One of the day trips we took from Calcutta (now known as “Kolkata”) was to Bishnupur, world famous for its sculpted terracotta temples depicting scenes from the Mahabarata, a Sanskrit epic poem said to be the longest poem ever written (it fills several large volumes, which I can attest to since my host had a copy).
The temples are located here because Bishnupur was the capital of the Malla dynasty (later conqurered by the Mughals), and the temples, which probably took at least 15 years each to build, were ordered built (and financed) by the king. They’re made of terracotta, or sculpted clay that is fired and hardened, and then the sculpted panels fastened to the temple with a mixture of various organic substances including sugar (I can’t remember them all, but you wouldn’t think that, combined, they would form a glue that could last centuries).
The temples date mainly from the 17th century, and given that they’re made of fired clay, have been severely eroded by weather over the last 500 years. But they’re still stunning, and well worth visiting. In a few generations the figures won’t be nearly as nice.
First, there is a “Ganesha” tree in the town, which has a callosity resembling the beloved elephant-headed god. It’s revered and decorated by worshippers:
Here are several of the temples, which are spread out all over the town. I wasn’t savvy enough to record their names, nor energetic enough to look them up now. But it’s not necessary except for history buffs.(UPDATE: in a comment below, reader John O’Neall links to a Wikipedia page that identifies and describes all the temples.) Here are four of the most elaborate:
But it’s when you get close to them that you see that each is covered with a profusion of religious sculptures. I took a lot of photos but will show just a few.
First, when you approach the temples you can see how elaborate the sculptures are:
Note the deer (or cows) and ducks (or geese):
The art of making these elaborate sculptures has apparently been lost, though there’s a trade in inferior terracotta pieces for the tourist trade.
An original Sanskrit inscription. My host, a scholar of early Indian religious history, could read it, but I can’t remember what it says. Is it too much to hope that a reader can translate?
And a selection of some of the more striking panels:
Tigers!
And the effects of erosion on a depiction of Krishna playing his flute. How sad that someday this will all be effaced by the elements:
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Lovely place, that I have never heard of. Nice photos. I wonder what the alphabet is — not devanagari. Looks like a theta in there. You must have had a great trip. Would be nice to know where all you went.
Looks like an ancient version of the bengali alphabet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_alphabet
This place is near Kolkata, so that is expected.
Yes, I may have been mixing up this script with the inscriptions at Kajuraho, which were in Sanskrit and for which I did get some translation.
Sanskrit didn’t have a fixed script until the 18th Century. Unlike Latin, Sanskrit standardised on an extensive and well-developed phonetic oral tradition and looked down upon the written medium, until invasions caused the learned populations to dwindle. Sanskrit writing is still simply a phonetic record of an oral tradition (sans punctuations etc. which were added later).
Each region used their regional script as per preference, or invented a related variant which could handle the language: the Tamil script cannot write Sanskrit, so they invented an extension called the Grantha script. Apart from Tamil, and perhaps Punjabi scripts (which lack a few key characters), all other Indian scripts can and were used at some point of time to write Sanskrit.
The British standardised with Devanagari as it was easier for them to print it. The Bengali script was also extensively used to write Sanskrit. So you may not be wrong, it probably still is Sanskrit, written with the Bengali script. But I wouldn’t know, as I cannot read the Bengali script.
Fascinating. Thank you for taking the time to explain that.
I an confirm that the language is also Bengali (I can make out a few words).
*can* confirm.
Please tell us what you can decipher. Thanks.
Bengali has several Sanskrit loanwords, so a few words looking like modern Bengali words would not be a clinching argument (on its own, and especially in a temple) that the language is indeed Bengali.
Oh, there is a list of all the temples at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_temples_in_Bishnupur
This is good! Thanks.
It would be sad to see the buildings damaged further by erosion. I wonder if the Indian government or some other groups are taking steps to preserve them somehow?
Incredibly lovely details in those panels! It’d be neat if there were some sort of environmentally safe fixative that could be sprayed or painted on the artwork.
Beautiful. I love how Indians create such lovely figures and art. Last summer, I went to the ROM in Toronto and took pictures of tiny figurines of gods, some made out of sandstone (I was surprised sandstone could last as it is usually very delicate, having experienced it as a medium for fossils).
> the Mahabarata, a Sanskrit epic poem said to be the longest poem ever written
According to Wikipedia, it’s 1.8 million words, or about 6000 book pages. Just the right thing for a sabbatical year.
I wish at least some modern architecture included this much art at level of detail….
b&
Yes it’s quite the feat of clay.
😄
😀 + 1
🙂 Thanks for making me giggle.
I may have missed this in an earlier post, but your host – same person for your entire trip?
For various reasons modern architecture largely abounded ornamentation, so I get that much more out of a charge out of intricate façades like these. These terra cottas are especially delightful.
The façade of the Getty Center in Los Angeles is naturally ornamented. It is clad in travertine from the same quarry in Tivoli that provided the stone for the Trevi fountain and St. Peter’s Basillica, as well as for Lincoln Center in NYC and L.A.’s (long since demolished) Shubert Theatre.
Travertine is usually cut and polished perpendicular to the grain of the limestone so we see the layers; but at the Getty it is split along the grain, which gives an interesting rusticated texture but even better exposes fossils. The fossils are not terribly exotic since the formation is lease than 100,000 years old, but there are lots of them – mostly leaves, the occasional feather or bone, mollusks.
Needless to say the Getty Center was exhorbidantly expensive – it may well have been cheaper to clad it in Indian terra cotta.
The limestone is protected with a silicone-based coating; it would be interesting to know if Jerry’s temples would benefit from a similar treatment.
I wonder how directly these Indian temples led to the Victorian obsession with over-ornamentation.
My education just keeps expanding here. So glad you’re still finding time to post your Indian pictures here, Jerry!
Yes indeed. Great travelogue Jerry.
Beautiful. I love the look of the rounded roof lines in the temples. I wonder how that was accomplished? Can’t have been easy, but from the look of the detailed carving, degree of difficulty of these tasks seemed not to be a hindrance.
If you would like to see a more extreme example of difficulty not being an hindrance, have a look at the Kailash temple, Ellora. This is a two story tall temple, hewn vertically downwards out of a single rock (no cement has apparently been used anywhere). The temple is a millennium older than the ones at Bishnupur, and has intricate carvings at the same level of detail (it is possible also more resistant to the elements, what with having been cut out of volcanic rock).
It is also merely one of the “caves” in the 2km long and several meters deep network of Ellora caves, each of which is filled with exquisite carving of the same kind.
I have lived in India almost all my life, but I have unfortunately never seen the Taj Mahal. I have, however, seen Ellora; and in terms of sheer engineering brilliance, I think it more than makes up for the Taj :-D.
Thank you for prompting me to look up the Kailash Temple at Ellora. It is stunning, and as you say, amazing that it is all carved out of a single rock! It boggles the mind.
Wow, thanks very much for sharing these! Beautiful stuff.