The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s7.t2.6

v2.c11.s7.t2.6

¹⁵³ Mithuna as an enrichment on the door-jambs (śākhā) of the Garbhagṛha is enjoined to be carved in the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’ LV, ‘Hayaśīrṣapañcarātra’, ‘Agnipurāṇa’ CIV. 30 ; ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, XL. 30-34 ; etc. The earliest Mithuna yet known is carved on one of the earliest historical monuments yet known, i.e., of about the 2nd century B.C. in Sāñcī, Stūpa II. Marshall-Foucher, ‘The Monuments of Sanchi’, Pl. LXXVII. 20a. Mithuna is one of the permanently recurrent themes of Indian sculpture. A ‘classical’ Mithuna, on a gold ornament, is reproduced in the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’, 1912, p. 283. The Buddhist connotation of Mithuna is the union of Buddha and Prajñā.