South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c9.29

c9.29

How the traditions of Pallava temple-sculpture were developed and perfected in a faultless and vital style will be apparent from the stone sculptures in the niches of the great Saiva temple at Gangaikonda-Cholapuram and also of Koranganadham temple at Srinivasnallur in the district of Trichinopoly They are the representatives of some of the best pieces that Chola artists have executed in stone and some of the details and the general character of the treatment of the figure invite comparison with some of the best sculptures of Java with which they seem to be artistically related The temple at Gangaikonda, founded by Rajendra Chola Deva (1018-35) marks the culmination point of Chola activity in the religious art of South India which was initiated by Raja-Raja I (985-1013), the builder of the Brihadeswar temple at Tanjore It must not be supposed that the stone sculpture of the Chola period consisted exclusively of decorative figures, which formed part of the architecture of the temples There are a series of stone images worshipped as presiding deities in many a small shrine both Saivaite and Vaishnavaite, some of the earliest of the specimens being, the two figures of Bhanaba and Kālī near the shrine of Natarāja in the temple of Chidambaram. The sculptures of the temple at the Avadai-yar-kovil also constitute important examples which together with the other group of sculptures mentioned above afford specimens of the stone-carvers' art parallel to that of the bronze workers. It will be interesting to compare the stone image of Bhikkānatesar now plastered, from the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjore, (Figure 13) with the metal image representing the same subject in plate (XX). Some of the stone examples of the subject treated in metal show a disparity of technique and iconographic conception which it is difficult to account for as will be evident from a comparison of the stone bas-relief of the *Kaladahan Murti* found in Pattisvaram, Tanjore District (Fig. 14) with the splendid example in bronze illustrated in plate (I).