Liminal Spaces, and Identity Transformations in South Asian Literatures and Arts Essays in Honour of Professor Alexander Dubyanskiy Edited by Paola M. Rossi. Post-print version. Milano University Press., 2023
The Sun temple at Modhera (1025-1026 CE) has distinctive narrative relief sculpture on a section ... more The Sun temple at Modhera (1025-1026 CE) has distinctive narrative relief sculpture on a section a little above eye-level on 8 pillars in the Closed Hall in front of the Surya shrine, and on 32 pillars in the Dance Hall which is between the temple tank and the main temple. The 320 sculptured panels on these octagonal pillars, not discussed in Lobo’s study of the temple’s iconographic programme, are varied in theme and treatment, and often problematic in content and meaning. Placed as they are on the worshipper’s approach to Surya, the deity of the temple, might they reflect the liminal state of the worshipper, placed between the exterior world and the vision of the Sun god? The disjointed nature of the sculpture’s references to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the fleeting presence of Surya in the Closed Hall, and of his son Revanta in the Dance Hall, along with frequent and insistent erotic scenes, in which naked Jain monks appear, all in the context of alternating battle and dancing, of communitas, flow, conflict and blindness, suggest a highly charged state that is different from the normal order of temples’ horizontal wall friezes. This might reflect and allude to the liminal states that pertain to both halls. Alternatively, the sculptures may reflect the concerns and attitudes of the court of the presumed builder of the temple (Bhima I, reigned 1022-1064), not least because of the dominant presence of his namesake, Bhima, great warrior of the Mahabharata Or, the puzzling complexity might be merely the result of the pillars being eight-sided. Most of the pillars of the Closed Hall are examined in detail; in the Dance Hall, just one pillar, along with an analysis of themes, and explanation of some especially problematic panels.
Via Alamanni, 11 20141 Milano, Italia www.ledizioni.it È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale,... more Via Alamanni, 11 20141 Milano, Italia www.ledizioni.it È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche a uso interno o didattico, senza la regolare autorizzazione.
Quademi del Dipartimento di Linguistica - Universita di Firenze 12 (2002): 27-45
This paper examines the symbolism of the lotus in classical Sanskrit poetry, with special referen... more This paper examines the symbolism of the lotus in classical Sanskrit poetry, with special reference to Aśvaghoṣa, Kālidāsa, and Ratnākara. I begin with caricature-of Kālidāsa, of kāvya, and of the lotus. The apocryphal Kālidāsa, unsurpassed at completing unfinished verses, was also addicted to courtesans. According to one story, his end came on a trip to Śrī Laṅkā. 1 King Kumāradāsa (author of the mahākāvya Jānakīharaṇa) wrote the following lines on a courtesan's wall: kamale kamalotpattiḥ śrūyate na ca dṛśyate. No man, they say, has ever found the place where lotus-flowers within a lotus rise. and underneath gave notice that successful completion would earn a large reward. Kālidāsa, there later the same evening, completes the samasyā as follows: bāle tava mukhāmbhoje dṛṣtam indīvaradvayam Yet I have seen two dark blue-lotus eyes set in the fair white-lotus of your face.
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