and their action into the stone. Yet another
fantastic work that conveys movement through a single sculpture!
Again, I took the support of technology to recreate
the roll of those skillful gymnasts of previous centuries! Here is the result!
The sculpture on another pillar of Melkote Cheluvanarayana Swamy temple is even more innovative. Different combinations of cow’s body and other items depict various actions with in a single sculpture.
- The cow, lovingly caresses its calf while the calf enjoys drinking milk from its mother
- The cow happily drinks water from a pot
- The cow looks up leisurely.
These temples are treasure trove of similar
sculptures. Probably when you visit both these temples next time, you may be
tempted to look out for and enjoy these sculptures in person! Or you may start
noticing such innovative sculptures in other temples too!
Melkote Cheluvanarayana
Swamy Temple is believed to have been built/expanded by the Hoysalas. Even the Ulsoor
Sri Someshwara temple of Bangalore was expanded by Hoysalas. Probably during
the Hoysala period, the sculptors specialised in such unique sculpture of
movement frozen in a single frame! Similar sculptures are seen in other
southern India temples too. It is
possible that our ancestors carved out such sculptures in other places as well.
Human development experts, Corporate Gurus and
Psychologists strongly recommend “out of box thinking” to develop our
creativity and problem-solving skills. While looking at these sculptures, we can
conclude that our ancestors have excelled
in such practice of “out of box thinking” and produced such creative sculptures
on stones many centuries ago. It is amassing to see the artistic freedom
enjoyed by ancient artists and their innovative skills. What a flourishing
society it would have been!
Temples are not just places of worship. The artistic treasures in them are waiting to teach us so many life lessons. How nice it will be to open our eyes to enjoy them and open our minds to learn from them!
