Shilpavana, Kannada University - part 4

The only visit to Kannada Vishwavidyalaya, Hampi was in December 2013. We had spent a couple of hours at the campus appreciating artworks, both ancient and contemporary. Most of the ancient art was displayed in the colonnades of at the library building Akshara. Contemporary art was spread around the natural settings of the campus. Though it was a memorable experience I somehow could not visit the university again despite going to Hampi / Anegundi several times. Anyway, here are a few pictures shot in 2013 which weren't published earlier.

As I know artworks did not have names displayed with them so I named as saw them. This is my uncle M S Patil looking at an assembly of stones which appears like one single unit. The sculpture stands on the road close to the campus university. In the background is the library building.

On my left hand side was a building housing the offices of Directorate of Distance Education. The structure is a fusion of ancient and present designs.

Our next stop was at the library. The building's central tower is an imitation of temple Gopura / Shikhara crown. The long staircase gives a nice look to the building. It's a great place for shooting pictures, individual or group.

An ancient idol of Nandi facing the northern direction adorns the first landing. Wondering if there's a Shivalinga in Nandi line of sight.

At the end of the staircase, at the library floor level is a pair of cannons placed on pedestals. As I know, these are the only two cannons in the entire campus.

Around the library is a colonnade in which ancient sculptures are exhibited. It's like an open air museum. Of the several dozen sculptures, I took shots of just a few which I regret now.

Here we have two Jaina sculptures and one LakshmiNarayana. These seem like sculptures of the Hoysala period.

Here's a standing form of Vishnu, a sitting Ganapati and a Thirtanara. These two seem like Hoysala time creations.

Another Thirtankara with an expression of bliss. Someone took the liberty of drawing Tripundraka - that's a symbolic merging of Jaina and Lingayath beliefs.

This one seems like a sculpture of Vijayanagara period. And it seems like a sculpture of Sri Krishnadevaraya astride a horse and accompanied by three men, bearers of the royal flag, umbrella and a fan. At the top is a Kirtimukha, the face to dispel evil eyes.

Here's another beautiful sculpture of a warrior defeating a soldier in a fight. The warrior, seemingly of royal blood is holding a spear and his assistant is holding an umbrella. The umbrella bearer seems out of place considering the situation but then it may not be appropriate to show a king without the regal paraphernalia. My guess is this sculpture was made in memory of victory in some battle.

On one end of the colonnade are a couple of inscription slabs. 

Then we have a wooden temple chariot called 'theru' in Kannada. The chariot must have been retrieved from one of the ancient temples at Hampi. This is an example of a small chariot. Major temples have really massive chariots with huge wheels which require hundreds of people to get them rolling. With this our tour of library museum ends.

From the library we went deeper into the campus. Here's one eye-catching painting. This is Shiva for sure. To be specific, it seems like a depiction of Veerabhadra, a form of Shiva.

Then we enter the garden of sculptures Shilpavana. That's Mama trying to understanding what the sculpture means.

Before I end this post I urge to take a look at the sculptures of Shilpavana, really creative stuff from budding artists.

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Tunguska incident

A day ago I stumbled upon a century old incident which is still a mystery. The incident commonly known as "Tungsuka event" occurred June 30, 1908 i.e. 117 years ago near Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (presently called Krasnoyarsk Krai) in Russia. The incident location is a wild country, the terrain is mostly large mounds and hillocks covered in pine tree woods. On the said day, an area of more than 2000 sq km was charred. Trees were knocked off and lying flat on the ground. At some spots bare trunks stood. It looked like the area was torched. Being a remote area with hardly any inhabitation and resources, the incident was not investigated for almost twenty years.

Investigations resulted in theories. It could be a meteor hit, but neither there's crater nor meteor fragments. Another theory suggested that an asteroid approximately 50 to 100 meters in diameter of carbonaceous composition exploded 5 to 10 km over the site. Eyewitness as far as 800 km have said to witnessed a massive fireball glowing over the horizon. At the epicenter of the site fallen trees were pointing radially outwards. The impact of the explosion was so great that hardly any vegetation grew over the epicenter for two decades. Based on one of the images the spot seems to be barren to this day.

There's another theory which suggests that an asteroid bounced off site. This theory is less convincing compared to the explosion theory.

Coming to think of this incident, it happened on a sparsely populated area. Apparently three people and tens of thousands of trees were killed in the incident. Had it happened over a well populated area the effect would've been unimaginable. Now, imagine if the incident had occurred at the center of Sahara desert. Would it have resulted in a massive sand storm? Or if it had happened over a remote spot in Pacific Ocean or the South Pole?

Below are two YouTube Shorts about the incident in Carl Sagan's words.  

 

  

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