South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c9.22

c9.22

The next stronghold of Saivaism which attracts the student of Saivaite sculpture is the famous group of cave-temples at Ellora, the most important from the sculptor's point of view being the Dasābatār cave (650-750 A.D.) and the Lankeswara Cave (750-850 A.D.) Both these two caves last-named contain representations of Natarāja, the one in the Dasābatār cave is a particularly fine example (Fig. 12). The pose of the first left arm running across the breast which lends such power and vitality to the whole figure, is a peculiarity which we first meet with here, and has been followed in all South Indian conceptions of the ‘Dancing Lord’. There is another conception of the Dancing Lord which is met with in South India but which has no counterpart in metal images. This is known as the Urdha *Tandaba* (dancing with the leg upward) and is formed sometimes with 4 and sometimes with 16 arms. The most well known example is the one at Tirumala Nayak's choultry.² Two less known examples are illustrated here (Figures 10 and 11). The first one is perhaps earlier in date and was found in the Siva temple at Tirupunanthal, Tanjore District. The other figure (No. 11) occurs in Kailasnath temple at Tārāmangalm in the District of Salem. They deserve to be noticed on account of their iconographical peculiarity rather than their artistic merit. The treatment of the figure which is in stone has a close affinity to metal images. The next important schools of Saiva sculpture are represented by the two interesting groups at Elephanta (8th century) and at Bhubaneswar (12th and 13th centuries). They are widely different in their style and treatment from each other and though related to the earlier style which we find at Ellora they have developed qualities and characteristics which clearly differentiate them from the central schools in the Deccan and the South. So that the sculptures in the caves of Elephanta and in the temples at Bhubaneswar and those executed during the Chola ascendency in the South represent three distinct schools; the last named in its importance and its sustained activity which has survived up to the present century is of special interest, inasmuch as the schools represented by the Elephanta and Bhubaneswar temples have not exercised much influence on later art and have long ago become extinct. Indeed the art represented at Elephanta seemed to be a sporadic and isolated outburst not sustained or followed for any length of time, as was the case with the Saivaite sculptures which we meet with in the group of temples at Bhubaneswar.