"This is the God, this is the God of humans"
“Kannan ennum karum deivam” “karumanikkam en kannuladaagume’ “Roopa saavala sundara” “Saavale sundara roopa manohara” The Alvar poetry, very many verses, time and again dwell on the beauty of the “black God”, the beautiful black Krishna. The idea of looking at the Gods housed in the south Indian temples as black Gods never occurred till one saw the flawless white marble idols in the north. Then came the Panduranga Vittala, a black God who again gets specifically invoked as the beautiful black deity. Many have gone into analysis of the “white” and “black” and the colours of our Gods. Coming from where I am the black God was just what He or She was, there was no big thought process behind the worship. The familiarity with the granite or the saligrama moolavar murtis, and the bronze utsavar murtis were something not “researched” upon. Very few moolavr murtis one sees, the “sudhai” stucco creations painted in vibrant colours like the Tiruthankal Appan or the Vatap...