<!--QuoteBegin-Viren+Feb 12 2008, 08:57 PM-->QUOTE(Viren @ Feb 12 2008, 08:57 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The vandalisation of heritage
T.S. SUBRAMANIANÂ (The Hindu, 10 Feb. 2008)
Murals from the 14th to 17th centuries in temples across Tamil Nadu are being painted over or 'restored' gaudily by unqualified personnel. It is time we acted more responsibly to preserve these masterpieces of a bygone era, feels David Shulman, renowned Indologist. Excerpts from an interview...
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The 17th century paintings on the ceiling of Devasiriya Mandapam at Thyagarajaswamy temple IN Tiruvarur are masterpieces of south Indian cultural heritage. If they are not conserved very soon, they will be lost.
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Photo: K.T. Gandhirajan
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/02/10/images...21050210701.jpg
Neither subtle nor nuanced: The 'restored' painting (right) at the Jaina temple at Tiruparuttikkunram, near Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->[right][snapback]78412[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->There is nothing wrong in that picture. What do they mean 'neither subtle nor nuanced'?
Hindu (and Jaina) Dharma are living, not dead. And where temple specialist-trained Hindus/Jainas try and restore colour and life to our mural paintings, even the Gopurams, it is welcome. We don't merely want to preserve the old washed-out colours the way they have now become due to the ravages of time, we want to get the life back into them whenever the colours wash out. That is part of temple maintenance. (Of course, restorations <i>must</i> be done well and expertly.)
Yes it is wrong for christoterrorists in Greece to add arms to statues of Greek Gods that their christo ancestors broke off in christo vandalism over a millennium ago. That's because it is not maintenance but further vandalism of an old valuable treasure that ceased to continue as a living item (thanks to christianism).
(Personally I'd make an exception of today's Greek followers of Hellenismos trying to restore their sacred religious treasures, if they do it properly...)
But for Hindus and Jains to restore or restoratively repaint our temples' artworks in a sincere, respectful, true-to-the-original manner is most welcome. We don't want to 'preserve' washed-out or broken sacred items as if they were relics from a dead/murdered past, turn our temples into museums and leave our artworks half-gone in order to learn to 'appreciate its present faded quality' as if it was all something that ended some centuries ago. We want to maintain our living structures for being a continuation from our past, in our present and on into our future. We don't want to pause our Temples' states in time to a few centuries back.
The Chindu should shut-up with its ever-so-subtle brainwashing of Dharmics into the wrong path. They want us to quit restoring our temples and Dharmic artworks so that we'll not do any reparations and will quit keeping our traditions alive.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Murals from the 14th to 17th centuries in temples across Tamil Nadu are being painted over or 'restored' gaudily by unqualified personnel.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->From the linked picture above, I do not see how the person who restored the image is 'unqualified'. It looks alive, just like the Dharma is alive.
Chindu is trying to make a blanket condemnation of <i>all</i> restoration by not condemning merely poorly-restored items, but all attempts at restoration. They want to condition gullible Hindu readers into buying that all acts of restoration <i>must</i> be poor/undesirable; that <i>deteriorated</i> states of sacred works must be preserved instead. (While Hindu Dharma requires sacred items to be maintained - or restored if necessary, especially in Temples but also in one's own puja rooms at home.)
Now, why don't the communistas at the Chindu preserve the relic that is communism as dead instead of trying to revive it (which is futile anyway)?
No offence to David Schulman from Hebrew University who might appreciate the little he can perceive in Temples' artworks as remains from previous centuries, but he is viewing them with the eye of a person foreign to our religion and way of life. He sees these things as if they were glorious remnants housed in a museum. They're not.
Studying Dharmic culture is not the same as living it. They're our Temples and we want them renovated <i>if, when</i> and where necessary - but properly so, with taste, skill and talent so that the original is recovered: We want to see our Temples and Dharmic Art showing the same life, colour and vigour as our ancestors saw them in.
<b>ADDED:</b>
I do agree with this comment of Schulman (but my gripe against Chindu stands - nothing wrong with the restored painting of the first image):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Across from Pottramaraikulam, there was a beautiful series of Nayaka paintings. I saw them years ago. They have been completely whitewashed away. They are completely lost. There is no way we can recover themâ¦You cannot simply wipe out a wall like this. It is a terrible thingâ¦
All of us, the general public, the archakas, the temple administrators and so on have a special responsibility in protecting these murals. We have to act now before it is too late. It is already too late for some of the paintings. Before we lose more, there should be a public awareness to properly conserve the treasures of the Tamil paintings of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->I don't know how the Temples managed by the 'government' do it these days. If they are indeed overpainting ceiling and wall paintings in TN then I can see the hand of the terrorist DMK in there. Temple vandalism caused by 'Indian' governments has been going on at least since the christoBrits were in charge.
But I have witnessed the results of one much-required Temple restoration (this was not TN) - and it was exquisitely done, every small element had been carefully preserved/recovered.
My above-mentioned reservations are due to two things:
(1) It's The CHindu reporting - and since when have they cared about Hindu Dharma let alone Hindu temples. It's more than suspect, especially their inclusion of the first picture as an example of what they want to insinuate is 'incompetent' restoration;
(2) I can see psecular 'Hindus' (cryptos) <i>using</i> the real occurrences of vandalism-posing-as-restoration to prevent any true restorations in future. The "they must be preserved as-is" movements, in the line of the frequent showing of crypto-christos playing 'environmentalists' when they suddenly come out in force to protest age-old Hindu festival gatherings and processions. "The festival will crush way-side flowers and shrubs - they should not have processions."
T.S. SUBRAMANIANÂ (The Hindu, 10 Feb. 2008)
Murals from the 14th to 17th centuries in temples across Tamil Nadu are being painted over or 'restored' gaudily by unqualified personnel. It is time we acted more responsibly to preserve these masterpieces of a bygone era, feels David Shulman, renowned Indologist. Excerpts from an interview...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 17th century paintings on the ceiling of Devasiriya Mandapam at Thyagarajaswamy temple IN Tiruvarur are masterpieces of south Indian cultural heritage. If they are not conserved very soon, they will be lost.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photo: K.T. Gandhirajan
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/02/10/images...21050210701.jpg
Neither subtle nor nuanced: The 'restored' painting (right) at the Jaina temple at Tiruparuttikkunram, near Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->[right][snapback]78412[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->There is nothing wrong in that picture. What do they mean 'neither subtle nor nuanced'?
Hindu (and Jaina) Dharma are living, not dead. And where temple specialist-trained Hindus/Jainas try and restore colour and life to our mural paintings, even the Gopurams, it is welcome. We don't merely want to preserve the old washed-out colours the way they have now become due to the ravages of time, we want to get the life back into them whenever the colours wash out. That is part of temple maintenance. (Of course, restorations <i>must</i> be done well and expertly.)
Yes it is wrong for christoterrorists in Greece to add arms to statues of Greek Gods that their christo ancestors broke off in christo vandalism over a millennium ago. That's because it is not maintenance but further vandalism of an old valuable treasure that ceased to continue as a living item (thanks to christianism).
(Personally I'd make an exception of today's Greek followers of Hellenismos trying to restore their sacred religious treasures, if they do it properly...)
But for Hindus and Jains to restore or restoratively repaint our temples' artworks in a sincere, respectful, true-to-the-original manner is most welcome. We don't want to 'preserve' washed-out or broken sacred items as if they were relics from a dead/murdered past, turn our temples into museums and leave our artworks half-gone in order to learn to 'appreciate its present faded quality' as if it was all something that ended some centuries ago. We want to maintain our living structures for being a continuation from our past, in our present and on into our future. We don't want to pause our Temples' states in time to a few centuries back.
The Chindu should shut-up with its ever-so-subtle brainwashing of Dharmics into the wrong path. They want us to quit restoring our temples and Dharmic artworks so that we'll not do any reparations and will quit keeping our traditions alive.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Murals from the 14th to 17th centuries in temples across Tamil Nadu are being painted over or 'restored' gaudily by unqualified personnel.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->From the linked picture above, I do not see how the person who restored the image is 'unqualified'. It looks alive, just like the Dharma is alive.
Chindu is trying to make a blanket condemnation of <i>all</i> restoration by not condemning merely poorly-restored items, but all attempts at restoration. They want to condition gullible Hindu readers into buying that all acts of restoration <i>must</i> be poor/undesirable; that <i>deteriorated</i> states of sacred works must be preserved instead. (While Hindu Dharma requires sacred items to be maintained - or restored if necessary, especially in Temples but also in one's own puja rooms at home.)
Now, why don't the communistas at the Chindu preserve the relic that is communism as dead instead of trying to revive it (which is futile anyway)?
No offence to David Schulman from Hebrew University who might appreciate the little he can perceive in Temples' artworks as remains from previous centuries, but he is viewing them with the eye of a person foreign to our religion and way of life. He sees these things as if they were glorious remnants housed in a museum. They're not.
Studying Dharmic culture is not the same as living it. They're our Temples and we want them renovated <i>if, when</i> and where necessary - but properly so, with taste, skill and talent so that the original is recovered: We want to see our Temples and Dharmic Art showing the same life, colour and vigour as our ancestors saw them in.
<b>ADDED:</b>
I do agree with this comment of Schulman (but my gripe against Chindu stands - nothing wrong with the restored painting of the first image):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Across from Pottramaraikulam, there was a beautiful series of Nayaka paintings. I saw them years ago. They have been completely whitewashed away. They are completely lost. There is no way we can recover themâ¦You cannot simply wipe out a wall like this. It is a terrible thingâ¦
All of us, the general public, the archakas, the temple administrators and so on have a special responsibility in protecting these murals. We have to act now before it is too late. It is already too late for some of the paintings. Before we lose more, there should be a public awareness to properly conserve the treasures of the Tamil paintings of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->I don't know how the Temples managed by the 'government' do it these days. If they are indeed overpainting ceiling and wall paintings in TN then I can see the hand of the terrorist DMK in there. Temple vandalism caused by 'Indian' governments has been going on at least since the christoBrits were in charge.
But I have witnessed the results of one much-required Temple restoration (this was not TN) - and it was exquisitely done, every small element had been carefully preserved/recovered.
My above-mentioned reservations are due to two things:
(1) It's The CHindu reporting - and since when have they cared about Hindu Dharma let alone Hindu temples. It's more than suspect, especially their inclusion of the first picture as an example of what they want to insinuate is 'incompetent' restoration;
(2) I can see psecular 'Hindus' (cryptos) <i>using</i> the real occurrences of vandalism-posing-as-restoration to prevent any true restorations in future. The "they must be preserved as-is" movements, in the line of the frequent showing of crypto-christos playing 'environmentalists' when they suddenly come out in force to protest age-old Hindu festival gatherings and processions. "The festival will crush way-side flowers and shrubs - they should not have processions."