Goddess Durga Fighting with Mahisasur

Goddess Durga Fighting with Mahisasur

 Mahaballipuram, Pallava Dynasty, 7th Century CE

           One of the most brilliantly executed panels of Mahaballipuram is this one. We are all familiar with the killing of Mahisasur by Goddess Durga.  But here the sculptor has depicted the battle when the tide has started turning against Mahisasur.  He is on his back leg, tilting back; his warriors have fallen, while the Devi ' s army is advancing. There are dead bodies strewn in the battlefield.  ( Notice the corpse in the middle of the panel--a top view of a dead body). The Pallava artist has used the cross diagnals to make the panel more dynamic. The panel is full of fury and energy. It is a battle scene frozen in stone. 

         Mahisasur Mardani sculptures capture the final act of killing of the demon. Here the defeat has just begun. The artist has purposefully depicted the story in the middle.  Life itself is a constant battle between good and bad. It  is a fight which is uncertain. When the tide may turn, we do not know. It took the Pandavas eighteen days to defeat the Kauravs.  But fight we must wage within ourselves to cleanse the evil within us. Similarly a fight goes on within a society with regard to its evil practices, with regard to class struggle, with regard to ideologies. But we should not be overwhelmed by being in middle of a battle.  The fight should be with a sense of detachment. 

        The Pallavas could teach us many things about life through such stunning sculptures !