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Sculpture illustrates teachings of poetic Hindu scripture
Dramatic new artwork highlights entrance of Pewaukee temple
By TOM HEINEN
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Saturday, September 1, 2001
Pewaukee -- The team of horses charges into an epic battle with wind-whipped manes and flared nostrils.
Riding in the chariot behind them, warrior-prince Arjuna reaches into his quiver for an arrow.
His friend and chariot driver, Krishna -- an incarnation of the god Vishnu -- smiles serenely.
That moment, frozen forever in the embrace of molten bronze, is part of the experience of entering the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin in Pewaukee. The new, 5 1/2-foot-tall relief sculpture tilts slightly downward from one end of a vaulted skylight in the lobby.
Unavoidable. Unusual for a Hindu temple. Coming at you head-on. Bursting from a background painted with orange and yellow streaks like an early morning sky.
It is theology and art, the depiction of a climactic scene from one of the greatest and most popular of poetic Hindu scriptures -- the Bhagavad Gita, or...