.it was not the practice in ancient India to denigrate the body as the abode of the devil..Life was clearly dichtomised between the amatory and ascetic-between the joys and pleasures of the world as against the spiritual rigours of the monastic retreat-- and both types of experience were equally valorised...Like the merging of the waters of the Ganga and the Yamuna at Prayaga,the twin streams of human love--love of God and love of men or women--found their apotheosis through the transcendent ubion of male and female in the image of the androgynous deity Ardhanarriswara..This is what a sacremental statutary with voluptuous frescoes..In the richly inclusive culture of India,piety was not a totem nor carnality a taboo..On the contrary they were viewed as complementary aspects of human existence.. This book captures this multivalent vision thriugh it's perceptive treatmernt of myth and legend.
About the Author
The author Sri Dilip Mukhopadhyay is an acknowledged expert on the Indian Puranas and is well known in Bengali literary circles and the Translator Dr.Ajit Mukherjee,the English Translator has a PH.D,in English from Calcutta University.
