South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c10.2.6

c10.2.6

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.