Category: India
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Showing off
Showing off This priest can boast of looking after the largest lingam and – its counterpart – yoni in Hampi, once the capital of the ancient Vijayanagar Empire. It seems as though he is weighed down by the heavy responsibility resting on his shoulders. At Kalinjar Fort in Uttar Pradesh (see previous post), I was…
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Lingam and yoni
Lingam and yoni or Shiva and Parvati The blissful union of Shiva and Parvati finds its ultimate expression in the combination of their sexes. In an earlier post you can read a short citation from the Brhaddharma Purana explaining the essence of the lingam and yoni idea. It is the form in which life, creation, the universe, is…
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Shiva and Parvati
Shiva and Parvati In last few weeks’ posts we have identified the creative aspect of Shiva in his ithyphallic representation. But without his female half, Shiva is incomplete and deprived of his creative powers. In the image above, Shiva’s consort Parvati is seated next to him. Together they are the two complementary poles of one…
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Ithyphallic Shiva Nataraj
Ithyphallic Shiva Nataraj In last week’s post we saw the ancient sculpture of an ithyphallic dancing Shiva inside Kalinjar Fort in Uttar Pradesh. Here we have one on a 9th century temple in Bhubaneshvar, Orissa. It is better preserved, with the erect phallus clearly visible. This may be due to its high placement on the…
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Kalinjar Fort
Kalinjar Fort Kalinjar means ‘the destroyer of time’ and thus refers to Shiva, who next to Brahma, the creator, and Vishnu, the preserver, takes care of this part in the eternal cycle of creation, preservation and destruction. However, apart from being the destroyer, Shiva is at the same time very much regarded as creator, which explains…
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Sex room
Sex room Bars, restaurants, toilets, smoking rooms, prayer rooms, ….. : Airports cater to all kinds of human needs. But a – tax free – sex room I haven’t come across as yet. Photo of the week: New Delhi International Airport, India 2015
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The road herd, cushion-footed
The road herd, cushion-footed This time, for a change, we didn’t have to slalom dangerously between cows standing on the road chewing the cud; we weren’t forced onto the hard shoulder by a convoy of Ambassador cars with flashing lights belonging to some politician and his entourage; but, to our surprise, we were held up…
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Natural beauty
Natural beauty Tanned by the scorching sunmarked by the passing yearsbreathing in the pure mountain airshaped by culture and traditionslightly amused, somewhat concerned…………..Two vibrant female faces from Kumaon. Photo of the week: Almora, Uttarakhand, India 2013
καιρός remembered 