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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Fabulous new @EmpirePodUK episode-
This one is a complete cracker
The second in our Empress series-
Helena, Queen of the World, Mother of Empire and Finder of the One True Cross
with the wonderful @peter_sarris
Born in poverty at a time when the Roman Empire was in danger of cracking up and disintegrating, Helena was set for a life of obscurity as a stable hand, bar maid, and, according to some, a prostitute. Yet, in the most improbable tale she rose through the social hierarchy to be proclaimed Empress, then later canonised, and declared by some as Queen of the World and Mother of Empire.
Not only was she mother and most trusted advisor to the Emperor Constantine, but she played a pivotal role in the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity.
Monoliths exist throughout the length and breadth of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, often in groups of three. However, the biggest collection of Megalithic stones can be found in the market village of Nartiang, which is a sort of Himalayan Callanish. These consist of both Menhirs (upright stones, believed to be male) and Dolmens (flat stones in the horizontal position, conceived as female) and known as Moo Kynthai. The elders of the village still sit on the stones on market day once a week, divide revenue due to the village and decide where to spend it.
Villages here still give each other menhirs, though today they usually arrive by truck 🚚 rather than wooden rollers from the quarry.
Today, the stones can have multiple functions: they can be commemorative, or else stand in as monuments marking the spots of ritual sacrifices, cremations, durbars and the sites of battles.
Is @michaelgove going to be calling in the Israeli ambassador and break off diplomatic relations?
Gove "condemned chants, including “from the river to the sea”, that have become a common feature of anti-Israel marches, suggesting that they amounted to “the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate”.
It should also be pointed out that the same phrase which @michaelgove condemns as “the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate” appears as article 1 of the charter of the ruling Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Time to break off diplomatic relations and apply sanctions surely?
For Gove's own extremist position with regard to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people I recommend my review of his profoundly ignorant book Celsius 7/7, which appeared as lead review in his own @thetimes. He tried to have it spiked, but thanks to the bravery of the literary editor who threatened to resign, it was carried and was online for a decade. He seems to have recently had his mates on the paper take it down- but luckily I have a copy. You're welcome, Michael!
New from @EmpirePodUK
Iran & Saudi Arabia: The Rivalry that Split the Islamic World
with the wonderful @KimGhattas
1979 was the year that changed everything in the Middle East, setting it on the path to today. In Iran, the Islamic Revolution established the nation as a theocracy that sought to defend Shi'ism across the world.
In Saudi Arabia, the siege of the Holy Mosque led to the nation embracing a more radical Sunni Islam that it began to export around the world.
Exactly what Israel did to 530 Palestinian villages in 1948 "so that they would have nothing to come back to." Everything the IDF do every day in Gaza is a reminder that Israel is a state built on the ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian inhabitants.
The amazing @amiasrinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at @UniofOxford, talks to @PragyaTiwari about free speech on campus. In Cancelled- Can I Speak Freely she discusses attempts by government and wealthy donors to control debate among scholars, while also taking on the Left for muzzling obnoxious views.
@amiasrinivasan worries that universities will increasingly be run by their corporate boards terrified of offending the government and donors and unwilling to defend free speech