Kathmandu:

While most young guys gaze at it in glee, girls take an indeterminate peek, glance away and look again. It obviously comes as a shock for most to see bold erotic artwork in temples. In a country like ours, where sex is taboo as a subject, to see such artwork in religious places is very awkward, and most people are perplexed at how to behave or react after coming face to face with such work.

These erotic work are not there for entertainment. They have religious, social and mythical reasons for their presence in such religious places. According to Pushkar Prasad Rajbhadari, retired associate professor of Culture at Tribhuwan University, Tantric rules are followed when a temple is constructed regarding the place where the main deity is to be kept, gods and goddesses to be symbolised on the struts and the erotic artwork to be depicted on the struts.

“Struts are placed to give support to the roof tops and the ones in the middle are lighter than the ones that are placed at the corners. As the corner struts have to bear more weight, these are heavier than the others and two of them are usually joined,” explained Rajbhandari. Further describing the different components of a strut Rajbhandari said, “The mid-section mostly has a lion like creature carved in it, but it looks even more ferocious and stronger than a lion. It must have been made keeping in mind that they had to carry such a heavy burden. Or it may also have deities in various forms carved in the middle.”

The top most part usually has an animal or leaves carved in it. And it is in the lower most part of the strut that these erotic carvings are made.

“Mostly Vishnu, Shiva and Devi temples and some Buddhist temples have such artwork,” said cultural expert, Jagdish Chandra Regmi. “It is a part of fertility cult, and is a symbol of Urvara shakti. It is not only in these struts in temples but is some patis as well, and such instances can also be seen in jatras,” he added. “It is various mantras that have been depicted in these forms,” said Regmi.

But there are other stories behind the erotic artwork. One very popular one is that people in the 16th century were very pious and so refrained from having physical relations, as a result the population decreased considerably. Looking at this alarming situation, the erotic artwork were made on struts of temples, to generate interest towards physical intimacy among people. And it is not just humans that have been depicted in these struts, some have images of animals as well.

There is also a legendary belief prevalent in society as to the reason why such artwork were created. It was believed to protect the temples from being harmed by lightning. It is said that the goddess of lightning is a virgin and when she sees such erotic scenes in temples she shies away from it and does not strike the temples and so the temples are left unharmed.

Temples from the 13th to 16th century have erotic artwork engraved on them. One of the most famous ones in the Valley is the Jagannath temple at Hanuman Dhoka. Other major temples like Pashupatinath in Bhaktapur, Indreshwore in Panauti, Changu Narayan, Manakamana, Bag Bhairav in Kirtipur, Char Narain temple in Patan. Many others also have such artwork.