The Art and Science of Chola Bronzes

Sharada Srinivasan

Ah, when will I get to gaze upon the unique archaeological evidence. It was not until the time of Tamil
One to whom no other compares scientist-aesthetician, Nobel Laureate Sir C.V Raman (1888-
Him who is fire, water, wind, earth and ether,
1970), whose work on acoustics and light was spurred by
Him whom others cannot understand ...
inspirations as diverse as the music of the veena, solar
(Manikkavachakar, in Yocum, verse 20.2)
coronae, the blue of the Mediterranean and pearls, would the
region again throw up similar epoch-making ideas! As sug-

S Osang the 9th century mystic Manikkavachakar of Shiva

as Nataraja, the Lord of Dance, presiding deity of the
gested here, even feminists have something to laud in the
roles played by a widowed queen and her 'male muse' in the
modest shrine, cirrambalam or 'little hall' at Tillai, later remarkable artistic and technological outpouring of Chola
known as Chidambaram, in Tamil Nadu in southern India. bronzes.
Perhaps he had a prescient notion that, about a millennium In some ways Chola bronzes in a broad sense have come
later in an era of spectacular advances in cosmology and to mean all bronzes of a distinctive south Indian style (even
modern physics, this icon's realization in bronze would take ones made in modern workshops). Technically, the me-
on grander connotations as the 'Cosmic Dance of Shiva'! The diaeval Chola period spans the mid-9th to the mid-13th
astronomer Carl Sagan, in fact, saw the Nataraja as.'a premo- century. However, when one talks of Chola bronzes in terms
nition of modern astronomical ideas' (Sagan, p. 213). of a high tradition of art, it is with reference to the time of
The metal icons of the early mediaeval Chola Tamil the imperial Cholas (c. 950-1070), when direct descendants
kingdom (mid-9th-13th century) such as the Nataraja from ofVijayalaya Chola, the dynasty's founder, ruled mainly from
The Cleveland Museum of Art in Figure I, are highly coveted Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu and when the classic bronzes were
works of Indian sculpture. Pioneering historian of Indian art made. The phase after this is usually referred to as 'Late
].c. Harle was of the opinion that 'early Chola bronzes Chola', when a prince from the Andhra Eastern Chalukya
represent the finest representations of godhood, unsurpassed lineage ascended the Chola throne, a line of succession
in any place or age' (Harle, p. 302). Examples of such which continued until 1279. The change seems to have
ma,sterpieces are on view in the exhibition, 'Chola: Sacred introduced a more provincial style to the bronzes. For clarity,
Bronzes of Southern India', at the Royal Academy of Arts in both in my PhD thesis (Srinivasan, 1996) and in this article,
London from II November 2006 to 25 February 2007. I have therefore classified Chola bronzes under the following
The Nataraja bronze, in all its complex imagery, has categories: Vijayalaya Chola (c. 850-1070), Early Chalukya-
attracted interest from a galaxy of famous personalities, from Chola (c. 1070-Il25) and Later Chalukya-Chola (c. 1125-
scientists to art connoisseurs, philosophers and dancers. In 1279). The Chola sculptural tradition itself evolved out of a
1921, the celebrated French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840- mature phase of experimentation in stone and bronze under
1917) extolled an lIth century Chola Nataraja as 'une chose the Pallavas, who rose to power in the 6th century with their
divinement reglee', Le. as something divinely ordered. In an capital mainly at Kanchipuram, and were vanquished by
essay entitled 'The Dance of Siva', geologist-turned art his- Aditya Chola in 875. After the Cholas, the best-known
torian Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) saw in the icon Hindu dynasty is that of the Vijayanagara kings, who estab-
elements of 'poetry, but nonetheless, science' (Cooma- lished their kingdom in 1336 in the region of Hampi, Kar-
raswamy, 1924). Almost echoing the lover-beloved senti- nataka and built a sprawling metropolis in the midst of
ment of the devotional bhakti hymns of Tamil saints, Rodin intractable granite. The Vijayanagara were defeated in 1565
compared its grace to the Medici Venus and Coomaraswamy at the Battle of Talikota by the Muslim Deccani sultanates.
to the 'dancing Eros Protogonos of Lucian'. While the interim period between the Chola and the Vijay-
The circumstances in which bronzes were cast during the anagara is more nebulous, and there was a period of insta-
Chola period, and the contexts within which they were and bility with the advance of the Muslim sultanate from Delhi,
are sited, continue to have profound relevance for our pre- the Later Pandyas were prominent between Il90-131O. For
sent-day understanding of art, poetry, science, history and convenience in my thesis, I have classified the period from
society. Remarkably; in an era preceding Leonardo da Vinci, 1279 to 1336 as Later Pandyan, after the most prominent
the Nataraja bronze achieved a poetic synthesis of art and dynasty in this period and the stylistic groups other than
science, perhaps conceived as an iconometric star chart for Chola as Pre-Pallava (c. 200-600), Pallava (c. 600-875), Later
Orion, as argued here from archaeometallurgical and astro- Pandya (1279-1336), Vijayanagara and Early Nayaka (c.

46
 (Fig. 1) Shiva as Nataraja (Lord of Dance)
Chola period, 11th century
Bronze
Height 111.5 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art (1930.331)
Purchase from the J.H. Wade Fund
(Photograph @The Cleveland Museum of Art)

'"
47
1336-1565), and Later Nayaka and Maratha (c. 1565-1800). human and the cosmic, the dreadful and the sublime, the
It is interesting that the stylistic changes in bronzes attrib- 'supreme' with the individual consciousness, creation and
uted to these different groups, are comparable to stone dissolution, and macrocosm with microcosm. At the
sculpture at associated temples and also mirrored in changes Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, dating back at least to the
of their metallurgical profile. 12th century, another unique dual form of anthropomor-
phic-aniconic worship exists. In the sanctum, a Nataraja

T emple worship under the Cholas largely followed Shaiva

Siddhanta ritual. A dual form of worship was practised:
bronze has been placed adjacent to an empty curtain space
said to represent Shiva as akasha (ether/space), one of the
intimate communion with the pillar-like stone linga repre- five elements. This is the Chidambaram Rahasya (Revelation
senting Shiva in the sanctum, and public worship of metal of Chidambaram) housed in a golden-roofed inner sanctum
deities (utsava murtis), such as the dynamic dancing Shiva, known as the Chit Sabha or Hall of Consciousness.
outside the sanctum during festival processions. Quite apart The original Tamil term cirrambalam implying 'little hall',
from notions of caste-based segregation in worship, such was Sanskritized to Chidambaram whose meaning is as-
dualistic aspects can perhaps be linked to more ancient Tamil cribed to the words chit, consciousness, and ambaram, cos-
aesthetic sensibilities. For example, Tamil Sangam poetry (c. mos (Younger, p. 112). However, as I have argued elsewhere
1st century BCE-CE3rd century) distinguished between the and point out later in this article, the ideas linking Nataraja
akam genre, concerned with the inner space of intimacy and to the consciousness and the sky are already conveyed in the
love, and the elegiac and bardic puram genre, concerned with hymns of Tamil saints from the 7th to the 9th century using
the outer space of valour, warfare and martyrdom. the terms oru unarve, one consciousness, and nilavu, sky.
Similarly, the mythology and poetry associated with Here too, the interplay of interior mindscape with exterior
Tamil Shaivite bronzes seem to play with opposites: the landscape can be discerned, recalling Sangam ideas.
Ramanujan's commentaries on early Sangam poetry eluci-
date the creative tension generated by the juxtaposition of
akam with puram, of outer with inner space as in the verse
below:

Bigger than earth, certainly,

higher than the sky,
more unfathomable than the waters
is this love for this man ..,

(Ramanujan, pp. 108-09)

This opposing, yet complementary nature of Tamil Shaivite

worship comes through when comparing two fine 10th
century Chola bronzes from the British Museum which are

(Fig. 2a) The back of

the image in Figure 2

(Fig. 2) Shiva as Chandrashekhara (Lord of the Moon)

Chola period, c.990-1000
Bronze
Height 51 em
British Museum (Asia 1958.7.15.1)
(Photograph @ the Trustees of the British Museum)

48
in the Royal Academy exhibition (Figs 2 and 3). Whereas tion, is said to depict Shiva's five acts or panchakritya: crea-
the Vedic god Rudra who is linked to Shiva is primarily tion symbolized by the drum, destruction by the fire, protec-
destructive, Chola and south Indian iconography empha- tion by the front right arm, solace by the crossed left arm,
sizes Shiva's benign aspects (Rathnasabapathy, p. 46). The and dispelling of ignorance by trampling the demon.
image in Figure 2, Chandrashekhara, the Lord Crowned with To understand the ramifications that the scientific study
the Moon, one of the god's most gentle manifestations, of Chola bronzes might have for the history of art and
captures the sensuous-sacred dimension seen in the best metallurgy, I undertook compositional and trace element
Chola bronzes. The crescent in Shiva's coiffeur conveys the analysis on 130 representative South Indian bronze icons
cool and calm of the moon, while moonbeams are perhaps and lead isotope analysis on sixty of these (Srinivasan, 1996).
delectably suggested by the three locks protruding along Samples were primarily taken from the Government Mu-
parabolic trajectories on either side. A corresponding depic- seum, Chennai, Victoria and Albert Museum, London and
tion is provided by the image of Shiva as Shrikantha, Lord of British Museum, London. Lead isotope ratio analysis enables
the Auspicious Neck, who redeemed the world by retaining the grouping of artefacts on the bases of shared ore sources
in his throat the poison that ironically emerged from the or casting from the same batch of metal with lead from mixed
churning of the ocean by avaricious gods in search of nectar sources. When these results are read together with the trace
(Fig. 3). From these two images, it can be seen that the mere element composition (especially from Ni, Co, As, Bi, Sb
change of an attribute and a subtle shift of expression, values and Fe/S ratios), characteristic profiles could be em-
transformed a serene Chandrashekhara into a Shrikantha full pirically identified. Thus, images of uncertain attributions
of foreboding gravitas. Shrikantha holds a serpent
rather than the remnants of a flower stalk, and
flared nostrils and pursed lips have replaced the
quiet smile. T. Richard Blurton describes this as a
'magisterial' image depicting Shiva as both an all-
powerful deity and as a protector of his devotees
(Blurton, frontispiece).
The impulse to reconcile dualities is best articu-
lated in the famed mid-lIth century Chola Ardha-
narishwara image in Government Museum, Chen-
nai, depicting godhood as a composite of male and
female halves (see Thomas, p. 41). However, in the
Chandrashekhara image, the male-female duality
is symbolized by the unadorned, extended right
ear-lobe and the roundel-shaped left ear-ring (see
Fig. 2). It is almost as if modem ideas, such as those
conveyed by the scientific complementarity princi-
ple of wave-particle duality, had been aesthetically
internalized whereby contradictions are resolved as
two sides of the same coin. At a creative level it
anticipates Jungian ideas that 'the confrontation
between two positions generates a tension charged
with energy' (Campbell, p. 298).

T he Nataraja bronze is a unique Tamil formula-

tion with the right leg of Shiva extended in
bhujangatrasita karana, literally 'serpent fright
dance movement', the kind of action that one
would probably make to escape a serpent. Based on
13th century Tamil Shaiva Siddhantic texts,
Ananda Coomaraswamy famously interpreted the
icon as Shiva's anandatandava (ananda, bliss; tan-
---
(Fig. 3) Shiva as Shrikantha (Lord of the Auspicious Neck)
dava, Shiva's awesome dance), which is also the Chola period, c.970
dance of bliss within the consciousness (Cooma- Bronze
Height 59 cm
raswamy, p. 27). The image, with the ring of fire British Museum (Asia 1970.9.21.1)
representing cosmic cycles of creation and destruc- (Photograph @the Trustees of the British Museum)

...'
49
in the Royal Academy exhibition (Figs 2 and 3). Whereas tion, is said to depict Shiva's five acts or panchakritya: crea-
the Vedic god Rudra who is linked to Shiva is primarily tion symbolized by the drum, destruction by the fire, protec-
destructive, Chola and south Indian iconography empha- tion by the front right arm, solace by the crossed left arm,
sizes Shiva's benign aspects (Rathnasabapathy, p. 46). The and dispelling of ignorance by trampling the demon.
image in Figure 2, Chandrashekhara, the Lord Crowned with To understand the ramifications that the scientific study
the Moon, one of the god's most gentle manifestations, of Chola bronzes might have for the history of art and
captures the sensuous-sacred dimension seen in the best metallurgy, I undertook compositional and trace element
Chola bronzes. The crescent in Shiva's coiffeur conveys the analysis on 130 representative South Indian bronze icons
cool and calm of the moon, while moonbeams are perhaps and lead isotope analysis on sixty of these (Srinivasan, 1996).
delectably suggested by the three locks protruding along Samples were primarily taken from the Government Mu-
parabolic trajectories on either side. A corresponding depic- seum, Chennai, Victoria and Albert Museum, London and
tion is provided by the image of Shiva as Shrikantha, Lord of British Museum, London. Lead isotope ratio analysis enables
the Auspicious Neck, who redeemed the world by retaining the grouping of artefacts on the bases of shared ore sources
in his throat the poison that ironically emerged from the or casting from the same batch of metal with lead from mixed
churning of the ocean by avaricious gods in search of nectar sources. When these results are read together with the trace
(Fig. 3). From these two images, it can be seen that the mere element composition (especially from Ni, Co, As, Bi, Sb
change of an attribute and a subtle shift of expression, values and Fe/S ratios), characteristic profiles could be em-
transformed a serene Chandrashekhara into a Shrikantha full pirically identified. Thus, images of uncertain attributions
of foreboding gravitas. Shrikantha holds a serpent
rather than the remnants of a flower stalk, and
flared nostrils and pursed lips have replaced the
quiet smile. T. Richard Blurton describes this as a
'magisterial' image depicting Shiva as both an all-
powerful deity and as a protector of his devotees
(Blurton, frontispiece).
The impulse to reconcile dualities is best articu-
lated in the famed mid- I I th century Chola Ardha-
narishwara image in Government Museum, Chen-
nai, depicting godhood as a composite of male and
female halves (see Thomas, p. 41). However, in the
Chandrashekhara image, the male-female duality
is symbolized by the unadorned, extended right
ear-lobe and the roundel-shaped left ear-ring (see
Fig. 2). It is almost as if modern ideas, such as those
conveyed by the scientific complementarity princi-
ple of wave-particle duality, had been aesthetically
internalized whereby contradictions are resolved as
two sides of the same coin. At a creative level it
anticipates Jungian ideas that 'the confrontation
between two positions generates a tension charged
with energy' (Campbell, p. 298).

T he Nataraja bronze is a unique Tamil formula-

tion with the right leg of Shiva extended in
bhujangatrasita karana, literally 'serpent fright
dance movement', the kind of action that one
would probably make to escape a serpent. Based on
13th century Tamil Shaiva Siddhantic texts,
Ananda Coomaraswamy famously interpreted the
icon as Shiva's anandatandava (ananda, bliss; tan-
- - ----
(Fig. 3) Shiva as Shrikantha (Lord of the Auspicious Neck)
dava, Shiva's awesome dance), which is also the Chola period, c.970
dance of bliss within the consciousness (Cooma- Bronze
Height 59 em
raswamy, p. 27). The image, with the ring of fire British Museum (Asia 1970.9.21.1)
representing cosmic cycles of creation and destruc- (Photograph @the Trustees of the British Museum)

..-<
49
were stylistically re-assessed as Pre-Pallava [8], Pallava [17], Although the Nataraja icon is generally regarded as a 10th
Vijayalaya Chola [31], Early Chalukya-Chola [12], Later century Chola innovation, archaeometallurgical testing sug-
Chalukya-Chola [17], Later Pandya [15], Vijayanagara and gests that the form was already in existence during the
Early Nayaka [20] and Later Nayaka and Maratha [12] (with Pallava dynasty (6th-mid-9th century), which was best
the number of images studied in each group indicated in the known for the graceful stone sculpture at Mahabalipuram
square brackets). (Fig. 5; Srinivasan, 2001 and 2004) . Whereas some readings
An image of Lord Vishnu as Varaha, his man-boar incar- point to the icon's political or martial symbolism especially
nation, with consort Bhudevi, the earth goddess, seated on under the Cholas (Kaimal, 1999), my scientific studies,
his lap from the Victoria and Albert Museum, which features corroborated by some 6th-9th century Tamil hymns, suggest
in the Royal Academy exhibition, was among the bronzes I that some cosmic perceptions did precede a later Sanskri-
tested (Fig. 4). While some art historians date this stylisti- tized 12th/13th century phase of worship at Chidambaram
cally to the 13th century, the technical fingerprinting sug- (Srinivasan, 2004). For instance, a verse by Manik-
gests a date of the 14th century (ibid., p. 272). The date is, kavachakar goes: 'He who creates, protects, and destroys the
in my opinion, consistent with its style, which is comparable verdant world. The primeval One ...' (Mowry, p. 53).
to stone sculptures of the Vijayanagara, a Vaishnavite dy- As symbolized by the rear hands of the Nataraja bronze
nasty, dedicated to Vishnu at Hampi, such as the now-dam- holding in opposition the drum of creation and fire of
aged colossal Narasimha which once had a seated Lakshmi destruction (see Fig. 6), the worship of it seems to grapple
(Longhurst, p. 95). The technical study also indicated a with the life-death duality. Thus, at times Manikkavachakar's
marked increase in the number of bronzes of Vaishnava gripping verses rail at Nataraja, calling him a madman who
affiliation that were attributed to the Vijayanagara group over oversees death and destruction at cremation grounds, and at
the other periods. other times, hail him as the dancer (kuttan) who sports
playfully with cosmic creation and destruction.

I n contrast to the modern visual apprehension of Chola

statuary, godhood in the past was largely perceived as
something 'beyond vision' as in Manikkavachakar's plea for
a gaze of Shiva in the opening verse of this essay. The bhakti
hymns of the Tamil Shaivite saints convey a yearning for
Shiva as the unattainable. Manikkavachakar also described
Shiv a as the One Transcendental Consciousness (Oru
Unarve) (Yocum, verses 22.3, 24). Many of the 6th-9th
century Tamil saints and Shaiva Siddhanta worshippers were
not from higher castes. To them, Shiva the dishevelled deity
as social outcaste was more accessible. By the later mediaeval
period, with the Brahmanical caste system tightening its grip
on society, the lower castes were excluded from the inner
sanctum. In a touching episode, the low-caste saint Nan-
danar is said to have pleaded for Shiva's vehicle, the bull
Nandi, to move aside so that he could glimpse the Nataraja
at Chidambaram, and was granted union with Shiva in the
sanctum. The metal processional images are in any case so
heavily adorned that the face can be barely discerned by the
worshippers.
Consequently, the myths associated with the 63 Shaivite
nayanmar saints may reflect attempts to negotiate and sub-
vert the layered hierarchies of class and caste. In some, the
devotee identifies closely with Shiva as outcaste or beggar,
as in the case of the 6th century woman saint Karaikal
Amaiyyar, one of the most interesting subjects depicted in
(Fig. 4) Bhu-Varaha, Vishnu's avatar as a Chola bronzes, who prayed to become a ghoulish hag so that
gigantic boar embracing the earth goddess
Vijayanagara period, 13th century she could wander the cremation grounds with Shiva. Shiva
Bronze also elevates the devotee to a status beside him as in the case
Height 45.5 cm
of the saint Chandesha who was but a lowly cowherd (Fig.
Victoria and Albert Museum (IM-6-1924)
(Photograph @V&AImages) 5). In the story of Chandesha, a young man Vicarasarman,

50
motivated by the mistreatment of a cow, decided to tend the
cows of his village. Moved by his actions, his herd yielded
an abundance of milk. Being an ardent devotee of Shiva,
Vicarasarman poured the excess milk on a linga made of
sand. However this enraged the villagers and his father who
kicked down the sand mound. The affront to Shiva disturbed
the meditating Vicarasarman so much that he cut off his
father's leg with an axe. Shiva rewarded his devotion by
making him Chandesha, the steward of his household (De- (Fig. 5) Saint Chandesha
Chola period, c. 970
pommier, pp. 9-10). A fine sculpture from the mid-11th Bronze
century Gangaikondacholapuram temple, attributed to Ra- Height 48 em
British Museum
jendra Chola, shows Shiva seated next to Parvati with his left
(Asia 1988.4.25.1)
hand on Chandesha's head and his right in a pose of tying a (Photograph @the
Trustees of the
flower garland around the saint's head (see ibid., p. 9). In its
British Museum)
adulent pose with folded palms and adoring smile, this
scaled-down standing Chandesha is somewhat similar to the
image from the British Museum in Figure 5.In an image inset
within a trident from the British Museum, also on view at
the Royal Academy, Shiva is portrayed as Vrishabhavana
Deva, a bucolic cowherd with the bull (see fig. 10 in the
article by John Guy in this issue).

T here are interesting astrological and astronomical con-

notations for Nataraja as suggested by mythology. Astro-
physicist Nirupama Raghavan is of the view that the super-
nova explosion in the region of the Orion constellation in
1054 may have impacted the religious poetry, rituals and
depictions related to Nataraja's cosmic dance (Raghavan,
personal communication). At the Nataraja temple in Chi-
dambaram, the chariot processional festival of Margayi Tiru- Nataraja and the constellation, Orion. A star chart for Orion
vadirai which takes place in December is related to the fact
dated 800 (Fig. 6a) was mapped on to the Nataraja image in
that the moon is full in the star Betelguese or Alpha Orionis,
Figure 6, which I identified from archaeometallurgical and
or nahshatra Tiruvadirai. This reddish supergiant in the
lead isotope study as being of Pallava vintage. A 'stellar'
constellation Orion, is one of the brightest and largest
inspiration for the Nataraja icon, at least at its inception, may
(Darius, p. 156). Raghavan has also made some intriguing be inferred from the astonishingly good fit given by this
astronomical calculations which suggest that another impor-
superposition. Apart from implying high astronomical com-
tant annual chariot processional festival, the brahmotsava of petence, it also seems to ratify the Pallava dating, possibly
Ani Thirumanjanam is in fact related to the 1054 supernova making this the earliest known Nataraja bronze. It brings to
explosion, reported by Chinese astronomers to have taken
mind a remark in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A SpaceOdyssey:
place on 4 July. According to inscription, Ani Thiruman- 'My God, it's full of stars ...'.
janam has been celebrated continuously since the mid-11th Indeed, a 'cosmic' sense permeates a Tamil verse to
century Chola period (Natarajan, p. 356; Epigraphica Indica, Nataraja by the saint Appar, referring to sky as the Tamil
vol. 4, A.R. 118 of 1888). Ani Thirumanjanam is known to nilavu. The use of the Tamil term nilavu during this 7th
be celebrated in nahshatra Uttara; essentially a nahshatra century period is significant because it suggests that the 12th
denotes the spatial position of the moon at a particular time.
century Sanskritic influences need not be invoked to explain
Raghavan then used software which helped her to find out
the linkage of the Nataraja with ahasha, space, at Chidam-
which day in 1054 the moon would occupy the longitudinal baram, but may rather echo the sensitivity to nature in Tamil
position associated with the nahshatra Uttara. She discov-
Sangam poetry:
ered that it fell on 11 July, very close to the Chinese date of
the supernova explosion! Betelguese is also linked to Rudra, The Lord of the Little Chamber,
the wrathful Vedic god and hunter, the equivalent of Orion filled with honey,
in Greek mythology. will fill me with sky (nilavu)
A collaborative study between myself and Nirupama and make me be
Raghavan points to an exciting iconometric link between (Handelman and Shulman, p. 48)

51
Chola statuary was made by lost wax casting or madhuchhhis- cation). In fact, Shaiva Siddhantic concepts of Shiva emerg-
thavidhana, described in the Manasollasa, a 12th century ing from the formless one to the manifest five-fold or
encyclopaedic text ascribed to the Western Chalukyan king Sadashiva may underlie the symbolic devolution of the inner,
Someshvara of Kalyana (Reeves, pp. 32-33). At Swamimalai, aniconic linga into the outer world of anthropomorphic
near Tanjavur, the Chola capital, hereditary sthapatis or icon processional pancha-Ioha.
makers still cast bronzes in the traditional manner. Unaided Of the 28 Chola images analysed by the author, most were
by a physical model, a solid wax image is made using tala, leaded bronzes with an average of 7 per cent tin and 7 per
iconometric measurements marked out on a coconut frond. cent lead and only two had up to 2 per cent zinc (Srinivasan,
The wax image is invested with clay to form the mould which 1996, p. 449). In later periods, the tin content falls as in the
was then heated to expel liquefied wax before molten metal is Vijayanagara-style Varaha image in Figure 4 with 3 per cent
poured into the resultant hollow to give a unique metal image. lead and 2.5 per cent tin. The Later Pandyan group (mid-
As revealed by the rear of the Chandrashekhara image, 13th-mid-14th century) had the highest average zinc con-
the casting technique was one where the mould was placed tent at 3.5 per cent. The selected use of brass for artefacts
at a horizontal incline; and the main sprue at the base of the other than images is suggested by examples such as an early
spine was then cut off, leaving behind a protrusion (see Fig. historic Deccan votive bowl-cum-Iamp from the Victoria and
2a). The back of the arms bears traces of runners which were Albert Museum (IM-9-1924) with 14 per cent zinc. Although
once attached to the main image to aid the flow of molten the ore sources of most analysed images were unidentified
metal and then sawn off. due to the lack of lead isotope data, the lead in a Later
Although south Indian metal icons are often called Pandyan brass Buddha from Kanchipuram (Victoria and
pancha-Ioha or five-metalled icons, the author's analyses of Albert Museum, IM-44-1966) with 24 per cent zinc was
about 130 Chola and other south Indian images showed that traced to the Ambaji mines in Gujarat.
80 per cent were of bronze (copper and tin) and the rest brass The best Chola bronzes did not need much finishing as
(copper and zinc), and nearly all were alloyed with lead to suggested by the details that stand proud of the surface, such
facilitate casting (Srinivasan, 1996). However, traces of ran- as the folds of the lungi or skirt at the thigh of the Shrikantha
domly added gold and silver could be also detected which image and the mobile fingers holding the snake (Fig. 3).
together with lead, tin/zinc and copper would make up five These features suggest a superior mould-making technique,
metals (Srinivasan, 1999). This fitted the explanation of especially in the preparation and application of the inner-
Devasenasthapati in Swamimalai, an icon maker I inter- most fine coat of clay, that would enable details in wax to be
viewed in 1991, that the pancha-Ioha prescription referred to picked up well and for the mould to withstand the great
the addition, at the request of a client, of very minor pinches weight of metal used in solid casting. By comparison, the
of gold and silver, more for the sake of ritual auspicion or great tradition of early European statuary was hollow cast,
shastra. To finally invest the metal icon with divinity, temple often with pieces riveted on as repairs. When the Shrikantha
priests performed ceremonies of the 'opening of eyes' known is placed next to the Vijayanagara era Varaha image in Figure
as kannatharakaradu in Tamil or the 'awakening of the five 4, it can be seen that the latter was more heavily cold worked
senses', elundarasalai (Raja Deekshitar, personal communi- as seen in the hatched designs.

70'~.e.b'
(Fig. 6) Nataraja, .l~\, ,,.
with star chart '.1\ 1.-
of Orion plotted
Attributed from
~\ ,- (Fig. 6a) Map of
archaeometallurgical -\-, ,. . star positions in
study to the Paliava the Orion region,
period (c. 800-50) c. 800, matched
Bronze -i to the Nataraja
Height 28 cm in Figure 6
British Museum
..1-.1
(Asia 1969.12.16.1)
(Courtesy of the
Trustees of the .ll".
British Museum)

52
 Sensibly, the maximum tin content in the analysed Chola
bronzes was found to be within 15 per cent, beyond which I f the 17th century marble marvel of the Taj Mahal, dedi-
cated by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-56) to his
as-cast bronze becomes brittle. That this was an informed late wife, is the world's ultimate monument to the 'female
choice is indicated by the deliberate use of wrought and muse', then its male equivalent may lie in the phenomenal
quenched beta (23 per cent tin) bronze alloy in a plate from accomplishments of the 10th century Chola queen Sembiyan
the Chola period from the Government Museum in Chennai Mahadevi, whom Harle rated as an 'all-time great patron'
(Srinivasan, 1994). This high-tin bronze tradition was found (Harle, p. 301). Gandaraditya, Sembiyan's husband, who
from my studies to have longstanding, continuous and local ruled from 949 to 957, was an ardent devotee of Shiva who
roots traceable to the south Indian Megalithic period, indi- authored the fifth of nine Shaiva hymns known as Tiru-
cating that the Chola bronzes emerged from a pre-existing visaippa before fasting to death (Venkataraman, pp. 14-15;
pool of skilled bronze metalworkers (ibid.). Epigraphica Indica, vol. 3, p. 280). The gilding of the Chi-
A singular accomplishment of Chola bronzes as religious dambaram temple is also referred to in a hymn by Gandara-
expression is the way they connected the arts of poetry and ditya as indicated in an inscription, no. 75, on a pillar at
dance with the science of bronze casting. They emerged out Uyyakondan-Tirumalai (E. Hultzch and V Venkayya, eds,
of the passionate poetic and liturgical ferment of 6th-12th South Indian Inscriptions, vol. 2, at http://www.whatisin-
century Tamil Nadu, which lay the foundations for the bhakti dia. com/inscriptions/sou th_indian_inscriptions/vo lume_2
movement of salvation through intense devotion to a per- /no_75_76_pillacacuyyakkondan.html). In the aftermath
sonal god. A Tamil inscription even mentions a royal prasasti of her all too early widowhood, Sembiyan Mahadevi flung
or paen for a mediaeval Pandyan ruler composed by an herself into a flurry of activity, commissioning temples and
artisan (Nagaswamy, p. 29). The creative synergy between bronzes until 1000 and even founded a town named after
bronze craftsmanship and poetry is finely captured in a love her. Remarkably, Sembiyan Mahadevi's story defies the 'sati
poem by the woman saint Andal (c. 800) to Lord Vishnu, stereotype' of mediaeval Hindu womanhood. Inscriptions do
evocatively comparing pregnant rain clouds to the clay suggest that in early mediaeval southern India and generally
mould holding liquid wax (Dehejia, p. 13). in Tamil Nadu, sati was probably relatively rare, especially
Even the details realized in bronze seem to provide codes among Pallava and Chola noblewomen who were prominent
to Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy. A verse by the saint Sun- in patronage and public life. That it was a voluntary option
daramurthi Nayanmar goes: 'Pray thou to the Lord with is nevertheless suggested by the example of the widow of
twisted hair locks for liberation from all acts of omissions Parantaka Chola II, who immolated herself on his pyre after
and commissions (Rathnasabapathy, p. 37)!' Such snaking he died in battle in 955 (Aravamuthan, p. 34). Sembiyan, it
locks are seen in the rear of the Chandrashekhara image (see
Fig. 2a). Handelman and Shulman reveal that the philo-
sophical universe of the Shaiva Siddhanta canon has 'a
twisted or braided quality, which never unfolds or develops
in straight lines' (Handelman and Shulman, p. 35). Corre-
spondingly, the dance movement of the Nataraja icon, with
(Fig. 7) Stone
right leg and front left arm slanted in parallel, appears to sculpture of
spiral around a vertical axis like the double helix of a DNA Nataraja at the
molecule. temple built by
queen Sembiyan
Nataraja, described as a master of the arts by Sadasiva Mahadevi at
Konerirajapuram
Settar, is both dancer and musician, keeping time with the
(Photograph
drum (Settar, 1996). Shiva is also depicted in Chola bronzes courtesy of
holding the stringed veena as Veenadhara Dakshinamurti. Benoy Behl and
Latika Gupta)
Physicist-turned-cult writer Fritjof Capra imaginatively saw
in Shiva's dance an analogy for the modern physicist's 'dance
of subatomic particles' (Capra, 1975). Something of this
subliminal importance of dance and again, the link to Tamil
Sangam poetic sensibility comes through in another verse by
Manikkavachakar:

He ... revealed his foot which is like a tender flower,

caused me to dance
entered my innermost part (akam)
became my Lord.
(Yocum, verse 63)
seems, chose to divert her grief by channelling her energy Selected bibliography

into creative endeavours. T. G. Aravamuthan, Portrait Sculpture in South India, London, 1931.
The finest example of Sembiyan's devotion to her late T. Richard Blurton, Hindu Art, London, 2001.
Joseph Campbell, ed., The Portable]ung, New York, 1971.
husband is the commemorative Umamaheshvara temple at
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Para11els between
Konerirajapuram erected in 972 with a panel showing Gan- Modem Physics and Eastern Mysticism, London, 1975.
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14-15). This temple has one of the most distinctive early Fourteen Indian Essays, New York, 1924, pp. 83-95.
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54