[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915) › c8.99 # South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c8.99 South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c8.99 - **Language:** English ### [c8.99](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915.c8.99) The poses and the inclinations of the figures are the peculiar characteristics of the South Indian images and require some elucidation. The easy pose and the exquisite balance of some of these images, so very remarkable in their aesthetic quality, are based on certain rules as to the bent and disposition of the trunk and the legs laid down in the sculptors' hand-books. Although these rules are very ancient they were possibly deduced from the works of some master-sculptors of old and systematized for the use of later pupils. These rules have unfortunately in some cases been worked to death and have given rise in later times to a stiff pose extremely conventionalised with the result that the original graceful conceptions of the poses have degenerated into mannerisms. This will be apparent by comparison of the figures illustrated in plates (XVI, XVII, & I) with those in plates (XXI, XV & XVIII). The well known \*trivanga\* or \*trivanka\* pose of the images in North India is very familiar to all students of Indian sculpture from the figures of Krishna and also from various statues at Konarak, Bhubaneswara and Puri. The \*trivanga\* has however no place in the South Indian manuscripts although many of the \*dhyanmantras\* of the various Saivite images suggest that they should be constructed with the \*trivanga\* flexion. A form of the \*Sakti\* of Siva is specially known as \*Trivangi Devi\*. Instead of the \*trivanga\* we find three distinct poses prescribed in the text of the \*Silpa Sastras\* \*Avanga\*—('Little bent') \*Sama Vanga\* (equally bent) and \*Ati Vanga\* ('—greatly bent'). The last-named pose seems to be a variation of the \*trivanga\* of the northern sculptors. The different poses are based on deviations of the torso and the waist from the medial-line, which is called with reference to the three poses the \*sama pāda sutra\* being the line which equally divides the body of the figure when it is straight and erect and without any bend as in plate XVIII. - [Previous: c8.98](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915.c8.98) - [Next: c8.100](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915.c8.100) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915.c8) ## Linked texts (1) - [Pur](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.pur) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915.c8.99](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.gangoly-1915.c8.99) · Pramāṇa