A Woman Painting Her Foot with Aalta

A Woman Painting Her Foot with Aalta

Khajaraho School,10th Century AD

          The Khajaraho temples are replete with sculptures of women at their daily activities. The theme of women adorning themselves is a popular one. Here we see a woman painting her feet with 'aalta', a redish colored liquid used to paint one's hands and feet. Before henna came to India, aalta was used for coloring the body. 

          Human beings love decorating their bodies. The fashion continues even today. But here the decoration has a philosophical concept. We 'decorate ' our lives with psychological constructs. With our likes and dislikes, biases and prejudices, we construct a world of our own. But the world we construct with our emotions and intelligence is merely cosmetic. The deeper reality lies somewhere else. Now notice the small nude figure to the right.  He stands like a Tirthankar,  the Jain Saints. Having abandoned the material world he stands and meditates. Behind him stands a divine figure. That is the path we must take, rather than adorning our feet with aalta.