We saw the Cambodian version of the humbling of Ravana by Shiva when he tried to uproot Mount Kailash in an earlier post. This is another interesting depiction from Ellora.
This verse has been sung often in Shivite saint Appar’s works, but those have been discussed in depth in the tamil version of this post. However, crux of the story is Ravana is stuck and humbled. To what extent. Have a look at the sculpture.
You can see the massive twenty armed, ten headed asura stretched underneath the mount, on top the sublime divine calmness in the faces ( though heavily damaged) of Shiva and Parvati are still evident.
If you notice carefully, Shiva Bootha Gana - demon assistants are making fun of ravana. As you face the image to the left, you can see a Gana making obscene gestures by bending down and showing his back to ravana, while the other one has taken a stick and is hitting his knuckles. On to the right the little gana pulls out his tongue and is making faces at him. What an insult to the King of Lanka.
To get to truly appreciate the composition i kept this picture ( of a friend) to the last - now you get a fair idea of the size and scale of this sculpture.
Btw, how did Ravana get out of this predicament, and how he was humbled many more times we will see in coming posts, along with some more beautiful depictions of the above story in various places.
Leave a comment »
Ravana is well known as the villain of the epic Ramayana …his depiction as the demon king of Lanka who abducts Rama’s wife is well known….however this is an interesting episode which is a prequel to the events of the Ramayana…Ravana as the great shiva devotee and excellent Veena player….. Ravana is humbled four times…once by Vaali, then by KaarthaVeera Arjuna ( not the Arjuna from Mahabharat), then by Rama….and prior to all that by Shiva. This sculpture is called Ravana anugrahamurthy - was sung to great glory by the Saint Appar and finds depiction in many places. But this interesting work is from Cambodia… you can see ravana in all his glory…ten heads, twenty hands
As Ravana was passing around in his flying chariot..he comes across the abode of shiva and the chariot refuses to go over the mount out of respect for shiva. Ravana is furious and drunk on his ego tries to uproot the entire mountain and hurl it out of his path….as he does so…the lions and other animals run helter skelter….Parvati is scared and leaps on to the lap of shiva…you can see Ganesha in one of the rows along with other ganas ( assistants of shiva)
when shiva calmly presses down the mountain with his big toe….and ravana is trapped…what happened next…well thats the plot for a new post by itself… So we see how an interesting lesson in being humble was taught to Ravana …and the greatness of the cambodian sculptor who brought this into stone in such a lively manner
Leave a comment »
English
தமிழ்
Recent Comments