Extra Reading Notes: Devdutt Pattanaik's Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art, Part C (Ardhanari, Shiva)

• Where I was about to note a comment, the video beat me to it. They ways in which the world and ideas are represented, like in a balance of male and female, are interesting ways of viewing them. However, culture takes this and corrupts it. Sexist values and power-hungry politics choose to take some of these things literally to justify the oppression, persecution, and abuse of certain groups of people in society. Being all too aware of this practice, that makes it hard to objectively look at and think about these concepts without reminders of said corruption from society.
• If he banyan tree provides shade, then we both have a lot in common. Ha!
• It is interesting to think of a snake, especially a cobra, something so venomous, as a symbol of fertility, something to create rather than destroy life.
• Red as potential energy; green as realized energy: that sounds like a stop light. Now white meaning stillness and black meaning movement seems opposite to what I would have expected. White would seem like movement because everything can be seen, whereas black would be like stillness because you cannot see anything. Perhaps I am not looking at this in the right way.
• The acceptance of female sexuality as mentioned seems questionable. From the stories read in class, scenarios like a woman setting foot into another man's home or having sex with a man who is not your husband resulting in shame and humiliation seem like the opposite of this acceptance. Though this probably goes back to the culture thing.
• What would be the difference between the atmosphere and the sky in the case of the three worlds? Is one more reachable than the other?
• I can see why the destroyer can be also known as a symbol of fertility. You know how some animal species and even humans will kill the offspring of another male before siring their own with the offspring's mother? There is an answer. Think about it...

Statue of Shiva

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography. "Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art" by Devdutt Pattanaik, link to Guide C.