South Indian Bronzes: A Historical Survey of South Indian Sculpture with Iconographical Notes Based on Original Sources c9.83.4

c9.83.4

These " sinners against Siva," then, could hardly have encouraged local sculptors to cast images of a Saivaite character. The shrines of Siva found at Polonnaruwa were most probably founded by the Cholas for the benefit of the colony of Tamil Saivaites who emigrated to the north part of the island probably at the time of Raja-Raja I, and the Saivaite bronzes which have been discovered in the Siva Devale and adjoining sites at Polonnaruwa were in all probability imported from the mainland, at the time when the Saivaite shrines were built, or presented to the temples by donors from South India in later times. There is no doubt however that these beautiful examples of Saivaite images which the Chola colonists brought to Ceylon excited the wonder and emulation of the local Sinhalese craftsmen, some of whom attempted to copy some of these models and to reproduce the conventions of its poses and peculiarities without a previous knowledge or training as to its traditional rules and measurements. It would be impossible for any sculptor familiar with the rules laid the Roman world, and the most important events of the reign of Antoninus Pius, are related by his biographer, and the reader will not be sorry to find them here in a more concise form. The reign of Antoninus Pius is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is only another mode of saying that its happiness was complete.