The Colas c35.s1.2

c35.s1.2

Except where metal was used, sculpture was generally subsidiary to architecture but did not, on that account, cease to belong technically to the plastic or glyptic form of art. It was employed as decoration on the walls, pillars, plinths, roofs and other convenient spots in temples. The Cōḷa sculptor, however, appreciated the value of plain spaces on walls and did not crowd them with too many figures; nor did he adopt the method of the ivory carver and goldsmith and seek to produce filigree work in his ornamentation. He generally worked on hard rock and depended on bold strokes and flowing lines for his effects, and the metal images of the time partake of the same qualities, though here the details are naturally more and more elaborately wrought. Portraits, icons, and decorative sculpture are the three main classes of Cōḷa sculpture. Portraits are few and early; they soon fall out of use and often the line between a portrait and an icon is not clear particularly in the case of saints and other religious persons. Several sculptures, obviously portraits, cannot now be identified as we lack the data for it. Among icons which form the most important part of Cōḷa sculpture, Śaiva figures predominate as the Cōḷas were ardent Śaivas, though very fine Vaiṣṇava and Jaina images are not unknown. The iconography is by no means rigidly fixed,⁴⁶ and the art is still fairly free from the domination of text-book rules; there is little that is mechanical and hide-bound about Cōḷa sculpture almost to the end. Decorative sculpture takes many forms; architectural motifs, floral and vegetal patterns, friezes of animals, birds, dancing figures with musical attendants, and of legendary and purāṇic stories. It will not be possible to review here the enormous mass of material to be gathered from the numberless temples, but present only a few select and typical instances of each class. It must also be noted that many of the fine bronzes of the Tanjore temple described in detail in its numerous inscriptions of the reign of Rājarāja I are not now forthcoming.