Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Exhibition of terra cotta work @ Indian Museum , Calcutta


Indian Museum occasionally wakes from its slumber and  throw crumbs from its enormous holdings to general public. Ruby and I earlier attended an exhibition on 'Shakti' . The  lectures  delivered on the INAUGRAL DAY were not interesting and  curtain-fall that after-noon was too quick as another event was to follow - but, some of the collected statues were exquisite. We carried no camera - therefore, have nothing to show. This time, we took a few photos with the aid of our mobile phone's camera, not particularly good, but adequate for making documentation.

 Lovers



 In this exhibition, we found a collection of terracotta  figures, plaques, pottery, toys  from many corners of undivided India, e.g., Harappa, Rajshahi , Mahashanagarh, Chandraketugarh, Maymansingha etc., starting from 2nd century BC to 16th century AD.   

Prominent among the display  are numerous female figures - goddesses and human.  We found Durga, Maya's dream, LajjaGauri, and many other figures. Also prominent were the birds - a few somewhat grotesque.  Not many could be called 'cute' . The best from Chandraketugarh were not here. 'Ganga's descent'  and 'Ananta sayane Vishnu' - depicting stories from Indian mythology  are worth watching, but, not 'cute'. I liked the 'Lover', 'Doorkeeper' and 'Maya's dream' a lot. Here are a few edited photos from our HDD. 


Ananta-sayane Vishnu. A little too cramped up. 
Vishnu's figure slumping - he looks lost in 'yoganidra' !


Torso of Mahisasura Mardini.


Lajja Gauri - 1800 years old figurine.



Maya dreaming !


 It was our mistake not to carry a pocket note-book and a pen.  Had I planned this blog ahead of the visit to Indian museum, I would have noted down  the dates and archeological sites of the finds. The statue of the 'Doorkeeper' I liked very much - I end this blog with a photo of close-up of  his face & upper torso.









No comments:

Post a Comment