SA Sculpture Session at Bhima Devi Temple, Pinjore, Haryana by Yashika Kapila

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“Does anyone here knows History?” the pretty lady wearing red coat asks.
“No.” they answer, after couple of minutes of speculation. “To answer or not answer.” This is what came in our mind that moment. As we were there for a sculpture session which automatically means that one’s got to know about history related to different topics.
“That’s perfect.” the young lady in red coat says with a smile on her face. We take a sigh of relief and she further explains. “It’s wonderful you guys don’t know about it as sometimes what happens is when we are students of History. We come with a biased opinion and we block our learning area.” I look at her stunned, wondering how can someone give such a optimistic approach to this situation? I smile, and believe me, it got me so excited for the session we were just about to begin with.
To Shriya, the founder of Speaking Archeology, is someone, so many people including me are grateful for. I kid you not when I say, in my few months of being with Speaking Archeology I’ve learnt so much that history in my school years couldn’t teach me. And the Sculpture session was an experience which added to that. We learnt about different sculptures that were there. The Vishnu, The Shiva, the Alasya  Kanya, the lady looking in the mirror (my favorite sculpture at Bhima Devi Temple) the history of sculptures at the temple, the people associated with it. We talked not just about sculptures but religions, history of Hinduism, Fertility Cult, How religion and science are related, how different religious stories have a logic behind them. I came in as someone who knew nothing about history and when I left, It felt as if I learnt just so much in few hours.
Another best part of the the sculpture session was knowing more about sculptures and reading sculpture worksheets written and researched by few other Speaking Archaeology volunteers while they were at Shimla for Sculpture Workshop. It gave us an insight about what the images of sculptures, sculptures were about, their texture, etc. Going through all the information shared by Shriya and the Shimla Sculpture worksheet was icing on the cake. Before going to Bhima Devi Temple. I felt I knew something about sculpture which made me research on sculptures and the temple.
It wasn’t just a workshop. It was a three hour favourite movie which you watch with such excitement, attention and love. And this special movie, is that movie which you can watch over and over again with same level of excitement, concentration and love. This workshop was like watching my favourite movie. It was that movie which, in the first place got me excited to watch more movies of same genre (here, Speaking Archeology Workshop.) This was my first to many, many more Speaking Archaeology workshops. Entirely grateful to Shriya and my fellow SA volunteers with whom I got to share this wonderful experience with.



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