tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post6158687002311984936..comments2024-03-26T17:11:09.856+05:30Comments on The Middle Stage: At the Sun Temple of ModheraChandrahashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-90290856134577640772009-02-18T13:28:00.000+05:302009-02-18T13:28:00.000+05:30Deepika, Sumana and You Prat! - Thanks for your ki...Deepika, Sumana and You Prat! - Thanks for your kind words. You Prat, your first comment makes a good point. I had lesser knowledge of the history of this site as compared to Puri, and there was less to say, too, from the point of view of observing people within the place. So what I chose to do was give a sense of my movement within the site and the effect it had on my senses and my imagination - to reflect that is, on the relationship between architecture and the felt experience of divinity. It seemed to me that the intention behind these sites was explicitly to jolt the visitor from the flat world of the secular into the hierarchical and mysterious one of the sacred. But some of the hierarchies are interesting because they involve a reversal of places: we look downwards instead of upwards, and seem to be invited into a group, as if our own divinity or dignity is being proposed, instead of admiring it from afar. Sumana, this is the explanation behind the sentence that you highlight. That is also why I have "slowed down" the piece with long sentences, commas, and gradations of perspective, the better to convey a sense of the meditative mood and trancelike perambulation the site inspires.Chandrahashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-91769916075413953272009-02-18T11:05:00.000+05:302009-02-18T11:05:00.000+05:30"Descending, I feel as if heaven and earth have ex..."Descending, I feel as if heaven and earth have exchanged places ..."<BR/>Very nice 'perspective'.sumana001https://www.blogger.com/profile/07145791768599143668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-18532405912385037572009-02-18T09:43:00.000+05:302009-02-18T09:43:00.000+05:30The piece on Puri is beautifully done.The piece on Puri is beautifully done.youprathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09395191797717641003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-16263372381486453212009-02-18T04:49:00.000+05:302009-02-18T04:49:00.000+05:30A very pleasant walk through the experience of vis...A very pleasant walk through the experience of visiting the place. I don't know if this piece is meant to be a light travelogue, memoir of some kind. Probably could have contained the history of the place, if at all available. The temple's story, so to speak. And, probably a little research into technicality concerning the building materials used, style and architecture itself.youprathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09395191797717641003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-65272672049539487852009-02-17T15:16:00.000+05:302009-02-17T15:16:00.000+05:30This is like a leaf taken out of my old history bo...This is like a leaf taken out of my old history book, wherein we studied the Nagara and Dravida styles of temple architecture. Makes me wistful!Deepika Patilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13885896008283255288noreply@blogger.com