The famous Louvre, Paris -world's largest museum- doesn't allow flash light photography as the camera flash (of numerous visitor) is likely to damage the historic art forms, say Monalisa. So does the Met, NY and the Hermitage Museum, Russia and so on... They do allow photography without flash and video recording... Of course, the information should be open to everyone in the world. Why do we need a confidentiality in spreading information, isn't it?
But...
We often encounter confidentiality in certain places; museums, temples, and palaces etc. We are not even allowed to take a single photograph of any dashing art form... And it becomes terrible when the Archeological dept. itself is stopped from their studies, for nothing but just because of the orthodoxy of a few people.
Recently I visited Padmanabhaswamy Temple; for the first time. I never choose to go there because of several pointless restrictions. People always talked about the never ending queue and the unseen (due to the crowd) shrine of Lord Vishnu. This time, I wanted to see what was there inside the temple that no one discussed about and if it had something to tell me about the historic era...
As entered into the temple I literally was mesmerized by the architectural beauty of the corridor, and my response to that exquisite beauty was a soliloquy, why didn't I visit here before!... Well, since this is not a travelogue, I choose not to elaborate on them.
Keeping a few questions aside, like where did our ancestors get numerous granite stones, how did they transport it to that place and so on; Each of the pillars was filled with sculptures and carvings...of dancing men and women... Also, a few Hindu mythological stories were portrayed... It vividly reflected a Devadasi Culture we had in that time. Females with large breasts and narrow hips in different dance poses and males with a rather decent physique. I saw several dancing males with a beard and a very few had Chinese mustache and long hair, that was a bit different I thought...From then onwards, I began to observe them closely for more interesting details... There were a few small sculptures with wings which were similar to cupid from Greek mythology. Unlike the Greek cupid alike sculptures and Chinese mustached male dancer carving, there was a face with bulged eyes and sharp teeth on the top of each pillar, which was a lot similar to the Chinese dragon...
Finally, the most astounding carving I saw there was an Egyptian male/female... A typical Egyptian carving, with head, turned sideways and with long straight hair.
An environment of worship was unlikely in that temple. Even the shrine; it hardly looked like a shrine! There were some scripts in front of the shrine, unfortunately, I couldn't even look at it; the humble believers were 'shouting' at me for not moving forward... they were pushing aside rest of us, to reach their God! I hated the idea of God at once.
It was more than just a temple... Yet we studied nothing much about it so far. I wanted to capture those foreign art forms to have a deep investigation on them... But the senseless confidentiality prevents all of us from studying about it... Even the Archaeology dept. is just like us in terms of opportunity...
How do we dare to expect them -Archaeology dept- to do extraordinary things when they are stopped from their first step itself, to enter and study the history about the temple?! (We can extrapolate this output, to an extent).
I guess our Govt. still is weak rather than corrupt or bad... they still are under the control of the orthodox society...
How do we overcome the orthodoxy of the society we live in when we are not even allowed to investigate... Whereas investigation and studies are the keys to expel orthodoxy.
Or do we still face the inevitability of a movement like the old Travancore Temple Entry proclamation? If it is inevitable why and what we are waiting for?
But...
We often encounter confidentiality in certain places; museums, temples, and palaces etc. We are not even allowed to take a single photograph of any dashing art form... And it becomes terrible when the Archeological dept. itself is stopped from their studies, for nothing but just because of the orthodoxy of a few people.
Recently I visited Padmanabhaswamy Temple; for the first time. I never choose to go there because of several pointless restrictions. People always talked about the never ending queue and the unseen (due to the crowd) shrine of Lord Vishnu. This time, I wanted to see what was there inside the temple that no one discussed about and if it had something to tell me about the historic era...
As entered into the temple I literally was mesmerized by the architectural beauty of the corridor, and my response to that exquisite beauty was a soliloquy, why didn't I visit here before!... Well, since this is not a travelogue, I choose not to elaborate on them.
Keeping a few questions aside, like where did our ancestors get numerous granite stones, how did they transport it to that place and so on; Each of the pillars was filled with sculptures and carvings...of dancing men and women... Also, a few Hindu mythological stories were portrayed... It vividly reflected a Devadasi Culture we had in that time. Females with large breasts and narrow hips in different dance poses and males with a rather decent physique. I saw several dancing males with a beard and a very few had Chinese mustache and long hair, that was a bit different I thought...From then onwards, I began to observe them closely for more interesting details... There were a few small sculptures with wings which were similar to cupid from Greek mythology. Unlike the Greek cupid alike sculptures and Chinese mustached male dancer carving, there was a face with bulged eyes and sharp teeth on the top of each pillar, which was a lot similar to the Chinese dragon...
Finally, the most astounding carving I saw there was an Egyptian male/female... A typical Egyptian carving, with head, turned sideways and with long straight hair.
An environment of worship was unlikely in that temple. Even the shrine; it hardly looked like a shrine! There were some scripts in front of the shrine, unfortunately, I couldn't even look at it; the humble believers were 'shouting' at me for not moving forward... they were pushing aside rest of us, to reach their God! I hated the idea of God at once.
It was more than just a temple... Yet we studied nothing much about it so far. I wanted to capture those foreign art forms to have a deep investigation on them... But the senseless confidentiality prevents all of us from studying about it... Even the Archaeology dept. is just like us in terms of opportunity...
How do we dare to expect them -Archaeology dept- to do extraordinary things when they are stopped from their first step itself, to enter and study the history about the temple?! (We can extrapolate this output, to an extent).
I guess our Govt. still is weak rather than corrupt or bad... they still are under the control of the orthodox society...
How do we overcome the orthodoxy of the society we live in when we are not even allowed to investigate... Whereas investigation and studies are the keys to expel orthodoxy.
Or do we still face the inevitability of a movement like the old Travancore Temple Entry proclamation? If it is inevitable why and what we are waiting for?
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