The Hindu Temple v2.c12.283

v2.c12.283

Not the gruesome emaciated skeleton as that of Cāmuṇḍi (Pl. XXIX) but a more comfortable degree of decomposition distinguishes these dancers of death as acolytes of a power beyond it. In the images of Bhūtas, Pretas, Piśācas and Vetālas (cf. ‘Mānasollāsa’, II, III.1. 809-11) who are in due order: “those who have been” (bhūta); ghosts of the departed; “those who have gone before” (preta) and whose obsequial rites have not been performed; filthy fiendish goblins, and spooks who occupy corpses not their own—emotions are given expression in lugubrious and ludicrous shapes which are redeemed by their rhythm.