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has distinguished the civilisation of India from earliest times. The Vedas search for the truth that is universal and worship the unkonwn beyond the world of experience, Neminatha alighted his chariot in his wedding march to stop killing of animals for banquets, Parsvanatha left his kingdom to conquer his self, Gautama Buddha renounced Kapilavastu and preached rational philosophy to avoid rebirth and sorrow, its inseparable companion and as the legend goes, Asanga by his spiritual power even went so far as to meet Maitreya Buddha in the Tusita heaven. The doctrine of purity and the epic of liberation as symbolised so touchingly by the image of Bahubali and the conventional forms of Tirthankaras standing stiff with personal determination will somewhat find their analogy in the images of kouros or Apollo of Archaic Greek art of about 600 B.C. which try to define the exposition of Pythagoras with regards to his faith in purity and harmony. As it is known the celebrated Greek philosopher also believed in the transmigration of soul and in the need of liberation from such cycle. As Kennet Clark remarks, “The Greeks had no doubt that the god Apollo
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The harmony of physical grace that makes communion with eternity. Kouros from Sounion in Greece. c. 615-590 B.C. Athens, National Museum
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