South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c6.39

c6.39

I have elsewhere considered a School of South Indian sculpture which seems to strike a note alien to the artistic traditions of North India and which I have provisionally called Dravidian as distinguished from the other Schools of South Indian sculpture¹. Dr. Coomaraswamy has referred to this peculiarity as “the demoniac element which sometimes appears in South Indian art.” The examples with which we are concerned here disclose an unique chapter in Indian art which the Dravidian genius has contributed mostly under the influence of Saivaism. They represent the continuation and a later stylistic development of the earlier schools to which we owe the masterpieces at Ellora and at Māmallapuram². In later times another stream of colonists flowed into South India which gave rise to a revival of Brahmanism which had established itself in pre-historic times under the leadership of Agastya and others. This later movement was principally a Vaishnavite emigration. “Early in the eighth century the Bhāgabata Sampradāyins, worshippers of Krishna, migrated to the South and peopled the Telugu, Kannada and Tamil Kingdoms. In the ninth and tenth centuries their number increased when the Mahomedan incursions became frequent. It was these that brought into the South the renaissance literature of the North, the product of more recent times, made during the times of King Bhoja of Dhara and the Guptas of Ujjain and Pataliputra and Harshavardhana of Kanauj. The earlier emigrants had brought but the *Mimansa*, the epics, and the *Sutras*. It is the latter that brought logic, grammar, and *belles-lettres* in general and gave an impetus to learning in the South. The tenth and eleventh centuries formed the Augustan period of Dravidian literature. The chief impetus for this magnificent activity was given by the new-coming Aryan settlers. So much did Raj Raj the powerful Chola King at *Kanchi* recognise the value of these new-comers that he defended them against the attacks of his aunt Kunda Avvai who remonstrated with him for showing favour to the culture of the North in preference to his own Tamil'." The influence of these latter colonists furnished the impetus for the literature as well as the art of South India. The last time that the South had turned for inspiration to the North was during the ascendency of the Nayakka princes and latterly of the Maharatta princes of Tanjore who took a great part in South India in the development of the Sanskrit literature. Indeed the voluminous collection of Sanskrit manuscripts on all branches now stored in the Tanjore palace, a portion of which was undoubtedly collected from the northern part of India, was the outcome of their interest in and patronage of the Sanskrit as distinguished from the Tamil culture and civilization.