South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c4.4

c4.4

According to the plan which the author has followed in dealing with the subject-matter he has refrained from commenting on the merits of individual work, but has rather attempted to understand the conditions and the atmosphere in which these works have been produced. In the descriptive notes to the plates are appended for each *icon* the texts from the sculptor's handbooks which are authorities for the identification of the subject-matter of each conception. The texts have thus afforded invaluable materials for the study of South Indian iconography which is, as yet, an uninvestigated field. For, after Ziegenbalg (*Genealogy of the South Indian Gods*, Madras, 1869) no serious attempt has been made to survey or study the South Indian Pantheon. The Government of Madras has instructed the Assistant Superintendent for Epigraphy to prepare a hand-book on the "Iconography of Southern India." This publication will no doubt fulfil a long-felt want. In the *Annales du Musee Guimet, Archeologie du Sud de l'Inde, Iconographie*, tome II has recently been published. Mr. T. Gopinath Rao of Travancore is also publishing a treatise on the same subject. In the examples dealt with in the present volume are included the splendid masterpieces discovered in Polonnaruwa, Ceylon. The author is of opinion that these interesting figures must be regarded as essentially South Indian in their conception and origin and can hardly be classed with the works of Sinhalese craftsmen. On the other hand, he has excluded the pre-historic bronzes discovered at Tinnevelly as in their character and origin, they are, according to his view, unrelated to the great School of Shaivite Sculpture, to which "South Indian Bronzes" as now understood specially relate, and therefore do not come within the scope of the present monograph.