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SAMPLE ARTICLES:
1. THE SPIRITUAL
SIGNIFICANCE OF EROTIC
SCULPTUTRE ON HINDU
TEMPLES
2. ASTROLOGY, a science or
a hoax
3. spiritual culture of india
4. THE IMPACT OF LOVE ON
LITERATURE
5. Short stories (3)






C NAGARAJA RAO
SAMPLE ARTICLE NUMBER 1
THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EROTIC SCULPTUTRE ON HINDU TEMPLES
Short Stories
02/07/05
THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EROTIC SCULPTURE ON HINDU TEMPLES
TEMPLES are the places of worship where the devotees meditate upon God offering prayers to attain communion with God.
The erotic sculpture on temples which distracts the attention of man or disturbs the mind of devotee, arouses the curiosity of
many an Indian and foreign tourist to their importance or necessity at places of worship.
It is needless to say that art and literature are obsessed with sex. For that matter, even spiritual literature of India itself is
full of sex. The erotic sculpture on the temples can, therefore. be regarded not as an expression of lust but the expression of
the non-dual status of higher reality. It also reveals the painters' natural love for feminine beauty. Art is essentially linked
with sex since art would have certainly been impoverished if it was deprived of its alliance with sex. Sex is not taboo but is
the fountainhead of inspiration. Hence. it is inevitable for the artist to derive inspiration from feminine beauty for his work.
The nude figures of the male and the female in different acts of coitus found on the temple in Khajuraho, Konark and Puri
are a fine blending of architecture, sculpture and sex.
The ancient Hindu thought envisages human life as consisting of four stages-Dharma (religion), Artha (wealth), Kama
(pleasure/desire) and Moksha (salvation or deliverance). A proper combination of the first three stages leads to the fourth
stage through which perfection is attained. Erotic sculpture is therefore, not purely materialistic or is opposed to spirituality.
Born of sex. man dissolves in sex. perpetuating human life on earth. Sex is to be elevated to spiritual level but not to be
despised as a mere emotional fervour. Hence. sex is as sacred as religion. The interlocking posture of man and woman in
passionate sexual embrace is an expression of the unity of prakriti and purusha, the phenomenon of the universe for
procreation. It is to focus this aspect of sex that such postures are depicted on the Hindu temples.
During the middle ages some religious sects introduced ritual intercourse as part of their cult and treated it as a potent aid to
salvation. Sexual activity was regarded as a positive religious duty. Sexuality was not regarded as an act merely to gratify
the animal passions of the humans but as a refined mutual relationship for the satisfaction of both male and female (the
partners in the activity).
It can be construed that the rapture in the union of man and woman is analogous to the ecstacy in the union of enlightened
individual soul (Jeevatma) and the absolute soul (Paramatma). The rapture experienced in physical union in mundane plane
is analogous to the bliss experienced by the soul on the spiritual plane.
Sex in sculpture shall be regarded only as sex in literature. Sexual love and spiritual love are two different forms of sex.
Since sex is as spiritual as love, sex postures on sacred places cannot be construed as profane. "Sexual union not only
symbolises divine union, it prompts and causes it; the profane union of the man and the woman is sacred, full of
redemption, inspiring the perfect union of the male and the female principles" (Lee Siegal). Sexual union between man and
woman was held to be the earthly actualization of the relationship between the female part and counterpart of God. Sex is
the physical expression for the spiritual ideal called 'Love". Plato says that... human nature was originally one and we
were born whole and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love". This Love, which is spiritual, takes the form of sex in
the physical world. In the ritual prostitution sexual act is expressed as a sacrifice to God. When sexuality becomes a
sacrifice the distinction between sacred and profane love disappears.
The Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad formulates a correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, between human
sexuality and cosmogonic process which suggests homology and the sacralization of human sexuality. Aristophanes
expresses the view that in the beginning this (Universe) was the self alone in the likeness of a man. Since he found no
pleasure, he longed for a second and thus arose man and woman in close embrace.
Sexual union is based on a cosmic paradigm and can be a re-enactment of sacred history. The Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad
lays it down that man should conceive of female genitals as the sacrificial grass, her vaginal labia as the sacrificial fire.
Sexuality is described as a sacred act like a sacrifice, as a ritual and is conceived as the microcosmic enactment of a
macrocosmic process. The God and Goddess represent the cosmic male and female whose eternal embrace creates the
Universe and keeps the life processes in operation. Their best representation is in simple sexual symbols; the phallic erect
stone denotes the male and circular stone with a hollow centre denotes the female. They are primitive art and their
advanced form is to represent them in human forms of male and female divinities. Woman is to be conceived as fire, the
phallus as her fuel, the hairs as her smoke, and the vulva as her flame; when man penetrates woman that is her coal and
the ecstacy is her spark. A symbolic representation of this idea of sex is the erotic sculpture on temples.
Another interpretation for the presence of erotic sculpture on temples seems plausible. Temples are not only the places of
worship where the devout meditate and practise austerity but they are also the places of learning. Kama (pleasure) being
one of the first three stages of human life which leads to the fourth stage called Moksha (Salvation), erotic sculpture on the
Hindu temples shall be construed as part of visual education in ancient times. Erotic scripture on the temples is a way in
which sex education is documented.
Temple prostitution was in vogue during the Mauryan, period and there was a separate department to collect tax from
prostitutes. Coitus was regarded as a sacred act and the act was performed in the precincts of the sanctum sanctorum.
Herodotus expressed the view that all women, before marriage, should prostitute with other men in the presence of
Goddess. Since temples were used as nuptial chambers, everything done or performed in the temple premises was in
furtherance of this sacred act.
Sculpture is the art of representing observed or imagined objects in solid materials. Since sex is one of the observations of
man, it found expression in sculpture in the various forms man imagined. Sculpture is one of the oldest arts. In the days
when printing press and paper had not developed, art in the stone was the method adopted for educating people in
appreciation of aesthetics and culture. Even as ancient monarchs had published law on stones, so did educators educate
people about coitus through sculpture.
In ancient Gothic sculpture we find the "Golden virgin" with massive draperies and rounded upper portions throwing a smile
to a child, who responds to her affectionate gaze and whose orb looks like a toy. While different styles of coitus are a
significant feature of erotic sculpture on Indian temples (Khajuraho, Konark temples etc.) nudity is well known in Western
culture as well. "Creation of Eve" by Jacopo della Quereia on the door of the Church of Petronio, "Bologna and David" by
Michelangelo are good examples of nudity in Western culture. The "Nymph and Satyr" and "The Kiss" in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York compare favourably with the Indian art in nudity.
Sublimation of Kama (Sexual desire) is a discipline of Saivite Yogi. In order to keep passion under control, the art and
science of love are to be applied to sex. The disciplined sex is what we observe in the erotic sculpture on Hindu temples.
There are several ways prescribed to attain Divine bliss or salvation(Moksha). The pursuit of Kama is of prime importance
for courtesans. A courtesan who pursues Kama full and well, is expected to gain release from this world. Conjugal love is
said to contain a quality of absolute, nearly super-human purity of intensity and perfect self-surrender.
The well-depicted woman (in stone) with her beautiful curves, large expanses of breasts and thighs and long and deep
vaginal orifice in the firm laps is not only a source of delight to the aesthete but a provocature of a feeling of sacred love in

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the human mind. Man takes delight in describing the love-play of Gods humanised in love. Similarly man divines himself in
love.
Sex is the most enjoyable relationship. It is as much among the divine as it is among the human. The goal of sex is the
realization of the sacredness of love. The joy of human sexual union raised to the nth degree is regarded as attainment of
union with divine. If there is no qualitative difference between human and divine in regard to sexual joy, there is as well no
distinction between sacred and profane (in regard to sex). Sexual union is the affirmation of the ideal relationship between
human and divine, physical enjoyment is the concrete form of the spiritual enjoyment. Sringara (sexual enjoyment) is the
aesthetic experience of the basic emotion of love. The ineffable ecstacy of the union of man and woman finds expression in
terms of sexual experience. The erotic sculpture on the temples is an expression of this ideal. The body is the physical
manifestation of the inner life. Erotic sculpture on temples is, therefore, an outer manifestation of man's inward aesthetic
pleasure. Embracing, kissing, scratching, biting, coital postures, striking and love cries, the woman assuming the man's role
and oral copulation are eight of the sixty four arts of love-making as enunciated by Vatsayana in Kama Sutra. These arts are
essential for fulfilling three aims of life, viz., Kama, Artha and Dharma. The art of love and sex is an important branch of
human knowledge. Sexual enjoyment constitutes fulfillment of Dharma. Human love is analogous to spiritual passion. The
sexual embrace of man and woman gives the same pleasure what mystical experience of the soul gives in the embrace of
God. Erotic sculpture, which is an expression in stone of the love play of Gods is, therefore, not profane but a glory of
human achievement.
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