Hi Friends, While writing about these two bas reliefs, I found some differences which could be of interest. I did overlook those in past, but these were quite prominent when working on details. 1. Shiva and ascetic's positions are interchanged - in unfinished relief, Shiva is more near to central fissure 2. Vishnu shrine missing in unfinished relief
I thought about few explanations: 1. This unfinished relief was started to correct some mistake of the first relief? In that case making Shiva near to the river hence depicting Ganga's descent 2. This was executed in some Pallava king whose affinity to Shiva was greater, may be Parameshvaravarman I or Rajasimha? 3. The work was started but left unfinished, as most of other monuments in Mahabalipuram, suggesting that the work was perhaps on in Rajasimha's time but later on no royal patronage was given hence everything stopped. 4. Was this a test relief to get confidence for main one? in that case why the positions were interchanged and a shrine was added?
I do not have any reference book where this relief is discussed in details. Would be grateful if someone can suggest me some reference.
Google or search inside poetryinstone for " a testing panel" . But post this dr balusamy has brought out a defn book ( the same link for the talk in tamil that I posted) which gives lot of evidences to the scene depicted as the ajuna penance : ref from vanaparva where the pandavas got to himalays in exile. He has identified all the 153 creatures on the panel, incl the cunning cat n 13 mice story ( this was apparently narrated by duryodana to his spies to tell krishna about arjuna's false penance)
He also identifies the season and time : early spring and mid day for this panel!!
Hi vj, very unfortunate that the talk is in Tamil, someone in this group should take up this task of translation so that people like me can also be benefited by these researches. I am going through Vanaparva of Mahabharata in detail now, its a big chapter hence will take some 2-3 days. I have reached till Nala-Damayanti story however till now I have not seen much resemblances with the panel. Let me see if I can also get some matching details in the book and the panel, however as I am not actually a scholar, of course I am dumb enough :), so will take some time. Meanwhile if I can get the English copy of the research of Dr Balusamy then it will surely help me. I went through the 'a testing panel' article, good to know that sometimes I also find those difference which experts have seen before, doing improvement it seems :). I will be visiting Mahabalipuram on last week of September, will again have a detailed look on the monuments.
Dear Saurabh I'd certainly like English translations, too. But lots of work.
You work on 'Vana Parva'? I worked a little to track the really obscure tirthas but didn't get very far, using Bhardwaj's book from the '80s. Have you thought about any locations of lost ones? kathie
Hi Kathie, I have reached the 'Teerth Yatra' section of vana parva. I remember some books already published on the identification of these teertha places, will revert back if I get any clue about the book or the places.