HULLABOO OVER HUSAIN

umm..ive been looking arnd for m.f.husains infamous hindu paintings..finally found a link on archsters blog..this is it..http://www.sanatan.org/en/05/Protests/MFHusain...

after checking them out i cant help but wonder if ppl r missing the point a bit..ive alwyz thought of art (literature, paitnings, movies, anything) as being open to interpretation..heres a few that come to mind as i look at the paintings...

1. Naked Goddess Sita sitting on the tail of Naked Lord Hanuman-

first of all, there is no sexual imagery here..unless ive seriously missed out on something, u cant do it bum-to-bum...secondly, hanuman may not have actually carried sita on his tail in the epic..but hes shown holding a lit flame..n his pose indicates that they're fleeing from something or somebody..mebe husain meant that sita wld nevr have been freed if it werent for the help rendered by hanuman..he did set fire on his tail to burn down lanka or soemthing didnt he..? n rama definitly cldnt have made it to lanka on his own..

2. Lord Hanuman is portrayed naked and
with His genitals pointing towards a woman

ok technicalities first-hanuman's genetals are actually pointed awy from the woman if u notice carefully..secondly..there is a man behind the woman n they look like thyre havng fun..an allusion to hanuman's human qualities perhaps..?

3. A bull having sexual intercourse with Goddess Parvati
and Lord Shiva watching on the auspicious day of Shivratri

this one went completely over my head..! but there r quite a few images of animal-human interaction in hindu sculture..plus the bull is also a symbol of manhood n virility..fertility..and parvati being Woman..siva possibly blessing husbands wt sure-fire hard-ons on sivarathri..?

4. Goddess Durga in the nude having sexual intercourse with a tiger

this a wild one..but husain does seem to hav an uncanny sense of humor..as i understand it durga is the goddess of wrath and anger or somthng to the effect..? and the tiger, well it does bring to mind the original tiger of maharshtra-siv sena head honcho bal thackeray..the moral indignation of the goddess at religion being derided by pseudo hinduism perhaps..?

5. Goddess Lakshmi naked on Lord Ganesh’s head-

this is my favourite..the comment under the painting on the site sez : "According to the Science of Spirituality Goddess Lakshmi is the Goddess of Wealth while Lord Ganesh represents that function of God that translates our prayers from the language of sound that humans speak in to the language of light that deities converse in and vice versa."...a crass commentry on the commercialisation of religion today mr.husain..? how even the gods dont seem to understand wt we say without hefty donations to temples and expensive pujas..? or the very fact that religion, or the language of the gods is the most lucrative religion today..? how the sai babas and ammas have promised much divinity in return for what i can only call a whole lot of money..

6. Goddess Saraswati Who is the Goddess of knowledge playing a veena
(a type of Indian musical instrument)

there is a fish and a peacock by saraswati..whos playing a veena..art is the centre of life and is a symbol of enlightenment(knowledge)..? ahem..

maybe my interpretations r wearing a bit thin..but theres definitly more to the paintings than the nudity and the sexual inuendo wch is all that the moral police seems to have noticed..the hilarious part is that the writer expresses resentment over husain painting his mother and daughter fully clothed..how many of us paint our moms or kids nude anyway..? besides hindu mythology is conspicuosly full of nude women, i hate to say..half the time in ellora i cursed myself for wearing boxers..besides muslim religion does have a stirct dress code for women..so understandably..

sexual undercurrents hav alwys been used in art..esp painters..and there is an obvious effort to paint a human face to the deities..so im guessing painting them nude made them seem that much more accessible..not necessarily an attempt to deride hindu gods or culture but a sort of demythifical cum social commentry..

p.s. none of this indicates my appreciation for husains artistic ability..its a lil hard to take an 80 yr old man who fantasizes over madhuri dixit very seriosuly..gajagamini was a disaster..but art is and should be open to interpretation..