Studies in Indian Art c7.s2.5

c7.s2.5

The Pūrṇa-Kumbha or Full Vase is pre-eminently a Vedic motif. It is referred to as the over-flowing Full Vase (Pūrṇo asyā Kalaśaḥ) and as filled with all the pair of opposites that constitute life in its dual aspect of Being and Becoming (Sat-Asat), Masculine and Feminine (Stri-Purāṇ), Childhood and Age, Immortality and Death and all the virtues that the gods have created and all the vices that Asuras love. In vedic thought the human body itself is such a Full Vase (Pūrṇa-Kalaśaḥ), and there is no other more charming symbol created in nature than the human body. As saith an Upanishadic passage: "Of all the forms that were created the human form was the most perfect" (Purusho vāva bata sukritaḥ). This Pūrṇa-Kumbha appears as a symbol of Indian art in a great variety of forms (Fig. 1a, 1b, 1c & 1d).