Of People and Places

Inside the Thanjavur Maratha Royal complex, in the Royal Palace museum, you will get to see graceful figures in Bronze.  The way they capture the beauty of the human figure with its contours and posture is a treat to see. All the bronze sculptures that are part of the collection have exquisite details.  I especially love the gestures of the hands, every finger elegantly poised, much like they do in stylized theatre or in Classical dance. This sculpture was found in Mayiladuthurai in Tamil nadu. It is named as Thirupurantagar, One of the many names of Lord Shiva. I was amazed to hear of how these sculptures were made. They went through an elaborate process where an intricate wax model was first carved, after which it was covered with clay to form a mould. This was then fired to harden it. The wax melted in the heat leaving only the baked clay intact. The bronze was then melted and poured into this mould. Once it had hardened, the outer clay shell would be shattered. On...

Roosters- Crowquill and coloured drawing inks  The mud houses of Dhar  have this familiar sight of a cosy charpai under the shade of a tree in front of the house. These roosters were having something of a conference, firmly ensconced on the Charpai, turning suspicious beady eyes at me and my friend as we went for a pleasant morning walk to Dai ka mahal ( There is a Dai ki chhoti behen ka mahal too! :) I wish I had an entire building built just for me ) Mandu has five groups of monuments, each worth at least a day's worth of your time. We walked to what is known as the 'Sagar Talao Group of monuments' because it was closest to the hotel we were staying at. We saw the Caravan Sarai, Dai ka Mahal, Malik Mughith's mosque in the morning, since they cluster around close to each other. We stopped at a wayside tea stall to have chai and saw this cosy scene. The lady of the house was lighting up firewood to make some breakfast.  We went in the Winter so  it was a differ...