Myth & Romance: Stories from the Puranas

..it was not the practice in ancient India to denigrate the body as the abode of the devil..Life was clearly dichtomised between the amatory and ascetic-between the joys and pleasures of the world as against the spiritual rigours of the monastic retreat-- and both types of experience were equally valorised...Like the merging of the waters of the Ganga and the Yamuna at Prayaga,the twin streams of human love--love of God and love of men or women--found their apotheosis through the transcendent ubion of male and female in the image of the androgynous deity Ardhanarriswara..This is what a sacremental statutary with voluptuous frescoes..In the richly inclusive culture of India,piety was not a totem nor carnality a taboo..On the contrary they were viewed as complementary aspects of human existence.. This book captures this multivalent vision thriugh it's perceptive treatmernt of myth and legend.