Stories in Stone

The monuments and temples in India abound with exquisite sculptures based on the epics. This is a humble attempt to explain some of them.This is no scholarly work.I have only collected these from several sources- oral, printed and on-line. There can be no authentic version of such stories as there are many variations and interpretations . I have left out the complex explanations and debates to just give an overview of episodes depicted in stone. All photographs by (C) V.Harihara Subramanian.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Santa Claus at temple festival

A boy in a Santa Claus cap, among others witnessing decorated elephants carrying Hindu idols, at Pala, Kottayam Dot.

Temples of Bhatkal

We found the 16th century temples of Bhatkal rather serendipitous. We were driving from Udipi to Murudeshwar and wanted to stop at Bhatkal on the way to see some ancient mosques and other heritage sites. quite accidentally we saw the Jattappa Chandranath basadi on the way. This was being restored by ASI. The junior staff of ASI were very helpful and above all enthusiastic about the heritage. They guided us to the other temples too

ASI is in the process of restoring these temples. It must be an uphill task as they are in very bad condition. Some of them are inside private property where modern houses have come up.

More Mahishasura mardhinis

Kailasanatha Temple,Kanchipuram 8th Century?

Baijnath Temple, Himachal Pradesh