OLD RELIGION (Hinduism)

 To the western eye and mind, hinduism seems exotic and mysterious. In search of hinduism through its art and architecture, where should we begin. The. The. I begin my journey through art and architecture to hinduism here in the oldest inhabited city in the worlds.

Valencia is also the holiest city of hinduism and its 3000 year old story is a religious swan. What is hinduism. Is it idolatry. Is it polytheism, worshiping many guns, how can it not have a founder or profit creed or ecclesiastical institution. 

Just when we think we've grasped it escapes like water through our fingers. 

A great river Ganges is a powerful symbol of hinduism. It is a symbol of brahma's god's love for the earth and its people, but for the hindu it is also a symbol of the great stream of death and a lean carnation. 

Unlike christians, hindus believe life is not just for three score in ten years, but for millions, even billions of years of life, death and rebirth. Like the muslims, hindus can worship anywhere. 

Here, on the banks of the Ganges, a priest performs arts. A beautiful ceremony in which oil lamps are offered to Brahma. Party is a ceremony of Thanksgiving for the light of day and for the light of life. 

It is also a ceremony of humility when the hindus says drama, you are everything and I am. All I can offer is this small light which will be blown out by a passing win. Arte literally means removal of pain. 

This ceremony is dedicated to mother Ganges. Who nourishes the earth, and he is the source of those who bathed in her water. 

One of the things westerners find difficult about hinduism is the great number of gods and goddesses, but as Christian sense, provide access to god for christians. 

So do the gods and goddesses provide access for hindus to Brahma, and their representations give us with a rich tapestry of art and architecture. Unlike Christianity, hindu warship does not focus on temples, temples abound. But most are tiny, almost like wayside shrines, and yet hindus invest so much in their elaborate declaration. 

The Christian might argue that nothing is too good for god. The hindu approach is much more basic as far as they're concerned, you can't take it with you, and this is an insight into the letting go of things that lies at the heart of hindu. 

And so the temples themselves are monuments to renunciation, the giving up of worldly things for another world's lead goal. 

Absolutely enough, this temple is dedicated to shiver the destroyer, the one who brings death and the patron of that innocent. Death belongs to life as birth does vote the great Indian poet tacos. 

Both are just transition points on the great path of life. And in the end, hindus believe we will all arrive at the same point. 

For the devout hindu, this is that place. The guts or cremation places are dotted all along the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi yeah. To die in Varanasi is the hope of all hindus because they believe they were then at a mock shall liberation from the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation. And goes straight to heaven. Thousands of pilgrims fucking up, especially the old and infirm in that. The bodies are placed on the pyres by the domes, the outcasts. A devout hindu may not touch a dead body. And the flames liberate the spirit. 

As the poet puts it, when the clothes wear out, the body discards them when the body wears out the self that is within the scars that which contends it. The. 

These rights of passage from this life to another life cycle may appear mccabe to the non hinder. But to the believer, they are full of symbolism. Everything in hinduism. 

Is symbolic, and this symbolism is reflected in the art and architecture of that, and I think. The great river guarantees flows on, and it is that mammal poorer that this symbol of life finds almost magical.

Mamma la pureen in the south of India is where the Ganges turns to stone. It is carved into the natural cleft in this rock figure. And the story of the miracle is carved all about it in storm. The holy man begged lord shepherd to elect down his long hair so that the holy River might descend from heaven and nurture the earth and its peoples. 

All about him are the aesthetics like Arizona fat jolly monks and a cast of hundreds divine and semi divine, even a little aesthetic cat under the elephants tusk. Why we have such a flowering of sculpture here, perhaps the guards wanted to give the early sculptures a broad hint, scattering rocks and boulders all over the landscape like this one known as Christmas bottle.

And when they took the hint, they started underground, turning the natural rock formations into cave art like the Krishna manda palm. 

This is Krishna holding up a mountain to shelter his people from torrential rains. 

And here a farmer making his car, this is typical of hindu art and sculpture. The epic and the ordinary the fantastic and the familiar side by side. Because in hindu belief, the aesthetic and the artisan, the seared and the sweeper are finding their way to Brahma according to their personalities and circumstances. They weren't the only culture to begin their artistic life underground. 

And when they first came above ground. They built their temples of mood like their houses with lavish decoratives. But in the 7th century, under the palazzo dynasty, they turned the wood. The miracle happened here at punch or athos. 

A collection of five temples dedicated to the palazzo brothers and their common wife Dora party. Draw patio is the humblest of the temples, but it represented giant leap in architectural evolution from wood to stone using a single boulder. The sculptures challenge was to replicate a simple patched village shrine and recreate the styles and techniques of wooden architecture. And the proof of its influence is rightly obviously cut from the same rock. The Arabian rata is more ambitious a two story table. Already, you can see the exciting development and decoration and sculpture in these finely carved figures. One of the palazzo brothers was famous for his great strength. And this is his temple bema. 

Like the strong man, it's a muscular temple with a huge barrel of. The roof. These slender pillars seem to need every ounce of their strength to hold up a roof like this, and yet they've managed for almost 50 and 100 years. 

The first sculptors and architects drew their inspiration from the humble village fine and expanded its form and style in the other temples. 

The largest of these monolithic rock art shrines is the jamara raffles, all the three stories high, with an octagonal dome roof, and it has something special. Something that illustrates yet another facet of hinduism. This is a hurry horror, a sort of half and half statue of shiver and vision. What does it signify. The palazzo dynasty worshipped chief, but some of their subjects were devotees of Vishnu. The hari hara is a token of tolerance from the 7th century and a symbol of hinduism today because hinduism does not seek converts from other religions. It respects them as coming from and leading to. Mamma is a trove of art and architecture where natural stone has been tamed to soar and dance and dance. Where boulders littering the landscape surrendered to the sculptures chisel and gave shape and form to men and men. But it has something more. The ancient shore temple was recovered from the bay of Bengal after generations beneath the waves and sound. It is a tiny treasure house of architecture and s culture. And in its holy of hollies, it contains a stone fellows or linger. Beyblade. Can you imagine finding something like this in a church or stupor, Moscow synagogue, what does it mean in central India may hold the answers to you. 

If it wasn't for an inquisitive engineer. I wouldn't be here in 18 turkey 9 captain TS Burke of the Bengal engineers no less pushed through the dense forests of Kaja Rahul and found. 

Blue. Built in the 9th century by the shadow the kings to honor lord shiver, the cashier or complex escaped the Muslim invaders because it was so remote. But when the dynasty dissolved, it was reclaimed by the foreign. The chandelier was the golden age of hindu art and architecture and the kandara Yamaha de temple was the jewel in their crown. Camera. Yeah. Nintendo. Switching. It was dedicated to shiva who lived in the mountains, so the architects created a main spire soaring up 31 meters. With smaller spires rising up in a crescent door towards it to get the impression of a mountain range. But the artistic, exotic and erotic pleasures are to be found all round. The candle layer temple is probably most famous for these erotic panels, but what are they doing on a hindu temple. 

Sex to many of the major world religions is suspect, but not to hinduism, but remember, the camouflage is actually a hindu religious tract to the hindu. Sex reflects the creative love of Brahma, who gave life to everyone. The.