Daily Archives: July 24, 2007

3 posts

Kerala Murals – Perspectives

The colors selected by the artists had a direct bearing on the characters portrayed. According to ancient texts, there are three broad qualities assigned to superhuman, human, and sub-human beings, viz. Satva (the noblest), Rajas (the active and middle principle) and Tamas (the dark and destructive principle) respectively. To represent Satvic quality, green and shades of green were used. Characters of the Rajasic quality were portrayed in red or golden, […]

Kerala Murals – Principles & Guidelines

Generally, frescoes were painted on the surface of walls of granite or laterite after they have been prepared suitably. The wall, technically referred to as the carrier, was first given a rough plaster coating, with a mixture of sand and lime. A second, smoother coating of plaster was then applied on the first. These two layers [are] technically referred to as the ground. A mixture of resin and lime solution […]

Ardhanarisvara – The God Who is Half-Woman

This is among the more esoteric forms of Siva, the destroyer in the Hindu trinity. Beyond stereotypes, beyond boundaries and frameworks, Siva stands at the periphery of social order. Siva is the eternal ascetic, famed for his excesses, whether in penance and austerities or in sexual vigor. Siva, the intrinsic unpredictability immanent in everything that’s created. Siva, the undifferentiated spirit, the potential from which everything manifests, Purusa, the primordial. Parvati, […]