Exquisitely poised and supple, Chola bronze deities are some of the greatest works of art ever created in India. They stand silent on their plinths yet with their hands they speak gently to their devotees through the noiseless lingua franca of the mudras of south Indian dance.
For their devotees, their hands are raised in blessing and reassurance, promising boons and protection, and above all, marriage, fertility and fecundity, in return for the veneration that is so clearly their divine right.
It is the Nataraja, Shiva as Lord of the Dance, that is arguably the greatest artistic creation of the Chola dynasty. It is the perfect symbol of the way their sculptors managed to imbue their creations with both a raw sensual power and a profound theological complexity.
For the dancing figure of the god is not just a model of virile bodily perfection, but also an emblem of higher truths: on one level Shiva dances in triumph at his defeat of the demons of ignorance and darkness, and for the pleasure of his consort...
At another level- dreadlocks flying, haloed in fire- he is also dancing the world into extinction so as to bring it back into existence in order that it can be created and preserved anew.
With one hand he is shown holding fire, signifying destruction, while with the other he bangs the damaru drum, whose sound denotes creation. Renewed & purified, the Nataraja is dancing the universe from perdition to regeneration in a circular symbol of the nature of time itself
In Western art, few sculptors- except perhaps Donatello or Rodin- have achieved the pure essence of sensuality so spectacularly evoked by the Chola sculptors, or achieved such a sense of celebration of the divine beauty of the human body.
There is a startling clarity and purity about the way the near-naked bodies of the Gods and the saints are displayed, yet by the simplest of devices the sculptors highlight their spirit and powers, joys and pleasures, and their enjoyment of each other’s beauty.
In Chola sculpture the sexual nature of the Gods is strongly implied rather than directly stated. It is there in the extraordinary swinging rhythm of these eternally still figures, in their curving torsos and their slender arms.
The figures are never completely naked; these divine beings may embody desire, but unlike the sculpture at Khajaraho, Chola deities, while clearly preparing to enjoy bliss, are never actually shown in flagrante; their desire is frozen at a point before its final consummation.
For centuries there has been a tension in Hinduism between the ascetic and the sensual. In the sculptures of the Cauvery delta, this tension is partially resolved. More than in any other Indian artistic tradition, the Gods here are both intensely physical & physically gorgeous.
The sensuality of god was understood as an aspect of his formless perfection and divine inner beauty. Hence, in this tradition, the sensuous and the sacred are not opposed; they are one, and the sensuous is seen as an integral part of the sacred.
In this tradition it was not necessary to renounce the world, in the manner of the Jains or the Buddhists; nor was it necessary to perform the sacrifices of the Vedas. Instead, intensely loving bhakti devotion & pujas to images was believed to bring Salvation as effectively
For if the gods were universal, ranging through time & space, they were forcefully present in holy places & most especially in the idols of the great temples. Here the final climax of worship is still to have darshan: to see the beauty of the divine image, to meet the eyes of god
The gaze of the bronze deity meets the eyes of the worshipper, and it this exchange of vision—the seeing and the seen-- that acts as a focus for bhakti, the intense and passionate devotion of the devotee.
The gods created man,” said the sculptor Srikanda Stpathy, who still makes bronzes in Swamimallai “but here we are so blessed that we- simple men as we are- help create the gods.”
“When I see the worshippers praying to a god I helped bring into being, then my happiness is complete. I know that though the span of my life is only 90 years, the images live for a thousand years, & we live on in those images. We may be mortal, but our work is immortal”
(This text on Chola bronzes and the Stpathys of Swamimallai is taken from my 2009 book, Nine Lives. These photographs will all be on show @ArtVadehra in late May and @grosvenorart London in July)
Here is an early piece of mine on Chola bronzes, from 2006, reviewing Vidya Dehejia's fabulous RA show: theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…
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The caves were carved with clear Gupta influence in the 5th-6thC, probably under the patronage of the Vakataka or Kalachuri dynasty; but not one inscription has ever been found which can solve the conundrum of who commissioned these fabulous master works.
1. Eight armed Shiva Nataraja, in the graceful Lalitha pose, embodying the eternal energy of creation which shapes and gives birth to the universe.
2. The Eternal Shiva- Sadashiva
Of the five faces of Shiva, three are visible:
On the left, Aghora/Bhairavi, the fierce and terrifying aspect of Shiva.
On the right, Vamadeva/Uma, the beautiful, feminine and pleasing aspect of Shiva.
In the centre, Mahadeva/Tatpurusha, the fusion of male and female, locked in meditation, eyelids lowered, lips closed, the embodiment of absolute knowledge.
3. Adhikari Shiva- Shiva in the act of skewering the demon Andhakasura, who had desired the beautiful Parvati and tried to abduct her. Not a good move. Despite having been given a boon by Brahma that any drop of his blood that touched the ground would grow a new demon, Shiva made short work of him by collecting his blood in a skull-cup and feeding it to the blood thirsty goddess Chamunda. But Andhaka realised the error of his ways, praised Lord Shiva and was forgiven. Eventually he was made the Chief Commander of the Shiva's dwarf armies, the Ganas.
ANNOUNCING A MAJOR NEW @EmpirePodUK SERIES:
IRELAND & EMPIRE
Episode One-
COLONISING IRELAND:
Henry VIII, Elizabeth I & The Tudor Conquest of Ireland
Ireland is the only country in Western Europe that has experienced being colonised in the modern era. It was used by England as a laboratory for imperialism, and was the site of bloody colonial wars for centuries, yet many people in the neighbouring United Kingdom have little understanding of Ireland’s history.
The new @EmpirePodUK series on Ireland & Empire begins with the Tudor Conquest. By the 1500s, there were small pockets of English imperialism in Ireland via descendants of the Anglo-Norman invasions of the 1190s, but they were concentrated along the southeastern coast.
However, when Henry VIII launched the Protestant Reformation in England, establishing control over Ireland suddenly became a top priority. In 1541, he declared all Irish people as his subjects. He built upon previous laws banning Irish language and customs, and created a militarised society. And by Elizabeth I’s reign, the Tudors introduced plantations in Ireland which granted land to English and Scottish settlers.
What sort of democracy ransacks bookshops? The Israeli police just pillaged my brilliant friend Mahmoud Muna's wonderful bookshop opposite the American Colony, the best in Jerusalem. Apparently Muna and his nephew Ahmed have both been arrested & marched into court... theurbanactivist.com/idea/a-booksho…
Muna is a wonderful, wise and learned guy and has encouraged generations of travellers to read more deeply into the contested history of Jerusalem. He recently co-edited this excellent collection of essays on Gaza. I hope @pen_int will immediately take up his case.
"Israeli police raid Jerusalem bookshops and arrest Palestinian owners. Raid on Educational Bookstore branches described by rights groups as part of harassment campaign against Palestinian intellectuals"
Avi Shlaim and Eugene Rogan discuss Avi's Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab Jew @JaipurLitFest: "Our Jewish community was very well integrated in Baghdad, where we were one minority among many. Europe had a Jewish problem. Iraq did not."
Avi Shlaim: "My mother regarded Zionism as an Ashkenazi thing. She thought it was nothing to do with us. Most of us were very happy in Baghdad."
Avi Shlaim: "When I was working on this book I came across new evidence that the Mossad let off bombs in Jewish premises in Baghdad to frighten us to emigrate to Israel. The evidence is, I believe, incontravertible. I am completely certain that Israel was responsible for the uprooting of the Jewish community of Baghdad."
ZEBRAS & ZODIACS:
JAHANGIR & THE MUGHAL ART REVOLUTION
The Emperor Jahangir was a true connoisseur of beauty. His reign witnessed a flourishing of art, particularly through his patronage of workshops of brilliant artists who between them created a series of extraordinary masterpieces.
The reigns of Jahangir saw the artistic highpoint of the Mughal atelier, and with it the moment of greatest celebrity for the masters at court. Jahangir awarded his two master artists, the brilliant animal painter Mansur and his rival Abu’l Hasan, the titles Nadir al-Zaman, ‘Wonder of the Age,’ and Nadir al-Zaman, “Wonder of the Times.”
Abu’l Hasan seems to have been a particular favourite of Jahangir. “I have always considered it my duty to give him much patronage,” wrote the Emperor in his own autobiography, the Jahangirnama, “and from his youth until now I have patronised him so that his work has reached the level it has.”
The oldest surviving sculptures of the Buddha in Southeast Asia. Found at Oc Eo, now on the Vietnamese side of the Mekong Delta, and the presumed site of one the very first Indic-influenced courts in the region, known to the Chinese as Funan.
The Chinese called this city state Funan – the Indians, Vyadhapura. We do not know what it was called by its own inhabitants. A Chinese court envoy who came to Funan in the third century ce left the first eyewitness portrait of this nascent trading world. ‘This place is famous for precious rarities from afar,’ wrote the Chinese Xue Zong in the third century ce: ‘pearls, incense, elephant tusks, rhinoceros’ horn, tortoise shell, coral, lapis lazuli, parrots, kingfishers, peacocks, rare and abundant treasures enough to satisfy all desires.’
To 21stC eyes, the tall waterlogged wooden Buddhas found at the site are astonishingly beautiful- like Giacometti's Walking Man, and even more than that, the Etruscan bronze know as The Shadow of the Evening which inspired some of his best work