sri utapattipidugu, unread histories

Once lived a king, a great connoisseur and patron of art. He had many wives, one his beloved, his soul. Some unknown disease caught her unaware, and in spite all human efforts she was lost o the world. The king taken by grief secluded himself from the world for days, months. Then one day occurred to him to build a living memory of her beauty and his love. Having summoned the artists renowned throughout the world, he began the monument over the tomb of his queen, one that the world would remember for beyond the ages. As the monument progressed, the talks about its exceeding beauty reached all directions, and in no time it became king’s vanity. After toiling for years, the monument was done and king arrived for the final inspection, and saw a huge ugly block of stone in middle. Extremely upset that it hindered the exquisite sight, he ordered it to be eradicated immediately.

As it turns out, that block was the tomb of his beloved...........

Certainly, god laughs at this amazing forgetfulness of man.

insignia of sri utpattipidugu

In awe of our own traditions/monuments acclaimed by others, we seem to be forgetting not only our culture, but our meanings and artists.  Thus too flourished by the praises from west, we invest our interests in erotics of our monuments, not trying to figure out their connotations, like the least known about but celebrated Jatakas at Ajanta, or the never observed but worldly acclaimed mithuna at Khajuraho. The forgotten and to be found here is utpattipidugu, literally meaning creation of thunderbolt. Since all times, not much is known or discussed about artists in India, and every creation be it temple or sculpture is treated like self-marvel, swayambhu. Generally discussed are the periods, donors, dynasties, styles, seldom the minds who conceived hands which created. The findings of insignia of sri utpattipidigu brought the discussion forth.

narsimha, dashavtara cave, Ellora

Utpattipidugu, may be an artist guild from Andra, or a religiously/ passionately charged group of like minded, or a single person who inspired a movement, one of the most vivacious in Indian sculpture/architecture, estimated to have began work in 6 c. A.D., incidentally with the first Bhakti movement inspired by Sri Sankara contemplating the unison of saiva, vaisnav and shakta  cults in India.  The guild was discovered by their insignia found at nine places, with sites linked from Pattadakkal to Ellora Rashtrakuta. The monuments supposedly built by them bring in the earliest monolith structures in western India, at Ter near Solapur, the Dashavtara cave at Ellora, reaching its zenith at Ellora Kailasnath. Found at very few occasions, this seems to be a group of artists proud of their work, creating their own style, their very own aggressive yet graceful dwarpalas and dramatic and gracious sculptures of all pantheons of gods. The occurrence of this guild not only brings in new facts in Indian art history, but also new facets to understand the making of monuments at their respective locations, icons and eclecticism in styles. 

................to be continuied

I shall be putting forward the findings and research of my teachers and acclaimed art historians Sri Deepak Kannal, Sri Jayram Podival and Sri Padigar, in the second part of this blog, on Sri Utpattipidugu.