“The Hiroshima bomb should have been dropped here.” Then American ambassador Kenneth Galbraith joked seeing Khajuraho Temple sculptures.
Even for an American mindset that allows a lot of personal freedom, it was too much. But probably what he did not realise was the traditional approach of Indian art that considers erotic forms important. It is also a fact that this philosophy and tradition go back thousands of years. One key example is the six-inch high-nude sculpture of the ‘Dancing Girl’ from Mohenjo-daro. Created in bronze, this nude dancer, on display at the National Museum in Delhi, is probably one of the finest early examples of human form in the history of mankind.
The Khajuraho sculptures are classic examples of male and female nude forms depicted in art. Lovers in various erotic and love-making positions have been captured in detail with great aesthetic strength and flowing forms. An understanding of the man-woman relationship and human sexual desires is evident in these works of eternal beauty. While we notice the realistic approach of Western art, here the human body is treated in a poetic sense by Indian artists. These imaginative stylisations that do not deviate much from actual human forms are like songs in stone. Here the artist scores over Western approach of copying human body as it is.
Probably a treatise on human sexual behaviour and act with intricate details and instructions is found only in ancient India. Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra is a great work on this subject. It is not a book on how to make love or sex alone but a guide for human well being, behaviour and presentation. Vatsyayana details the qualities a woman or man should possess to approach the opposite sex. He talks about the need for the understanding and knowledge of various arts, music and dance for a man and woman to impress and attract each other.
The artists of Khajuraho, Konark and countless other ancient monuments that depict erotica and sex understood the principles of Vatsyayana’s teachings and applied them in their great works. Vatsyayana’s descriptions of various types of male and female bodies and their anatomical formations are clearly understood by these artists and evident in their work.
An artist’s understanding of human body is a primary educational requirement. That is the reason the art schools conduct life study classes mostly on nude art. It is mandatory for an art student to study human body as part of the anatomical understanding. In my student days, we were required to submit a number of nude studies—male and female—every month. We used to hire or have models volunteer as subjects while working on these assignments.
The great Michelangelo studied human bodies at the Florentine hospital mortuary in his formative years. His understanding of human body is clearly evident in the great sculpture of mythological David who stands today at the Academia in Florence. It is indeed amazing to note that he has brought out clinical precision in treatment and every detail that rivals God’s creation. The work is in realistic form following the great Western tradition of that time.
Somehow the great tradition of erotic art has not been carried forward by artists in recent times because of moral issues and misunderstanding of a great artistic and creative tradition. One hopes, in future, artists are able to pursue their creativity and attain freedom of expression without moral policing.
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