Sex symbols have been associated with Hinduism from an early stage. These symbols were mainly part of nature worship. There is difference of opinion regarding the exact reason for sex sculptures in Hindu temples. And the notion of Hindu sex temples is wrong. A Classic example is Khajuraho were only 20% of the sculptures are sex sculptures that too they are depicted along with other aspects life.
A closer study of Hinduism will reveal that sex was never a taboo during the ancient period. Some believe they were meant for sex education and there is nothing unnatural for temples to have them. In fact, the sex sculptures are all seen outside the Hindu temple along with other sculptures depicting materialistic way of life.
Buddhism had completely devoured Hinduism during the initial phase of 1st millennium. But soon the rigid Buddhist way of life began to create problems in the society. It is said that Hindu sages saw this as an opportunity to revive Hinduism. To invite people into family and sex life these sculptures were created.
The ancient Hindu kings of
34 comments:
Its very wrong the way Hindu society thinks today,
The religion which prays the Linga Phallus piercing out of the Yoni(the asna Of Linga As it is called) of PArvati The religion whichj ion the basic ethics understands that The trinity is within with this yoni.
Sex is the way of the Hatth Yoga & the Tantra.
Its the victorian prudishness & the Moslem filth which has actually led the downfall of the Hindu ethics,
In the moslem period, The First job they did was to destroy all the Hindu scriptures.
The rest was done by the British Invaders......
How can sex be bad when it has the power of producing a new life ? Sex is not for enjoyment, the purpose of it is much higher..
it is us who have insulted this gift of God and brought it down to the level where people feel ashamed to talk about it
the ony problem is that we dont strees our religion in our daily lives ...hinduism is indeed the best and oldest religion and todays muslims all at one point of time were hindus too....but we should be more united as hindus and not let other castes ridicule our religion....hindustan means a living place of hindus ....
Then why our GOVT is stopping porn TV or cinemas. Sex is holy only when it is within wife and husbands not on posters or temples. It is alwyas acceptable to say " it is better to be away from the things that are forcing us to do bad". If children see at sexual posters will you allow, then what about these at temples.
The whole issue of Porn and the sex described in article are 2 completely different concepts and have the same similarities of sand and water, in that they are at each extreme.
Would say sex is part of life. Ideally was only for reproduction. But we have taken it in a very different direction. Now, sex is more for fun, enjoyment.
Sex is the most important in our life. This is the fun and enjoyment and relaxble play
These temples were constructed in ancient times when people respected the boundaries made by the society and the elderly. Lakshman recognized Sita's anklet only as he had never laid eyes beyond his sister-in-law's feet.
Different places of worship were meant to be visited only at certain times in life. My understanding is that the temples at khajuraho were meant to be visited only after entering the Grahasth Ashram (getting married) when they would become institutes of learning to enjoy a happy married life. This education (due to the dignity of relationships) could not have been imparted by the elders in the family.
As and when you come across a doubt about your culture, try finding a reason that is scientific because a culture, a religion that has survived thousands of years without the video tapes and the publicity of film stars or the politicians, despite the atrocities of foreign faiths and beliefs, with millions of conversion camps from the other side and still having none to convert people to Hinduism, MUST HAVE SOMETHING GREAT ABOUT IT. Feel proud that you are the product of such a culture. PLEASE don't denounce it.
These sculptors has nude and sexual figures because the creator of these sculptor (sculptor maker) has shown his passion, his love, by printing his desire in it. In the ancient time the king used to be very rude, and to build a temple it used to take 14 years. The builders has to build temple on time or as soon as possible. For years and years away from home, family, there love, wife, they printed there imagination , there desire, passion there love on the stone.
this cant be a true religion
I am a novice to Hinduism but I feel only a great religion will address all the problems in Nature without any inhibitions. A religion that openly talks about sex must have had great saints who had truly dropped the ego and reached the path of self-realization. Really great religion but I guess some of its recent followers has not understood the true meaning of this great religion.
Hello , i was searching sculptures and found a similar site to this then i wanted to find out more so i re-searched it. I found this. It tells you more about what the Hindus beleive about sex and how they interpret it. It can teach us alot about ourselves.
Journalist.
Ruby Preander.
The reason of having this sculptures in the temple can be explained in a different way. Have you seen a mother feeding a baby? does that looks valgure? have you seen a poor woman roaming without proper dress? does that seems valgure. but the same thing can look valgure. So it is on our state of mind how we see the objects. So the reason for having this figures outside the temple was if you find this figures to be valgure, your state of mind is not pure and you cant reach the god inside the temple. Jut going and bowing before thr Deity does not means you have reached god. to reach god your heart should be pure. if your heart is pure, this sculptures wont look valgure to you. It will be just like you see others
Hi Whatever the purpose of the sex symbols in temple may be but one fact is as clear as the truth of our own existence that is celibacy or continence is as important as water for a plant.
It should be taken care of that the younger generation of society do not get effected in a negative way because of these pictures
i think the old indian sculpture was of a golden age and that we need to get back to that and be free. But we have to accept the current age too. I was having trouble trying to meet an indian bride on recent trip to mother land and was admonished by a woman for attempting small talk with her subordinate. Also i felt concern at other interaction scenarios with women of similar age but hey i am a horny young anglo indian giv me a brake!
Good discussion going on. As far i am concerned, sex, one of the most important parts of human experience, will go with us where ever we will go.
So let it be the way it is.
Hinduism is a way of living. Sex is one of the four scared aspects of living life HINDUISM way. There were rules laid down by the epics for SEX. Individuals of ancient Hindu society had great respect for the rules and the culture. Unlike the western culture, where sex is just as FUN and there are no rules / ethics for SEX in western society. In good earlier days, SEX was a means to reproduce new life and contribute to the society. HINDUISM is the greatest religion / culture of the world and modern day science can never prove the truthness of the Research and development done by millions of RISHIS / MUNIS of this culture. The modern day world will probably take thousands of years to understand the importance of these values.
Sex is a part of Life not "THE" important part of life.According to Hindiusm Sex is one of way to gain "moksha".Sex is not meant for every day.It has a time and set of rules to be followed.Sex is the only process of creation.In olden days people used to have sex have only when they planned to have kids.That too they plan the birth day of the kid according to stars and fix a good day and time for the creation(muhurtham).Sex education is now introduced in schools.Any subject has to be taught with utter most care.The suject should have a purpose to serve.Govt banning porn site or posters is the right thing.Because these sites give a wrong illusion and creats a lot of problem.If sex knowledge is gained through wrong means it leads to destruction.This knowledge gained through ill practice leads to the down fall of a person.
Lavanya
lavanyalatalingam@yahoo.com
I am working with a Director on a long form, sensitive documentary that bucks the trend of traditional thinking about the Devadasi system. The project has been researched for over two years and it will look closely at the Devadasi's historical connections to the temple, dance and to the Gods. We are looking to examine how the system was pulled apart by Victorial morality during the British occupation.
We are looking to speak with people who have themselves been dedicated or know of anyone who is likely to be dedicated in the future within their family or community, either here in the UK or in India.
I very much look forward to hearing from you and feel that your input would be invaluable to the film we are making.
Jemma
E: Devadasiuk@googlemail.com
If any body support sex sculptures in the temples, he has to shy for that, because for Example if Kajuraho taken, group sex and sex with animals are shown in the sculptures. can any one support this, it is hurting the human ethical values
SEX MUST BE THE RESULT OF TRUE LOVE. SO, SEX IS ONLY A PART OF LOVE.
Sex is termed as evolution of life.. the sculptures represent that people should be induldge in the biological creation of civilisation and understand its meaning, its not a bad thing...its a gods gift for people to enjoy in the huge world created by god and to derive the pleasure because humans are created to feel all the sorrows and happiness and drive in the wheel of life cycle which is very hard and to drive the wheel of life...its one of the necessary thing and thus its a gift for us by god to enjoy the life and grow the civilisation...Every things comes from the pleasure and thus its the most iportatnt thing which boasted by the hindu culture in temple art.
I have read a post about the origin of Hinduism...!
Actually, there is not a religion named Hinduism existing on earth. By no means. Then how it can be ancient? Or older than any other religion?...
wonderful.
One should have some historical firm grounds to make a statement like this.
I want to know in which ancient book there is a mention of the term Hiduism or Hindu? Who was the first prophet of it or its founder?
in which continent it started?
all these questions are clearly answered if asked about any other existing religion or ideology.
But hinduism... there is no such an ism actually.
So, no one can answer those questions confidently.
First of all, a religion or an Ideology is named with a noun or combination of nouns which gives a meaning by itself, like 'christianity' or 'kristhu matham' (religion of Jesus Christ)or Islam (submissiveness, submission or obedience)or religion or ideology of Buddha.
You may argue: "Hindu Matham" is the name of Hinduism.
I will ask you: What it means?
You will answer: The religion of Hindu (as the word-combination really means in Malayalam language).
Then the next question is what is 'Hindu' or what that word does mean?
(If I ask what is 'Buddha', they will answer: that it is the name of the founder of the religion of Buddha; and if I ask what is 'Islam' they will answer: that Islam means 'submission or obedience in Arabic language, after which the religion of Islam was named, because the religion of Islam is the submission of a person to his Creator as He ordered; and so on..)
According to Indians, the word hindu has no meaning in any of their languages. (Some new meaning or explanations is still to be introduced).
But, as to the derivation history of the word hindu, the word was pronounced by Arabs for the first time to mean Indian subcontinent, when they traveled through East-Asian territories. Arabs are still using this word (Al-Hind) to denote India. ('Al' is the 'definite article' (the) in Arabic. Any previously known or proper noun (name) may follow 'Al' in Arabic according to the context).
Indians themselves heard this word firstly from Arabs, as it is nowhere mentioned in any ancient or medieval religious or historical books of India. Even the books like Geetha, and Ramayana and Upanishads which are clamed to be the sacred fundamental books of the so-called Hinduism do not mention it at all.
If any friend has anything to produce contrary to what I stated above may kindly send it to:
dumbrep@gmail.com
We all know that there is no religion called Hinduism and about the origin of the term Hindu but sadly we need a name to write about Sanatana Dharma....Majority of the Hindus are also not aware of the term Sanatana Dharma...So we are forced to use the term Hinduism and Hindu....
Against the religion column in India we don't write Sanatana Dharma...we write Hindu or Hinduism....this is accepted term by government and majority of Hindus.... Similarly which term will we use instead of 'Hindus'....
Name does not matter and what matters is the universal teachings of Sanatana Dharma...You call it by any name the teachings in the Upanishads, Gita and Yoga Vasishta and numerous other scriptures are not going to change...they will remain here....
Anonymous said...
((the only problem is that we don't stress our religion in our daily lives ...Hinduism is indeed the best and oldest religion and today's Muslims all at one point of time were Hindus too....but we should be more united as Hindus and not let other castes ridicule our religion....Hindustan means a living place of Hindus ....)) December 18, 2008 2:06 PM
Reply to this from gladnews If the friend who posted this is not pretending to be blind about facts, I would like to say that the 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism' is a concept, not a concrete reality. Let me explain what I mean below.
Before hiding under the self-produced darkness, like an ostrich hides its head in sands to escape from its foes, (the ostrich is thinking that 'no one can see me because I can't see anyone when my eyes are under sands'), one should think about things calmly, otherwise, one may find out in future that his life (I mean Janmam) itself has been an attempt to escape from something he did not know really. And that realization will be too late to recover.
(There was a former boss in my office who knew, only before two days before his retirement, that computer has games too. The poor guy gone crazy and spend the whole two days in front of his computer cursing himself for the last 28 years of ignorance in service, busy in playing as much as he can within that short time, and nothing else was disturbing him at retiring time).
I was in a consignment of some studies on basic Indian Religions and Myths. Actually, I was keeping a mistake in my mind, that 'the Hindu Matham' is the religion of India. But, as far as my study activities progressed, my concept started to change slowly and excitingly.
I knew that:
1 - The basic communities of India are the backward black/brown colored people living in the remote valleys and villages called Dravidians (originally, adivasis - as they call them -, Tamils and other backward communities).
2 – The Brahmins who are supposed to be the priests of so called Hindu Matham are migrant Aryans.
3 – There are many ancient unorganized religions for the basic Indian communities. Snakes, Trees, Stupas, Sreekrishna, and so on are their symbols.
4 – The more civilized migrants brought their cultures to India and adopted so many of the Indian basic symbols and ways of worships and there derived an unclear sphere of more civilized modern community (not religion) who replaced the places of worship ('Kavs', 'Kovs', caves, 'Stupas' and 'Nagas' of Dravidians) to the modern human-built temples and Idols. Borrowing the word 'Hindus' from Arabs the people started to call themselves 'Hindus'. (It is difficult to find nouns ending with 'oo' sound in Indian basic languages like traditional Hindi – not modern Hindi, because the 65% or more of spoken Hindi words of today came from Urdu-like languages. Urdu is a mix of Arabic, Pashthune, Hebrew, Persian, Punjabi and more.., the language emerged itself when soldiers speaking the above-mentioned languages gathered in military camps of modern invasions employed by modern Muslim Empires.
Briefly, the (sanadhana) antiquity of Hindu Matham is a mere lie. An establishment with no base may be anything but never a religion.
A religion:
1 - Always found to be deliberately founded/introduced/taught/ reinforced/ coordinated by someone or some community with someone leading it, backed by some unique inspiration or general temptation good.
1 - Is always found as a system with a legitimate task of leading/coordinating/ directing/ruling a society for the sake of its good.
2 - Always introduces a set of laws/regulations/rules/conduct/code of life to be followed by the members of the society to achieve the goal of justice in it. It contains teachings for almost every or main aspects/contexts of human life.
…. Continued…
with sinsere love and friendship
Gladnews
(sorry for any spelling mistakes)
Hindu was a term used to refer to people who lived below the indus river...
The spiritualistic roots of the concept and beliefs of 'Hinduism' lies in the vedic scriptures which are hundreds of years old.. Plato and other greek philosophers were eductated in the vedic principles from the Nalanda university...
Ayurveda and Yoga originated from Vedic idealogy...
Hinduism: is not imposing.. but rather it runs in parallel with the way of life, it does not condemn anyone else's beliefs, but rather helps them see a way to co exist with fellow human beings...
Live and let live... religion is a form of faith to anchor the human mind and psychology into a stable platform during the testing journey life takes us through...
as long as each human being is content with his or her own beliefs we can all co-exist.. it only goes wrong when you try to force your beliefs on someone else for whom it might never make sense and may never let them realize their innerself...
to conclude.. we are all taking different paths to the same destination.. please be happy and content with your faith and not create discord to yourself and someonelse by destroying someone elses peace of mind and there by make them lose their way towards the same destination...
May god bless you all...and keep you safe and happy for ever...
''as long as each human being is content with his or her own beliefs we can all co-exist.. it only goes wrong when you try to force your beliefs on someone else for whom it might never make sense and may never let them realize their innerself...''
What is the real motivation (psychology) of this statement? When you feel someone is forcing his religion on others? Where and when did you felt or experienced anyone insist on a person or a community to follow his beliefs forcefully?
Every ideology conducts missionary activities as any man has freedom to propagate his ideas, religion, and thoughts in any community. Just like any person do enjoy the freedom to reject. freedom to reject or accept any idea or way of life whenever he desire. So, where is the possibility of impossing?
When you hear that some convertions occured somewhere, how and from where you get the idea that there occured a force? Did you find anyone who is so week to protest, complaining to be compelled to accept a religion that he does not like?
I don't belive that.
Whenever there occure a convertion (especially from hinduism to any other religion) we ever hear a complaint that the convertion was compelsory.
I just wonder, how, in a country like India, do someone convert himself to another belief or religion by someone els' force? Why we dont hear ever some news that someone was killed by some imposser for not accepting his reliogion? We hear that someone was killed by someother in a quarrel for favorite tv channels. preaching or propagating is not impossing. let them propagate. we are just free to reject. If someone converts, why you are bothered?
The matter is absolutely a personal affair of the convertee. You have nothing to do with it. But there is another side that if the convertee is your friend or relative and you knew that he was making a big mistake, then you have the right to try to correct him. You can advice him, ask him whether he was forced to convert etc. If he told you that it was his own decision ot convert, then you have no right to force him to go back or blame others for his choice.
Force, in either side, is contrary to freedom. Force is a crime when it is against the freedom of a person or society. Force against a voluntary self-decided convertion is equally criminal like the force to convert.
with sinsere love and friendship.
gladnews
Public nudity
(Sex sculptures on temples)
The question of demonstrated sex is the question of public nudity. Always, when there is an issue, the reasonable approach will be the best or the only way to the solution.
(The reasonlessness is the brother of folly).
The lust to enjoy is the basic instinct of human or non-human animals. For non-human animals, there are no restrictions. They are not questioned. They are not supposed to be committed to anything. They are not supposed to think and plan their life. -I, personally, will not agree with the statement that animals are unable to think. I have my own reasons for that. Many of you also may have their own experiences of witnessing an animal that thinks matters to an extant of its own. I think a cat can think, learn, and perform tasks, for example. And there are a lot of other domestic or wild animals who, in circumstances, think and learn small or big things. The difference is in quantity and quality of thinking-.
The real difference between human and non-human animals is 'emotion'. Non-human animals were -though, depicted in literatures but- never proved to be emotional. But human has sentiments, feelings, non-physical pains, affections and much more in the category of emotions.
That is why, only that's why, obeying our mere instinct of sentiments, we deny to demonstrate the pure-privacy of our personal life in public. Because we, as social animals, are supposed and committed to be meeker. It's our civilization that prevent us from doing on public road what we do in our bedrooms. Nothing prevents animals from doing the contrary, and we never blame them for that.
To make the total idea more transparent, I may depict it concentrating more realistically.
I had had a few friends (room-mates) when I was working in some remote small city of a middle-east country. One of them I can never forget, who, as far as I know, is working presently in United Kingdom, because he was the nicest, cleverest, ablest and finely crooked in a nice way. (Let me call him..
-Continued-
-continued-
...'X' from now onwards). I loved him as he was open in almost everything, understanding, patient-to-hear in serious matters and mysterious when mysterious with a mild, not-easily-discoverable, lovely smile on his face. I had ever thought that it's only me who could discover that miserable smile hidden between his lips.
However, the story is that once we (4 room-mates - let me hide their names) were walking to a hotel as usually for our lunch. There appeared a girl coming from the opposite side to pass us bye, wearing Hijab (as it is usual about any lady in that country – be citizens, foreigners, Muslims or no-Muslims), the moral dress of Muslim ladies covering every part of their body except eyes. When she was about 10 or 15 feet away from us and walked keeping a good distance from our path, Mr. X told in a whispering way: "Why these gals cover everything? Why she can't walk a little more nearer to us opening her face?"
Even though I was so cooperative with a wide range of good-for-nothing or evil things that my friends undertake, I had ever been firmly insisting that we could never hurt others' feelings or disturb them with even the mildest form of disturbance.
So, I was helpless to keep from expressing my protest. I told him that he should not say that and he has no right for that. The matter was not supposed to lead to a quarrel if Mr. X did not respond or at least did not justify what he did. I asked him what will be his response if his wife, sister or mother was asked by someone to do on the road what he wished that lady do for him. He answered carelessly that he will not be bothered and that this lady is not his sister or mother.
There is no doubt that nobody will tolerate to see his wife, mother or sisters be humiliated by others, or displayed for the pleasure of hungry eyes. It is intolerable for us to see others enjoy the sight of our wife or sister, while we insist others' wives and sisters should be more liberal to entertain our eyes.
I think this attitude is a crime that can never be justified and those who favor this type of argument are anti-socials.
The sex sculptures or any sexual privacy when displayed publicly is just the same crime. Because, any person who is mentally normal cannot imagine his mother or his little sister to watch them along with him, accidentally, in their way to the temple, especially if he is brought up and cultured in India.
To be frank, it is still to be made a deep analytical research about the temple sex sculptures in India, as to where developed, existed and progressed this type of a civilization. What was the cause and inspiration behind etc..
With sincere love and friendship
gladnews
beauty and pornography are entirely different people plz note that first
SEX IS NOT WRONG IN HINDUISM, IT IS DUE TO MUSLIM AND BRITISH RULE THAT HINDUS ARE NOT ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THERE RELIGION
By shocking us, the sex sculptures can help dispel false mood of piousness that prevent us from seeing the Real and the True
I am concerned about the comments from "DUMBrep" in the above discussion. It may be true that the term Hindu was not coined by Hidustanis but it did gain the reference from Indus valley civilization (to my knowledge it is the most advanced civilization at that time) and I am proud if Hindus had their origin linked to this civilization (to my awareness i believe it is true based on the present research). Coming to the discovery of the term Hindus by Arabs, it may be as true as it appears and surely they have done nothing good except giving the term Hindu, infact history says they did more damage than good to Hindustan.
Now, even if we consider that a religion is originated from an individual (gods of their religion) these gods themselves might have belonged to some other religion before they started a new religion, that means they got converted, should this indicate that they were from a different religion. My point is Hindu religion is from practice.
Undoubtedly this is the oldest religion on earth, and the practice is followed with a parental and teachers discipline, and thats why I believe Hinduism is most deciplined. If one reads Bhagwadgita and absorbs the best atleast by reading few lines, one can sense the simplicity strength and potential of this religious practice. To my knowledge nowhere in Bhagwadgita one can find any compelling matter forcing to stick to this religion, but rather the truth and versus illuminate ones thoughts and thus they practice the religion.
And about the Upanishads and vedas which "DUMBrep" is discussing, surely they wont mention the word of Hindu in it because the religion is through practice which gives more value to teachers and parents and one learns the religion from them. This practice of inheriting the knowledge through ancestral lineage is phenomenal here. The upanishads and vedas are so ancient that Hindu term from Arabs could not be included in them, and they teach the practice of path to self realization and peace.
I feel religion is abstract and surely one cannot say to which religion a dead body belongs to, its only the practice that makes a human religious. I also believe that to get something from practice, we do not need books for that. The knowledge from vedas and upanishads was taught to students and kids in ancient Hindustan which was a religious practice again.
Coming to the main topic of this blog "sex statues in Hindu temples" it relates to the art of sex and there are some disciplines and rules in it thats why the term "Kama Sutra". Surely those sculptures are not for sexual provocation.
The importance and need for sex can be realized only if one can understand the Hinduism. Also it is a good observation that these sex statues are outside on the walls of the temple. Hinduism does say that one can approach god only when a person relieves himself from the earthly pleasures such as sex, money, luxery etc. Considering the creation, every living creature needs to sex to continue their lineage which includes insects and dogs and plants and every living being. May be its like dont live to sex, only sex to live.
I will end with a simple note, that the religious gurus can teach the supernatural knowledge where one can see things beyond the opaque objects such as what color of inners a person is wearing. This art still exists but needs purely HINDU practice. There are few great gurus in India even today who experienced the power of Hinduism. Every thing relates to KARMA, probably this is a bottom line.
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