Symbolism of a Stupa
- Supriya
- December 7, 2016
At the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a small, 12th Century AD sculpted model of what seems like a typical north/east Indian temple. It’s a replica of the Mahabodhi Temple – a sacred souvenir carried home by ancient pilgrims who visited the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment from beyond Indian boundaries – the journey in
READ MOREThree days post Diwali I ventured out and saw the market streets lined with popup stalls selling soop (winnowing baskets), dauri (round baskets) and other items heralding Chhath Puja, the four day festival which at one time was indigenous to Bihar and UP. Now it’s a transnational entity, celebrated across India and in distant shores
READ MOREआवृतं ज्ञानमेतेन ज्ञानिनो नित्यवैरिणा | कामरूपेण कौन्तेय दुष्पूरेणानलेन च || (Bhagwad Gita 3.39) The knowledge of even the most discerning gets covered by this perpetual enemy in the form of insatiable desire, which is never satisfied and burns like fire, O son of Kunti. Desire devours like fire, it is insatiable. One desire, one craving
READ MOREIn its most fundamental essence, the stupa is a funerary mound erected over the remains of the Buddha . Its antecedents can be traced to primitive burial cists, which evolved in the Buddhist and Jain traditions into places of veneration . In its earliest meanings, the Stupa represented the Buddha and his Parinirvana (“complete extinction”)
READ MORESiva with his “full face and two monumental profiles,” is a “masterpiece of sculpture,” Siva’s “eyes closed on the flow of time”, the lord of dance, obliterates and recreates multiplicity, allowing man to glimpse a supra and infra universe. It takes an hour by ferry from Mumbai to reach the Elephanta Cave temple. An island
READ MORE“Siva says of himself. I am the originator, the god abiding in supreme bliss, I the yogi, dance eternally having said this the lord of yogis, the supreme god, danced showing his formidable supreme reality, In the spotless sky the yogis saw him dancing, the Great God who is Lord of all beings, whose maya
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