{"id":71871,"date":"2025-05-19T08:01:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T23:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2025\/may\/19\/ancient-india-review-british-museum-london"},"modified":"2025-05-19T08:01:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T23:01:48","slug":"ancient-india-review-snakes-shrines-and-sexual-desire-power-a-passionate-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=71871","title":{"rendered":"Ancient India review \u2013 snakes, shrines and sexual desire power a passionate show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>British Museum, London<\/strong><br \/>A lovable elephant deity and a floating serpent goddess are just two of the highlights in this sensual show about three of the country\u2019s great religions<\/p>\n<p>About 2,000 years ago, Indian art went through a stunning transformation led, initially, by Buddhists. From being enigmatically abstract it became incredibly accomplished at portraying the human body \u2013 and soul.<\/p>\n<p>You can see this happen in the bustling yet harmonious crowd of pilgrims and gift-givers you meet about a third of the way through this ethereal and sensual show. Two horses bearing courtiers or merchants are portrayed in perfect perspective, their rounded chests billowing, their bodies receding. Around them a crowd of travelling companions, on horseback and foot, are depicted with the same depth. Their bodies and faces are full of life, in a frenetic pageant, a bustling carnival, yet this human hubbub is composed with order and calm.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2025\/may\/19\/ancient-india-review-british-museum-london\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British Museum, LondonA lovable elephant deity and a floating serpent goddess are just two of the highlights in this sensual show about three of the country\u2019s great religionsAbout 2,000 years ago, Indian art went through a stunning transformation led, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2599,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,91,210,211,71,90,516,62,89,371,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-art-and-design","category-british-museum","category-buddhism","category-culture","category-exhibitions","category-hinduism","category-india","category-museums","category-religion","category-south-and-central-asia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71872,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71871\/revisions\/71872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}