Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.50

c2.50

The earliest sculptural representations of Indian deities are usually portrayed as ordinary mortals with only one pair of arms. As a rule, additional heads and limbs denote a later period, but there are exceptions to this rule, as we find images of Siva with four arms at the very beginning of Hindu art in the seventh century. The big image of Siva in the Trichinopoly cave-temple is an example of this. We know from the inscription in this temple that this image was carved at the same time as the rest of the temple and is not a later addition. But images of the minor deities and figures of doorkeepers are usually portrayed with only one pair of arms. In later times they are portrayed with four arms. Sacred symbols, such as the sankha (conch) and chakra (discus) are represented in early Indian art without flames of fire issuing from their sides. In later art (after 800 A. D.) these symbols are decorated with flames of fire. Figures of the gods and ordinary mortals portrayed in early Indian art are of much better proportion and more dignified and lifelike than those of the later period. The early Indian sculptors took Nature as their model and were not handicapped in expressing their ideals by a set of conventional rules of art like those laid down in the Silpa Sastras, which were strictly followed to the detriment of Indian art by the sculptors and builders of later times.