South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c10.2

Language: English

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In the first place this manifestation of Saivaite art (from the 8th to the 14th century) constitutes an organic development wholly and absolutely distinct from the purely Buddhistic tradition which gradually died away in South India about the middle of the seventh century A.D. The reign of Buddhism in the preceding centuries had trained the hand of the Indian craftsman to exquisite cunning which was left as a great artistic asset to the South Indian iconographers who utilised and developed the same to a highly rich and articulate expression which culminated in productions never before attempted by the Buddhist predecessors. Except in a few Mahayanist bronze images mainly found in Nepal, Ceylon and Java, Buddhist sculpture was almost exclusively confined to the treatment of figure in repose, and the merits of Buddhist sculptures are almost confined to their static qualities. Saivaite art on the other hand with its many dramatic conceptions recorded in the *pauranic* legends with such wealth of imagery has afforded endless materials for the study of figures in action and movement and has called from the sculptor a greater mastery over anatomical forms than that required for Buddhist art. The figure representing the *Gajhāmūrti* of Siva (Plate XIII) by far supersedes all representations of Natarāja in its dynamic quality.

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It will be difficult to find in the whole array of Indian Buddhist sculpture such beautiful examples of power and action suggested in the rythmic spring and sweep of the body rendered in terms of a generalised and refined anatomy from which all superfluous details have been eliminated. It challenges comparison with Kon-go-ya-sha, the great Japanese representation of Vajrayaksha¹ or the Greek Lacöon. The representation of the female form is also a characteristic feature of the South Indian school of bronzes which has introduced many new types never attempted by the Buddhist sculptors. The various images of Tara with its numerous *tantric* developments which one finds scattered throughout the whole field of Buddhist art hardly suggested any types to the South Indian sculptor for the representation of the innumerable conceptions of Pārvati and other female deities which people the South Indian Pantheon. Images such as that of Siva Kāma Sundari (Plate XXXIII), Pārvati (Plate XXXIV) and Ādhārasakti (Plate XLII) are original contributions to the figure sculpture of India made by these Saivaite artists of the South. Mr. Havell’s observation that “it is often difficult to distinguish between Mahāyāna sculptures of the 8th and 9th centuries and those of the Saivaites,” generally applies to the representation of the male deities rather than the female conceptions.

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For although the images of Buddhist and Saivaite conceptions have many points of resemblance due to the idealistic treatment of the figure which is a common tradition in all schools of Indian art, the parent inspiration of the South Indian sculptors of the 8th to the 14th centuries must be sought for in the bas-reliefs at Mammallapuram which were executed probably between the 6th and the 8th centuries. The school of bronze workers executed a majority of their works between the 8th and the 15th centuries when, as we have found, the style flagged and entered into a period of degradation. Side by side with the works of the bronze image-makers there grew up a school of stone sculpture which culminated in a new stylistic development which we find recorded in the temples of Avadaiyar kovil, Korang-anadham temple at Srinivasnallur (Trichinopoly) and Tadpatri in the 16th century and the temples and their connected structures at Madura in the 17th century. The latter school displayed a freedom of style and conception which is quite different from the formalistic productions of the bronze workers unable to get over the stiff un-yielding immobility of types which the iconological formulas imposed upon them. The stone sculptors who decorated the *gopurams* and the exterior of the temples with statues and bas-reliefs illustrative of the various *pauranic* legends were less handicapped by any special forms of images prescribed in the text.

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The bronze workers who cast their images for the special rituals, and the cults, the subject of worship in the temples, had less freedom of interpretation and had to conform to the code of laws laid down in the *silpa sastras* and to the series of prototypes sanctioned by the hieratic censorship from which artistic invention could not deviate. The limitations thus imposed on the bronze image-makers had their advantages as well as weaknesses. If one consider for example such vitally rythmic compositions as the Natarājas from the Tanjore temple and the Madras Museum (Plates III, IV and V) one is forced to admit that the pattern prescribed by the text directing the disposition of the limbs and their proportions does not necessarily limit the visions of the true artist and that it is possible to rise to the level of true artistic expression while slavishly adhering to the rules and proportions laid down by the iconographer.

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If we compare for instance all the various examples of copper images of Natarāja of which ten specimens are collected here (Plates III to XII) we find that in spite of the fact that all the artists had to conform to the specialised pattern suggested by the dhyan mantra and the lakhana prescribed for the image, each artist has succeeded in giving an individual interpretation and each of the examples has some noble qualities of its own, notwithstanding the fact that in nearly all the images the hands spread out to the same measured height and the legs are disposed at almost the same inclinations. The latitude given to the artist by the canons seems to be, that so long as the iconographical detail was adhered to and the individuality of the image from the worshippers' point of view was not violated, the artist could have his own way. Indeed one text distinctly lays down that the measurements for the images enjoined by the śāstras are general rules for the guidance of the artist, who could, subject to those general rules, follow his own discretion in shaping the image. The fixation of types which the sculptors' canon and the dhyan mantra of the priest ensured in the representation of these images was the product of an attempt to perpetuate the conception of a master-craftsman as a precedent to be followed by succeeding generations of artists.

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For it will be apparent in many of the best specimens of this class of images, that in spite of the clumsy and crude technique they reveal a conception which is far superior to the manner of its execution. The reason no doubt is that many of them “reproduce the conception of men more gifted than the actual makers of the statues.” These fixed types in which the ancient master-sculptors visualised the iconographer's sketch of the image and have set noble precedents for their disciples to follow, may be very well compared to the musical modes or ‘raginis’ prescribed by the Indian musical texts, which, while they enjoin on the musical performer the necessity of confining himself to the particular keys which give the rough image of the particular rāga, afford ample scope to each performer for individualistic treatment in the way of improvisation. Thus the same rāga when rendered by different artists at different times while it recalls and invokes the rough outline or the taswir of the rāga differs in innumerable ways according to the moment of the inspiration or the fancy of the particular musician.