Kahjuraho, Jain Temple: Paravanatha Temple, detail on south side.
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Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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Jaina sculpture is said to have an intrinsic frailty, for the artisans simply carved their stone images too delicately to make them believable. It is true that a certain weightless quality pervades Jaina work, and occasionally it is so picturesque that it no longer impresses one with monumentality. The success of this type of sculptural handling is due to the uncompromising skill of realizing a fixed fomula for figural representation in each piece
no work is an accident. The lovely Yakshi in our illustration is a case in point. Again her pose, like that of the guhyaka supporting the lintel on the main entrance, is utterly impossible from the standpoint of human ability. This is just the case: because she is capable of such un-realistic plasticity she is twice removed from the every-day world and therefore believable in the world of the spiritual beings. She is removed from us first by her god-like grace and removed again by her god-like nature. She is not entirely aloof from us regardless of her special character, though, because as a Yakshi she is a guardian of the earth and hence of man himself.
no work is an accident. The lovely Yakshi in our illustration is a case in point. Again her pose, like that of the guhyaka supporting the lintel on the main entrance, is utterly impossible from the standpoint of human ability. This is just the case: because she is capable of such un-realistic plasticity she is twice removed from the every-day world and therefore believable in the world of the spiritual beings. She is removed from us first by her god-like grace and removed again by her god-like nature. She is not entirely aloof from us regardless of her special character, though, because as a Yakshi she is a guardian of the earth and hence of man himself.
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Archives Series
Basham Collection
Date created
circa 1970s
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This item is provided for research purposes. Contact the Australian National University Archives at butlin.archives@anu.edu.au for permission to use.
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Restricted until
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