The Colas c35.3

c35.3

The Cōḷas continued and developed the art-tradition of the Pallavas and Pāṇḍyas whom they succeeded. Under both the dynasties all the arts—architecture, sculpture and painting, were concentrated mostly in public structures, particularly temples; the palaces and houses and all other types of civil architecture have more or less totally disappeared, though careful study may reveal, as in the instance of Uttaramērūr,² the unbroken continuity of the town plan, and even of the names of streets in important centres from those days to ours. The practice of scooping out live rock into temples and pavilions had ceased under the later Pallavas, and structural temples of stone had become more or less the rule. It was the particular glory of the Cōḷas to have extended this practice all over the Tamil country, their early temples being unpretentious structures hardly to be distinguished from those of the later Pallavas in the decline; the size of the temple grew with the extent of the kingdom until the giant temples of Tanjore and Gaṅgaikoṇḍa-cōḷapuram proclaimed to the world the might and majesty of the greatest empire of the Tamils; two other temples at Dārāśuram and Tribhuvanam near Kumbakonam completed the tale of the most impressive Cōḷa monuments. Sculpture, painting and bronze-casting made corresponding advances.