Tag Archives: Chola

I take your hand – for eternity

To depict a wide gamut of emotions into metal casting calls for exceptional skill. who better to attempt it than the Chola craftsmen and what better scene than the drama of emotions during a wedding – the wedding of the divine parents at that. Yes, today we are going to see a stunning bronze composition – the wedding of Meenakshi with Sundareshwarar. We already saw the metamorphosis of Tadagai – the three breasted warrior queen of Madurai into Meenakshi , a stunning shy lass – true to the prophecy, at the sight of her prince charming – Shiva as the epitome of manly charm – Sundareshwarar.

Imagine the situation of such a wedding, throw in the bride’s brother – Vishnu here and his consort Lakshmi giving off their priced possession to Shiva.

Take a look at this bronze now from the Tanjore Raja Raja Museum.


The bridgegroom – heart swelling with pride, a mischievous smile on his lips, majestic in his poise, triumphantly taking the hand of his beloved.

The bride – embodiment of grace, head bent in his shyness – experiencing the first touch of her beloved as she feels his powerful hand close on top of hers, and her left hand flying up to hide her reddening cheeks.

The symbolisation of taking the hand has lot of significance – for its a promise to be with her, to protect her and live as one – for eternity.

The perfection in this composition, flows through every inch , every curve of the bronze – a visual delight.

Sadly, its all held inside glass cases and its hard to bring out the splendor in more depth and detail.


But i have with me a gifted artist, Mr Prasad – who has sketched this for us ( he says it was his early attempt – but to me its masterclass!!!)

Sketching bronzes is no easy task – for you are not sketching just a piece of art , you are sketching a deity and to bring that grace onto paper – calls for exceptional talent.

I am blessed to be even be born in the soil that brought forth these masterpieces.

Images courtesy: Our Satheesh n various on the net.

Paradise regained – Tanjore Big temple Moat figurines

Who e’re while the happy Garden sung,
By one mans disobedience lost, now sing
Recover’d Paradise to all mankind,….

goes John Milton in the opening lines of Paradise regained. This is how i feel now. After the previous post, which was in the lines of Paradise Lost, harboring absolutely no hope of even spotting this moat sculptures which we saw in the antique snaps.

But Sri Selvaraj our reader, immediately recognised the figurines – he was absolutely certain that he had seen them 40 years back and promised to trace them out, despite the heavy encroachments surrounding it now. But inorder to build the tension the recent unabated rains did’nt allow immediate access.

However,today, as promised he produced possibly one of the most rewarding mails to me. The photos of the sculptures and that they are still safe in the walls exactly as captured in the century old pictures. Here they are.

Feel so happy, truly paradise regained !!

The moat around the Tanjore Big temple

The recent headlines for renovation of the moat around the Big temple in tanjore,
ASI submits Rs.1-crore proposal to renovate moat around Big Temple , took me back some years ago – when i had chanced on a very interesting antique photograph from the archives of the British Library.

The archives are a real treasure trove for enthusiasts. Since we are talking of the Moat around the temple complex, take a look at these rare captures in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s ( photo courtesy – British Library Archives). Shows the moat still filled with water but the whole structure is in a bit of a mess.

But are we just going to see some antique photos today. No, of course there has to be some twist. the twist is this capture.

Dated to the year 1921, to be precise this is the description of the plate

Sawyer, Wilbur A. [Wall, moat, and outer gate tower of the Hindu temple at Thanjavur]. Photographic Print. 1 Image. [2 April 1921].

Look carefully, do you notice something.

There is a very very unusual object on the wall.

What is it, and where is it now !

Thanks to Rhoda for spotting one more ( adding now)

Murthy Nayanar – he who ground his own Elbow

Today, we are seeing another Periapuranam panel from Darasuram. Thanks to Arvind, we see Murthy Nayanar.

Born in a merchant family in the historic city of Madurai, Murthiyar was an ardent devotee of Shiva. He took great pleasure in grinding sandalwood paste to anoint the Lord every day.

Once, a king from the north attacked Madurai with a large army, killed the Pandya King in battle and took over the ancient city. Since he was from a hostile faith, he caused many disturbances to continued service of the Shiva temple. Despite the many hardships, Murthiyar still found ways to find sandal wood for the Lord and kept up his daily service. This infuriated the King and he stopped all means of Sandal wood reached Murthiyar. That day, despite searching everywhere, he couldn’t find any sandal wood and returned to the temple dejected. He was disappointed that he couldn’t anoint the Lord with sandal wood and seeing the empty grinding stone – he placed his own elbow on the stone and ground it – skin, blood, veins and all right unto the bones.

Lets take a look at the sculpture panel now

You can see Murthiyar grinding both his elbows on the round stone, but his face doesn’t show any pain, but a sublime surreal smile on serving his Lord.

The Lord is moved and that time a heavenly voice is heard. You did this out of love for me, all your troubles will pass, the tyrant who took this land will loose all of his to you, weed this land of all the evil that has come in, take care of all and continue your good work, and then come to me !!

Did this come true !! Yes of course it did. But how??, that’s an interesting story as well. Lets see who of our viewers can finish the rest of the story…

What is art

Today, is a first for this site. We have been showcasing heritage treasures for over a year, we carried a series on Art inspired by sculpture, which we will continue to do, but today we are entering a new sphere of art, aka breaking new ground. Inorder for any art to survive it should be capable of evolving, not to be restricted by set rules ( Agamas!!) but before that lets indulge in some notions on art…

What is art? We have seen umpteen sculptures, paintings, statues, panels, monoliths, bas reliefs, murals, frescoes, bronze figurines, wooden carvings – mostly works of men transcending time – one thing common among them is their universal appeal. Be it 400 – 500 -1000 years, yet these creations continue to capture our eye, create a sense of sheer joy when we see them. What is it that is there in art that is so universal in its appeal, that the Bas reliefs of a bygone era – a 1300 year legacy, can cast its spell on an uninitiated person, someone who traverses thousands of miles, from a culture that is alien to the craftsmen, someone who does not share the common heritage, the legends and myths sculpted in these forms,though alien, don’t shy away from inspiring him. Art appeals to something that is primeval in you.

Art is an expression, a medium through which an artist communicates his feelings, his emotions to his viewer. It is this freedom of expression, a willingness to be one with his audience, to make the viewer see what he sees, feels what he feels, that is art. There is an artist inside everyone, locked inside, waiting for a release. Training and exposure unchain this angel inside you, for your mind to fly – to seek release in an explosion of color, form – its sheer poetry on a canvas. The mind is a veritable treasure house of emotions, it captures everything it sees, how it does it is a puzzle, but the images with the strong emotions attached are stored with more priority. ( Just sit back and try to bring back a visible memory – am sure you would vision a scene thats got some powerful visual imagery associated with it). The artist seeks to release this visual imagery through a medium – which is his art. This release is universal in man and not restrained only to the creator, as a viewer, you are drawn into the canvas, sharing the anguish, joy, sorry, exuberance of the artist, a thing of beauty in front of you, brings out a feeling of sheer bliss in you – this ability to transmit your emotions, expressing them in a medium that appeals to others is true Art. Its a bonding that you feel with the creator, an invisible umblical chord, which despite being cut, somehow transmits the emotions felt by one to another. There are no set rules for this expressions, you can google for types of art today and comeup with a list of over 1000 different sounding names, some may appeal to you , some may not, but it is this lack of definition that gives art its magic sheen. An aura of sublime beauty that makes you think sometimes – is this a work of man? So this strong expression of visual imagery combined with a emotional outcry transcendenting barriers of race, creed, language is Art. So by its very nature art is subjective and with evolving times, art evolves as well. It is this constant evolution that gives rise to new styles -how long can you stick to the same staple diet. Art should be appealing to the new generation as well. So thanks to Artist Jeeva’s introduction, to Mr Bala, on whose introduction, we are going to showcase a masterful art by Sri Chalukyan.

A sadly ill maintained mural from the Tanjore temple, with its colors worn off is the inspiration for this work. The panel – Kaalasamhaaramurthy ( kaala – death, samhara – overcome) shows Shiva kicking Yama, the God of death to protect his devotee – Markandeya. We have already seen this story from the chola panel from inside the temple before, so we go straight to the stucco panel.

Proving that true art transcends time, Chalukyan has taken the panel that depicts Shiva stopping time for his devotee ( Markandeya was given a boon to remain 16 forever – how many of us would like to have that boon !!), a story of unconditional surrender to the supreme force and chosen to depict it in a medium that has been in use from prehistoric times – charcoal. A medium that mocks mortal existence, for its our ultimate end point – Ash, which is sported by Shiva.

Human existence is mortal, art is immortal.

Further works of Sri Chalukyan

http://www.chalukyan.com/

Tracking the evolution of the Pallava Somaskanda – Part 1

Friends, thanks for following the posts and offering your encouraging words. Please note these are not thoroughly researched or expert opinions, but merely our path of learning which we are sharing with you. We do not want to say that this is correct, but this sharing is more to inspire many more to walk this path. We try and take care to make sure that we do not publish something that is grossly wrong, but if and when mistakes or another reading is there, we encourage readers to enlighten us as well. Why this long disclaimer for this post, you may ask, well the post is like that.

Today, we are to see part one of a series on the evolution of the Pallava Somaskanda icon. At the outset, we offer our thanks to Dr Gift, whose online resource is heavily relied on in this series.

http://www.cmi.ac.in/gift/Archeaology/arch_somaskanda.htm

This series is aimed at asking questions and find simple yet logical solutions, but the puzzle is indeed big. So without scaring you away, lets jump into the introduction of this series. The Pallava Somaskanda.

The basic argument which will be used in this series is evolution and see how the sculpture evolved into its current form. What is its current form? Borrowing these beautiful bronzes to show the form in its final evolved iconography


To study their features and compare we will also show you tracings ( copies) as line drawings

This is current day bronze. But do we have the first first / earliest or atleast earliest surviving prototype. Yes, we do have. Its in the upper tier of the Dharamaraja Ratha of the five ratha complex in Mamallapuram.


Since this is an intro post, we just let it sink in. In the following posts of this series we will travel around the region, and try to find a logical sequence to the evolution of this image.

Photo credits:
Special thanks to www.Varalaaru.com and www.exoticindiaart.com for the images

Srivatsam – the mole that adorns the chest of Vishnu

Thanks to a chance visit to the local museum along with Sakthis, we are seeing an amazing Chola stone sculpture – Vishnu. Working with granite is a true test for a sculptor, to bring out the soft benevolent grace of Vishnu into the hard stone – working with a iron chisel shaping his supple cheeks, hammering away at his immaculate ornaments, it must have been so fulfilling to him to come out successful in this test of his skill with zero place for error.

Sadly, this museum exhibit has been subjected to some deliberate acts of vandalism – a nose cut would be inappropriate to use here, but such stone sculptures would have had to be scrapped and not suitable for worship !! Its a painful realisation of human need and greed , a human hand created such a thing of beauty while another destroyed it, Gold, God and Glory are indeed engines of great motivation and destruction.

Letting aside the disfigurement, the beauty of this sculpture doesn’t shed its secrets easily to a casual viewer. Leonardo da Vinci apparently said that ” There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see”

What is there to see in this sculpture. Not wanting to go into too much depth, will take a perfect ( to be read as non disfigured one) later to discuss the different aspects.

One is his brilliant lion motif belt buckle.

The other is more interesting and one which we studied in the bronze cast figures. The Mole – srivatsam being represented here as a triangular projection.


The sculptor took great care to depict this, for you have to watch a stone worker work to chip away with his chisel removing layer upon layer to create this effect or projection in stone.

Can we study this in comparison to the bronze and maybe check in other collections and see how this mark evolved!!

How much would you give in for your better half

How much would you give in for your better half ? Sorry to disappoint you, but we are still talking sculpture here.

We had seen in the previous post how the Ardhanari image evolved including and highlighting stylistic elements of the male and female portions and the necessity of the sculptor to bring in the bull ( Nandhi) to balance the image. We stopped with stone sculptures with a promise to bring similar study into metal/bronze images.

Chola bronzes are really stunning creations of sublime beauty. The lure of such pieces are so great that once you are caught in their timeless charm, its difficult not to fall in love with them. So how better to start this discussion on the evolution of Ardhanari form from stone to metal, but to showcase a stunning bronze – not any bronze but a very very special bronze. ( collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio)

Once again a few line drawings ( tracings) to take you through the stylistic aspects

A closeup first.

Some interesting questions. Note Shiva’s side has two hands while Umai has only one. Read somewhere that its to show the male dominance – how ridiculous. This entire concept is based on showcasing the equality of the two sexes! Why then are the two hands for Shiva? Well lets step a bit back and see the larger picture

The exaggerated curve of the waist for Umai , the tribanga ( triple flexion) all follow the styling in stone to the T. ( lets compare the two)

Notice the splendid work on Umai’s hands. Picture her delicate fingers gently holding a lotus by its stalk! Compare it with Shiva’s hand holding the Ax. They balance out each other in terms of composition. So now to our pet theory.

Lets for a second take out the Bull and the additional hand and see the image for arguments sake.

You can see the torso leaning awkardly to the right, for want of a better example – in a crowded bus, imagine you reaching out to the conductor to buy a ticket – thats the pose. Jokes, apart, is shiva giving into Parvathi’s might or is Parvathi being swayed / pulled by shiva? Anyway, the second hand of Shiva resting on the bull is purely to balance the tilt.

Arvind raised an interesting question. The flexing of shiva’s leg.

Quote: “does the bent knees and the posture of the lower limbs on the male side indicate a longer limb (as much as it does muscular limb, which is pronounced in certain sculptures and visually identifiable).
Given the bend of the limb and also the lean of the hip, though I get a feel of longer limb on the male side”

Welcome viewers views on this. We will study this in similar bronze sculptures of simple ( not composite ) forms in an other post.

Hey, but this was introduced as no ordinary bronze. Whats so special about this bronze?

Its an unique style – a composite icon formed with half a male, half a female, a bull all framed into a Trident. Wow!! If this is not poetry, what is!!!

No canvas is too small for the Chola Sculptor

The pull of Pullamangai is so strong that we are not able to leave its premises soon. So we return with another splendid masterpiece captured spectacularly by Arvind once again. This is also a request for readers to spend a few more minutes on their temple visits to take photos with an inclination to share with us – a slight shift from the general pattern of posing in front of a sculpture to show people that you have been there and taking it for its artistic value. Thanks to the digital age, it costs nothing but a few minutes, a steady hand and some creative props.

Sri Arvind has done exactly that.

Hi, this is not an advertisement of handphones !! You will realise the need for this picture once you finish reading the post and seeing this remarkable sculpture.

The ardhanari aspect of Shiva – as the half man half women ( maybe wrongly titled hermaphrodite in some sites), its signifies the larger concept of equality of man and women, of equal sharing of everything including the self – such a far reaching concept has been depicted beautifully in stone here.

There are umpteen references to this form in the thevaram verses, but chose this one adds the Lord’s bull mount as well.

http://www.thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=2&Song_idField=20850&padhi=085&startLimit=7&limitPerPage=1&sortBy=&sortOrder=DESC

when the good natured lady who has breasts like the lid of the casket is one half of his body.the god, Civaṉ who rides on a bull. as he entered into my mind wearing a young crescent which has no comparison and water which reached him. fever, cold fits, the ten vital airs of the body, excessive bile, acts are of such of a good nature as not to afflict us reaching us.
Translation: V.M.Subramanya Aiyar–Courtesy: French Institute of Pondichery / EFEO (2006)

The beauty of this composition is reflected in the masterly craft of the stone sculptor. Its indeed difficult to sculpt the majestic manly pose of shiva in stone, but to merge it with the feminine grace of Parvathi without loosing the form of the figure is indeed masterclass.

Lets look at the two halves separately, you can see how the masculine and feminine aspects have been accentuated to come up with a hybrid composite.

This expertise of the sculptor is seen this masterly understanding of human form and anatomy. Just see his hands sculpt the composite waistline.

The slightly erect shoulders of shiva while compared to the gently curved ones of Parvathi.

Have highlighted his strokes so that you can better enjoy the superlative stonecraft.

The manly stance of shiva brought out by the slightly bent leg to balance the frame as against the sublime grace of the devi’s, in the background – The bull ( Nandhi) with its stance, the folds of its skin, wow.

But we are not finished yet, for the beauty of this sculpture is in its size.

Truely, no canvas is too small for this master sculptor.

The splendor of Pullamangai – Brahmapurirswarar

Friends, today we are in for a feast. A real Sculptural feast..for we are to witness today the imagination and expertise of the chola sculptor running riot in Pullamangai – the famed Brahmapuriswarar Temple. The temple itself is treasure trove of stone art, but sadly forgotten by most. This is our humble attempt to showcase this magnificent edifice of Chola Art. Thanks to Satheesh and Arvind Venkataraman for taking the time to visit this temple, actually there was selfish motive behind sending them there, so that we may all drink in the sheer brilliance of that place – thanks to our two contributors again for patiently getting the lovely photos

Normally, i would start posts with long shots and then move closer. But today we are going to attempt the reverse for maximum effort. Once you read the full post, am sure you will understand what i mean.

We are going to see a series of four panels – hailing the birth of Muruga. Kumarasambhava and a few amazing Yaalis ( my personal favorites)

To start with will show you the yaalis.

How to describe these in words. Such brilliance lends credence to the thought that these are not there just for ornamental value !!

Hmm, well that’s not the post, here is a lovely Vyaala as well.

Ok, I talked of the birth of Muruga and am showing you nothing of it….ok, here they come.

Here we see, the amazing dance of Shiva and Parvathi. Splendid depiction of the synchronised dancing. The masculine grace of Shiva and the feminine charm of Parvathi is a delight to watch. and watched they are by a resurrected Kama ( manmadha) and his wife Rathi.

The next panel we are going to see is a lovely depiction of Shiva wooing his consort.

See the shy stance of the maiden and the stylish pose of Shiva.

The next panel, shows Shiva embracing Parvathi.

This is a very beautiful depiction of the sense of fluid motion that a sculptor manages to bring into stone. Just watch the right hand of Shiva. He is shown with two right hands, one resting nonchalantly on nandhi behind him – but imagine for an instant that he is moving his hand towards parvathi – the next act – the moving arm is portrayed by the second right hand. Can you sense it

And see the expression of Umai, tender love lorn shyness.

The sculptor is not finished yet, see the detailing on Nandhi.

and the two Ganas on the top and the lady attendant below

Lastly we see shanmuga being born and held by the six mothers, Karthigai Pengal.

Not clear is it, lets explain a bit. A seated Shiva is shown lovingly holding one of the babies who is reaching out to his cheek. While the other five are being held by the mothers.

I am sure some of you are already commenting on the quality of the photographs and sculpture ( both positive and negative comments for sure)

Hang on, let me show you the reason

We are not finished yet

Now for the long shot, it shows how easily we can miss these little bundles of beauty

Now, you know why i went reverse order for the zoom!!

By the way, did i mention ` little’