Contemporary painting and Indian politics

[Husky]

Again, only for HindOOs (i.e. ethnic Hindu heathens).

Actually, also for other followers of their own ethnic ancestral heathenisms such as Taoists, Shintoists - to whom the following also belongs - Hellenes, etc.

Specifically not for dabblers (those who dabble in others' heathenisms, such as western "converts" to Hinduism) or any other unheathens/subverted, regardless of what they're called.







1. पशुपति / பஶுபதி

Full-size version: misc.iblogger.org/images/pashupati.png





Not the same as the real thing. But can mentally throw one's arms around it - like Markandeya hugged his Shivalingam - and kiss its nosey, or hang a garland from its antlers. Or something.





"But but... blabla horn, blabla head, blabla antelope"





Sure, technically an antelope is not a deer:



diffen.com/difference/Antelope_vs_Deer

The most prominent difference between antelopes and deer is that male deer have antlers which they shed and grow every year while antelopes have horns that are permanent. Another difference is that deer antlers are branched and antelope horns are not. Antelopes belong to family Bovidae (as do sheep, goat and cattle), while deer belong to family Cervidae. Both are even-toed ungulates (hoofed animals) and ruminant mammals.

However:



pashupatinathtemple.org/Pashupatinath-Temple-History.html

There are numerous legends, connected with the construction of the temple. The most famous one claims, that the temple was built on the site where Shiva lost one of his antlers, while he was in the guise of a deer. He and his wife arrived to the bank of Bagmati and amazed by the beauty of the site decided to change themselves into deers and walk in the surrounding forests.



After a while gods and humans decided to return them to their duties, but Shiva rejected to return and they had to use force. In the fight Shiva lost one of his antlers, which later became the first lingam worshipped by Hinduists in Pashupatinath. Later this relic was lost, and according to another legend, found again by a herdsman, whose cow showed the location of lingam by irrigating the place it was buried with her milk.

Therefore, as seen in the above,

- a full-deer form is also valid. (Note: a full-elephant form for Ganapati is also valid, since he literally manifested as a full elephant to help Murugan's suit when Kumaara wooed Valli Amman.)

- I'm thinking that, just like mR^iga can mean deer or antelope (among other, more general cases), Hindoos regularly just translate Pashupati's full-'deer' form with deer too, not just antelope, as seen above.

- The 2 antlers in the image is then readily explained by how the other one grew back :-)

[Besides, the Pashupati seal while showing antelope-like horns has 2, which means the image represented the case before the horn was removed - the general case - or the after case: when it simply grew back, since Shiva would be a special antelope and can easily grow back anything. He's no mere pashu but Pashupati.]

- Also, in K.R.'s famous sacred traditional painting of G-SN, the mR^iga in Shiva's hand has a branching "horn" i.e. antler and is therefore a deer, not an antelope. The mR^iga in his hand means pashu, and the fact that he holds it in his hand means he controls it: it clearly identifies him as the Pashupati. So once again, deer is as valid as antelope.

- Also, this next type of Hindoo is what lives in huge numbers near the famous abode associated with the very name of Pashupati itself - it looks like a deer to me:



sobralske.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/csc_3288.jpg :love:

Captioned on the original tourists' page (at sobralske.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/pujas-before-losar-and-pashpati-temple-hindu-sadhus/) with

"Deer in Wildlife Refuge Outside of Pashpati Temple"

(I've never seen anything more beautiful in my life either. Pashupati's relatives everywhere. And when deer run, it's really like thunder: the ground reverberates with their auspicious sound.) And apparently, Mrigasthali - the name of "the jungle in Pashupati Nath" - is filled with mRuga. Their rAja dwelling among them may be the Pashupati himself still. You'll never know. Probably is too, considering Chidambaranatha is still the chief of his human community.



But I'm not surprised that Umachi was happy to dwell as deer in the beautiful forests of their Hindoo homeland.

Ever since I first watched Mononoke Hime, I always thought the Shishigamisama~Nightwalker - who is described there as the God of Life and Death - was Shiva (Pashupati). Both day and night forms of the Shishigami Sama seemed to fit with how I always imagined it too: Rudra, Uma and ganas wandering about taking delight in the beautiful forests, and up to mysterious cosmicly divine things.

But either way, whether the Shinto and Hindu versions are distinct or not, it just means the above Hindoo-made painting is Shishigami Sama too, and therefore equally for ethnic Shintoists.





"But the one in the painting is not an Indian deer"



Nitpicking. The Shishigami-sama is the God of life and death and is ueberall.

It looks cuddly and regal, and beautiful like only Pashupati can be, and that's all that matters: Hindoos see their Gods everywhere. And all animals are heathens. Whether it is Nezha's deer vahanam or Vayu Bhagavan's deer vahanam, or the Shishigami sama or Pashupati, or some Hindoo deer or some other deer. All are heathens.

Of course, one could make a special study of different types of antelope and deer and find out which specific species of either or each it was, and then make an image of that, but that's for professionals like moorti makers whose business it is to know everything accurately.





2. कूर्मावतारम् / கூர்மாவதாரம்

Full-size version: misc.iblogger.org/images/koormaavataaram.png



From the Beyond, it descended into this universe. Cosmic in size.

(But if you stretch out your arms to embrace it, I imagine it will shrink to the perfect size for hugging. A useful feature.)

Note: theoretically, if you were to place the Koorma on its back, then in its heart area would be the Lakshmi Amman. Just like the Pashupati implicitly includes Uma in one half, despite the double antlers/horns.





"But that's not a tortoise! It's a turtle!"



Note how people only remember such differences when nitpicking.

True enough.

diffen.com/difference/Tortoise_vs_Turtle



Can pretend that when it's flying down from the Beyond -- where he has taken beautiful, manifest shape at the interface (i.e. when he assumes one of his Own forms) -- that it is a turtle, for "flying/floating" purposes. And when it lands for the Samudra Manthana it will be a tortoise.

(Like a transforming hybrid that covers both turtles and tortoises... It can become the water-optimised version when sea or space faring, and a tortoise when it lands on land and treks through it.)



Besides,

- koorma is translated as both turtle and tortoise.

- Samudra Manthana involves water as per the name. So it can theoretically be a turtle too.

- contrary to what's mentioned at the Tortoise vs Turtle link, there are turtles in Asia including India, not just tortoises.





If overseas or in 'secular' Indian spaces, can keep such images without people ever finding out you're heathen: can pretend they're animal fan-art - well, they ARE of animals and I suppose it is 'fan' 'art' - since Hindoos of course admire animals and see their Gods reflected in all the natural world (and since the Gods are factually manifest in all the natural world). But if such a perception betrays one's heathenism too, as it usually does - as seen also in stotras likening the Gods to different animals (e.g. the Adi Shankaracharya's SAL) - one can play at being utilitarian, and claim to view the first as an image of an aesthetically-pleasing mobile coat-hanger and the second as that of an attractive mobile paperweight. And privately, one can continue to be heathen and remember and adore the Gods in all that is beautiful and endearing.





Short version of this post. For ethnic HindOOs only:

- misc.iblogger.org/images/pashupati.png

- misc.iblogger.org/images/koormaavataaram.png