A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.54

c21.54

The second example of this type on the island of Elephanta, near Bombay, resembles the Dumarlena in many ways but is somewhat smaller (130 feet by 129 feet). But the Elephanta temple is better than all others of its kind in its sculptures, particularly those on the back wall. There are three large square recesses separated by pilasters each bearing a huge dvārapāla. The panel on the left contains a representation of Ardhanārī, the hermaphrodite form of Śiva, while the corresponding one on the right contains figures of Śiva and Pārvati. In the central recess is the famous colossal three-headed bust (Pl. IVb) long called Trimūrti but in reality a representation of Maheśa. Of this magnificent sculpture Grousset remarks: ‘The three countenances of the one being are here harmonized without a trace of effort. There are few material representations of the divine principle at once as powerful and as well balanced as this in the art of the whole world. Nay, more, here we have undoubtedly the grandest representation of the pantheist God ever made by the hand of man. In a magnificently poetic outburst Rodin has celebrated “this full, pouting mouth, rich in sensuous expressions, these lips like a lake of pleasure fringed by the noble, palpitating nostrils”. Indeed never have the exuberant vigour of life, the tumult of universal joy expressing itself in ordered harmony, the pride of a power superior to any other, and the secret exaltation of the divinity immanent in all things found such serene expression.’