Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t6: Bronzes in South India
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t6
- Language
- English
Bronzes in South India
v1.c28.s8.t6.1
Whereas the era of Harappan bronzes had come to an abrupt end with the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization, the South Indian Chalcolithic and bronze tradition maintained some continuity. We have explained in chapter 8 that the Post-Harappan tradition of wheeled bronzes depicting vāhanas of deities was followed right through Mālwā and Jorwe culture in Dāimābād. Jorwe produced low-grade (1.78 % tin) bronze celts. The chalcolithic cultures of Hallur, Kallur, Maski etc. continued till the first millennium BC overlapping with the advent of the Iron Age. In this chapter we have mentioned the fourth-third century BC ornamental bronze articles of Tinnevelly, pre-Christian and post-Christian era Amarāvati Buddhist bronzes, the brass tradition of the Sātavāhana era (it had cultural contact with the brass-producing Buddhist empire of the Kuṣāṇas in the north) and its continuity in the Phophnar (near Burhanpur, East Nimar, M.P.), Sirpur and Nāgārjunakoṇḍa establishments of the sixth-seventh century AD period.
v1.c28.s8.t6.2
During the first two centuries of the Christian era the monetary currency of the south consisted chiefly of imported Roman gold. The Sātavāhanas issued lead coins and also silver coins with their life-like portraits and legends in Brāhmī character. The indigenous gold coinage of South India emerged in the tenth century. (Chattopadhyaya, 1977) The South Indian metal-smiths of the Pallava Period (5th-9th century AD) produced some finest miniature and medium size bronzes. The most creative period of the production of South Indian icon in copper and copper alloys emerged during the Cola period (ninth-thirteenth century AD).
v1.c28.s8.t6.3
At the request of the then Chinese emperor, the Pallava king Narasimhavarman second (AD 695-722) built a Buddhist monastery at Nagapattinam (10° 45' N, 79° 50' E) in the Thanjavur district. This monastery must have received considerable financial patronage for making Buddhist icons; one Vaiṣṇava Ālvār of the eighth-ninth century AD period is reported to have gone to Nagapattinam, “stolen a solid gold Buddha image and melted it away to defray the cost of the renovation of the Ranganātha temple of Śrīraṅgam”. (Mitra, 1980: 190-97) During this period two important persons flourished in India: the great Hindu saint Śaṅkara (AD 788-839), probably not the Ādi-Śaṅkara of Kerala but the Abhinava Śaṅkara born at Chidambaram (near Nagapattinam) and head of the Kāñcīpuram Maṭh, and the Pāla king of Magadha, Dharmapāla (AD 783-818). Both the names are relevant to our studies on minerals and metals in ancient India.
v1.c28.s8.t6.4
Śaṅkara described in his hymn to Tripurasundarī the Divine Mother bedecked with gold, gems like ruby, emerald, pearl string, gold-laced gems, collyrium applied with golden antimony rod, golden tāṭaṅka or ear-ring, four-stringed necklace or catuṣkikā containing emerald, ruby, diamond and pearl, keyūraka or golden armlet, sapphire-bedecked golden bangle, golden mekhalā, ruby-encrusted anklet, etc. This serves as an illustration of the popular gems and ornaments of the contemporary period.
v1.c28.s8.t6.5
Dharmapāla patronised the Nālandā school of bronze icon tradition. This Pāla art flourished even further during his son Devapāla’s reign (AD 818-58). It is most likely that the internationally famous Pāla sculptors might have assisted the Nagapattinam artistes since we find that the best icons were made in the latter site starting from the early Cola period (AD 871 onwards up to AD 1070).
v1.c28.s8.t6.6
The devout Buddhist rulers of Sumātrā, Java and Malay Peninsula provided additional links between the Pāla and Cola kingdoms. We had earlier mentioned about Balaputradeva of Suvarṇadvipa assisting one monastery at Nālandā (AD 860). The Cola king Rājarāja I helped (AD 1006) Māravijayottuṅgavarman, the Śailendra king of Sumātrā and Malay Peninsula, in renovating the Nagapattinam monastery. The collaboration went on till AD 1090. The monastery survived for few more centuries. Possibly gold as well as tin came from the Śailendra kings, the latter boosting the bronze icon traditions in Bengal, Bihar as well as Tamil Nadu.
v1.c28.s8.t6.7
Some 350 Buddhist bronzes — of Buddha, Lokanātha, Lokeśvara, Maitreya, Tārā, Vasudhārā, miniature stūpa and bells, etc. — have been unearthed from Nagapattinam. (Ramachandran, 1954 and 1956) Some of these bronzes belong to the early Cola period (AD 871-1070) and a large number of the rest to the later Cola period (AD 1070-1250).
v1.c28.s8.t6.8
Elemental Analyses of Some South Indian Bronze and Brass Statues in Munich Museum
v1.c28.s8.t6.9
| Sl. No. | Item | Elemental Percentages | | | | Impurities |
| | | Cu | Sn | Zn | Pb | |
| **Pure Copper and Minor Alloying** | | | | | | |
| 1. | Narasimha with Śakti | 96.12 | 0.59 | 0.08 | 2.44 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 2. | Tīrthaṅkara | 93.56 | 3.98 | 0.91 | 0.66 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 3. | Gaṇeśa | 92.99 | 2.01 | 0.19 | 4.53 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| **High Tin Bronze** | | | | | | |
| 4. | Gaja-Lakṣmī | 74.39 | 18.19 | 0.52 | 6.58 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 5. | Agastya | 74.78 | 17.18 | 6.24 | 1.53 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 6. | Female Divinity | 73.26 | 16.26 | 0.31 | 9.95 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 7. | Vaināyaki | 75.22 | 16.18 | 0.07 | 7.65 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 8. | Aiyanār-śāstā | 74.75 | 14.02 | 7.01 | 3.45 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 9. | Lamp | 84.13 | 11.36 | 0.10 | 3.88 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 10. | Gaṇeśa | 73.42 | 10.78 | 8.86 | 6.50 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 11. | Oil Lamp | 76.19 | 10.20 | 0.01 | 13.50 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| **High Lead Bronze** | | | | | | |
| 12. | Bālakṛṣṇa | 59.48 | 9.13 | 0.01 | 31.34 | Fe and Ag |
| 13. | Iñāna Sambandhar | 83.33 | 1.53 | 0.06 | 14.68 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 14. | Śiva-Naṭarāja (1) | 74.85 | 8.39 | 2.10 | 14.26 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 15. | — do — (2) | 77.43 | 7.15 | 1.03 | 13.89 | Ag, Ni, Co |
v1.c28.s8.t6.10
| 16. | — do — | (3) | 77.93 | 7.00 | 1.15 | 13.38 | Fe, Ag, Ni, Co |
| 17. | — do — | (4) | 83.22 | 4.14 | 1.51 | 10.59 | Fe, Ag, Ni, Co |
| 18. | Viṣṇu | | 82.85 | 3.95 | 0.23 | 12.49 | Fe, Ag, Ni, Co |
| 19. | Female Figure | | 81.23 | 4.78 | 1.99 | 11.48 | Fe, Ag, Ni, Co |
| 20. | Skanda | | 82.06 | 6.12 | 0.14 | 10.16 | Fe, Ag, Ni, Co |
| 21. | Skanda | | 83.40 | 4.49 | 1.37 | 10.04 | Fe, Ag, Ni, Co |
| **Moderate Lead Bronze** | | | | | | | |
| 22. | Kṛṣṇa | | 83.56 | 7.00 | 0.04 | 9.25 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 23. | Rāma, Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa | | 83.05 | 9.87 | 0.06 | 6.83 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 24. | Pārvatī | | 82.90 | 7.02 | 2.00 | 7.00 | 0.79 p.c. Fe, Ni |
| 25. | Somāskanda | | 87.01 | 5.15 | 0.55 | 6.34 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 26. | Viṣṇu | | 88.99 | 5.25 | 0.08 | 5.18 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 27. | Kālī | | 91.44 | 3.92 | 0.31 | 3.94 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 28. | Viṣṇu | | 91.80 | 6.98 | 0.00 | 0.24 | Fe, Ni |
| 29. | Śiva and Pārvatī | | 92.54 | 5.25 | 0.09 | 1.88 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
| 30. | Kṛṣṇa | | 90.27 | 3.00 | 0.68 | 4.64 | 1.24 p.c. Fe, Ag |
| 31. | Gaṇeśa | | 90.63 | 3.65 | 0.22 | 4.79 | Fe, Ni |
| **High Zinc Brass** | | | | | | | |
| 32. | Yaśodā | | 63.60 | 4.24 | 23.73 | 7.84 | Fe, Ni, Ag Heavily alloyed |
| 33. | Pūtanā | | 60.30 | 9.96 | 20.59 | 8.62 | Fe, Ni, Ag Heavily alloyed |
| 34. | Śiva and Pārvatī | | 82.68 | 2.64 | 11.07 | 2.94 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co |
| 35. | Piḍārī | | 76.62 | 8.69 | 10.55 | 3.81 | Fe, Ni, Ag |
v1.c28.s8.t6.11
See also Nos. 5, 8 and 10 for high Zn content.
v1.c28.s8.t6.12
Adichanallur on the bank of Tambraparni in Tirunelveli district was an important centre during the seventh-eighth century AD for producing copper figures of the mother goddess, animals and birds. But the golden age of bronze-casting emerged during the tenth-eleventh centuries under the Cola kings of Thanjavur who encouraged the bronze-casters of Swamimalai, Kumbakonam, Chidambaram etc. to make the finest bronze idols of the world.
v1.c28.s8.t6.13
Ever since the days of Śaṅkara, Buddhism was on the wane in India and the revived traditions of Hinduism were on the ascendancy. The beautiful gold-plated bronze images of Buddhist Maitreya from Melayur and Nagapattinam were gradually replaced by the dancing Śiva or Naṭarāja icons of Chidambaram.
v1.c28.s8.t6.14
The Cola period bronze icons are now matters of Indian pride and constitute a significant part of our cultural heritage in every possible sense — artistic, philosophical or technological. Unfortunately the huge number of icons are yet to be chronologically catalogued and scientifically analysed. Reiderer (1984) has analysed 55 Indian bronze and brass statuettes by atomic absorption spectrometry, of which 44 are from South India. We are presenting analysis figures for 35 selected South Indian icons in Table 20.10. These icons can be divided in terms of their metallic composition into the following categories:
v1.c28.s8.t6.15
(a) 93 per cent or more copper icons with minor alloying, represented by the samples 1-3 in Table 20.10. Swarnakamal (1980: 140-41) reported one seventh-eighth century AD. Viṣṇu with attendants from South India assaying 93.6 per cent Cu, 0.77 Sn, 1.66 Zn, 1.25 Pb and 0.87 Fe; also another ninth-tenth century AD Viṣṇu of the Cola period assaying 97.1 per cent Cu, 0.04 Sn, 1.0 Pb and 1.3 Fe.
v1.c28.s8.t6.16
(b) High tin bronzes may be defined as those icons containing 10 per cent or more tin in their composition (samples 4-11). Probably this tradition was introduced gradually with the availability of tin and influence of the Pāla artistes. Most of these contained sufficient proportions of lead, No. 11 containing the metal more than ten per cent. Some of the icons (Nos. 5, 8 and 10) containing 6-9 per cent Zn may be termed as zinc bronzes or tin brasses.
v1.c28.s8.t6.17
(c) High lead bronzes (Nos. 12-21) assaying more than 10 per cent lead. These contain variable proportions of tin and zinc. No. 11 could have been included in this category also being high in Pb as well as Sn. No. 12 contains an unusually high proportion of lead (31.34 %). Zinc percentages in these icons rarely exceed two. The world-famous Śiva-Naṭarāja icons (Nos. 14-17) fall under this (c) category, assaying 75-83 % Cu, 4-8 per cent Sn, 1-2 per cent Zn and 10-14 per cent lead. Swarnakamal (1980: 140-41) reported one eleventh-twelfth century AD solid cast, well-chiselled 135 cm height Naṭarāja assaying 83.8 per cent Cu, 12.8 Sn, 2.2 Pb and 0.2 Fe. Trace impurities detected were Zn, Ni, and Ag.
v1.c28.s8.t6.18
(d) Moderate lead bronze (serial Nos. 22-31) assaying 82-92 per cent Cu, 3-10 per cent Sn, 1-9 per cent Pb and little zinc (2 % in one case).
v1.c28.s8.t6.19
(e) High zinc brass containing 60-80 per cent Cu, 10-24 per cent Zn, 2-10 per cent Sn and 3-9 per cent Pb.
v1.c28.s8.t6.20
It is clear that there were many patterns of alloying and the five categories as stated above could be further sub-categorised. The composition probably depended upon tradition and availability of constituent metals. At present some of the modern icons in South India are made of 81 per cent Cu, 15 per cent brass and 3-4 per cent lead by weight. (Ganapathi 1990) The trace proportions of silver in the icons were probably derived from lead. Copper ingot might have contained the impurities of nickel and iron.