Online Event, India Habitat Centre, 23rd March, 2024
Talk and Screening of Film Produced for Doordarshan.
By Benoy K Behl
Introduction by Sujata Chatterji 00:07; Subject Intro 02:12; Film 11:00; Talk and Q&A 33:34
This film brings you the earliest and most beautiful colossal Parinirvana sculpture. It also brings you the earliest Mandala seen in Buddhist art, as well as the first 11-headed Avalokitesvara and Tara sculptures.
From the 1st century onwards, deities were created in Indian art for meditation and worship. The belief was in the oneness of all of creation. The separated forms of the world were Maya or Mithya, passing illusions. The Truth was beyond all forms. However, the deities provided familiar shapes which were easier for the mind to grasp. By the 5th century, sublime deities were made. Though they were in human form, their purpose was to move us through their grace and beauty, to transcend the world of forms.
Now, it is the beauty of form which serves to reveal the grace which underlies creation. Peace is now created by beauty and harmony around us.
At the great site of Elephanta, the light coming from the three distant entrances of the cave creates a dramatic setting. The image of the mukha-linga emerges from a dark void, as a manifestation of the unmanifest eternal.
6 окт 2024
