Reading
His Excellency Shri Pranab Mukherjee, in his Republic Day address to the Nation, extolled the culture of reading; reading to expand one's mind, and creativity; a quest of learning from the rich heritage the Nation has to offer.
The President often includes quotations from the classical texts in his addresses.
The City of Date Palms
Khajuravahataka holds out a mysterious enigma of silence. Almost nothing is known about the intellectual exchange that attracted Faiths with their scholars and ascetics, to this early mediæval city, and bequeathed such a portrayal of corporeal effervescence.
My Sketch
I executed a quick sketch in terracotta air-drying modelling clay, shown in my photograph, for this is one of the best ways of studying the idiom of the stone carvings, in the hope of coming closer to the hermeneutic of these artists and the cultural climate of their day.
A Bather's Sari
Those who know the rich text of Monsieur Loius FRÉDÉRIC and Shri Ragu Rai, will at once recall the image of the bather, freshly emerged from the nulla in which she has bathed with her gold-violet sari, the wet fabric clinging mysteriously, crinkling and defining a fascinating physique, an ephemeral vision soon to be dissipated by the sun which dries the veils in a few minutes.. as Monsieur Loius FRÉDÉRIC describes poetically, an evanescence imitating the mysterious fading away of the intellectual foment of The City of Date Palms.
A UNESCO Heritage Site
The City of Date Palms, in its modern name Khajuraho, stands as a world heritage site, the patrimony of its intellectual and artistic flourishing belong to all, but, importantly, what does it mean to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community.. according to the UNESCO Convention of 1972?
Le Ramayan de Tulsi-Das
Madamme Charlotte VAUDEVILLE in the 1977 UNESCO Series on India translated and introduced the version of the Ramayana by Tulsi-Das, and a lovely line from The Hospitality of the People of the Forest (II. 249-251) is rendered
Les gens de bien acceptent les dons faits avec amour!
How did the hospitality of the forest communities stimulate scholars, travellers, ascetics, artisans, scribes, and whoever else, to give us the wonders of Khajuravahataka?
The Hymn of Vespers
Two evenings ago, when I was studying this subject and making my notes, the office hymn of vespers was
Plasmator hominus, Deus..
LHIII:699
My grateful acknowledgement to
The President of India's Notices
Khajuraho
Monsieur Loius FRÉDÉRIC Shri Ragu Rai
Éditions Didier 1991,
Laurence King Publishing 1992
UNESCO Convention 1972
UNESCO Convention 1972
Le Ramayan de Tulsi Das
Madame Charlotte VAUDEVILLE
Paris Société d'Éditions Les Belles Lettres
Collection UNESCO D'Œuvres Représentatives Série Indienne 1977
Liturgia Horarum Vol. III
.jpg)
