Khajuraho (in a triveni with Changes in Indology, Mbh ref.)

[Kumar at pixie.udw.ac.za]

Dear Colleagues,

I seem to agree with Michael Rabe's suggestion that we keep indology
unchanged in light of what he says.  Yes, many of us were often irritated
with the level to which discussions sliped, but one good thing was that it
opened up controversial matters for open discussion.

Pratap


>Friends in the cross-cultural business,
>        Isn't it often the case that statements that seem patently idoitic
>or profaning in one context may contain a welcome truth when
>sympathetically construed as emenating from a very different
>mindset/discipline or language?
>
>For example, when M. Rajagopalan states that photographs of bestiality or
>group-sex at Khajuraho do not give "the correct interpretation of what the
>Hindu temple stands for," my first impulse is to protest!  The simple act
>of exhibiting objective fact cannot be labeled misinterpretation.  The
>likelihood that misinterpretations may abound in subsequent literature is a
>different problem--one that keeps later generations of scholars gainfully
>employed, thank you very much.
>
>In hopes of finding common ground upon which we two M.R.s may stand, I
>recall how helpful to was to read, way back when, this cautionary insight
>in W.C. Smith's _Meaning and End of Religion_.  Though it has seemed an
>obvious truism ever since, it came as Revelation to my undergraduate
>attention:  everyone tends to judge their own religious tradition (or other
>cultural biases) in the _Ideal_, while scrutinizing the _real_ (however
>aberrant) practices of others.
>
>Thus, while some on this list are wondering about the intentions of
>architects, royal patrons and their KApAlika ministrants at 11th c.
>Khajuraho, others (naturally) wish to reconcile whatever picture may emerge
>with normative statements about _The Hindu Temple_ in general. [Good Luck!]
>
>Rather than speculate further about where that purported inscription is in
>Khajuraho (on the walls of a 20th c. temple or guest house, perhaps?) I
>conclude with an appeal to keep the Indology listserv unchanged. Can we not
>tolerate the the rough and tumble that is inherent when participants speak
>from such a variety of vantages, even as we learn to exercise the
>Trash-button on our e-mail applications with ever-more blinding speed in
>this age of infoglut?

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Dr. P. Kumar
Department of Hindu Studies & Indian Philosophy
University of Durban-Westville
Private Bag X 54001
Durban
4000
South Africa
Tel: 031-820-2194
Fax: 031-820-2160
Email: kumar at pixie.udw.ac.za