South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c7.32

c7.32

Amongst votive offerings in ancient Greece similar gifts of images are also recorded.³ The statues of Artemis generally offered at childbirth were more common than other images. As nearest equivalent in Christian Church may be cited, the Catholic custom of making relic-holders in the shape of busts and statues. An inscription dated the 48th year of the reign of King Kulottunga, I (1069-1119 A.D.), records that Nanurruvan Malaiyam a native of Kiliyur of Tirumunaippa set up an image of Natarāja in the temple of Neyvanai and made a grant of land for offerings.¹ An inscription from Tiruvilimilai states that the mother of the chief Rajendra Chola (A.D. 1012) set up a copper image of Algiyamanavala (a Vaisnava saint) in the 10th year of the king's reign.² Another inscription on the same stone bears a record which registers a gift to the same temple and to the setting up of the image of Sri Krishna. Similarly, a gift was made in the 11th year of the reign of Raj Raja Deva, III, to a shrine in the temple of Kovilur by the citizens of Vikkirma-barana-puram in Umbarnadu, and in the 31st year of the same reign another grant was made to the shrine of Surya Deva by the citizens of Pirantaka-puram. A record of the 11th year of the same reign refers to the setting up of an image of the Saiva devotee Manikkavasagar in the third *prākāra* (gallery) of the temple of Tiruvilimilai.³ It is Raj Rajeswar who is said to have set the first example of setting up the images of the Saiva saints in the temple of Tanjore.⁴