Chola Bronze Statues, Antique Chola Bronze Statues: Kaalita

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About Chola Bronzes

The earliest bronze statues in India were cast in the Indus Valley about 2300 BC, reaching an artistic peak during south India's Chola Dynasty (c. 9th to 13th centuries AD). The patronage of dynamic Chola rulers during this period sparked unprecedented growth in philosophy, poetry, dance, temple architecture, religious devotion and fine art.

At some point worship of the gods deep within massive stone temples exclusively by elite priests underwent a transformation. A text of the time specifies the gods shall take on both an immobile form or mulamurti (usually a fixed icon of stone in the central sanctum) and a processional form, or utsavamurti, cast in bronze. From this point onward the gods would be brought forth out of the temple and made accessible to all, regardless of caste. (Note: some of Kaalita's pieces will have holes in the base to enable poles to be used to carry the piece in procession)

The unadorned figures we know today were never seen outside a temple’s inner sanctum except by attending priests. It was only after ceremonial purification and adornment with silks, jewels and flowers, that the bronze figure was transfigured into a living, breathing, seeing divinity; a transformation central to the spiritual importance of Chola bronzes.

Imagine for a moment attending a religious procession of the Chola Period; a rite carried out in the 21st century just as it was in the 9th. Out of respect to the god you would bathe and don your best clothing and jewellery. The streets and houses along the route would have been swept clean, lit by torches and decorated with banners and tree branches. As the procession leaves the temple, you would begin to hear the deep beating of the drums, a cacophony of conch shell horns, and the rhythmic chanting of those around you. A caparisoned and decorated elephant carrying a banner comes into view. Men and women from the temple would pass by chanting and dancing. Then, crushed by all around you in the mounting excitement, you'd see palanquins bearing your god, nearly hidden beneath silk and flowers and gold; and in the belief known as dharshan, the god within the bronze figure is at that moment seeing you in return.

So when you look upon a Chola bronze statue, think of it in its context. The figure's aesthetic qualities are obvious to anyone, but a truer appreciation comes only with an understanding of why these extraordinary works of art were created.

The Chola bronze statues, offered by Kaalita differ from these ancient sacred figures only in their being cast in the modern era.

Chola Symbolism

Artists creating Kaalita's reproductions are guided by an ancient Hindu tradition of proportion, expression, adornment, body pose and hand gestures.
If you look closely you'll see Chola bronzes do not literally represent the mortal human body; rather they are inspired by spiritualisation and the cosmic. The body must be smooth, seemingly filled with the sacred breath of life, or prana. It represents a body purified of bone and veins and muscle, a body swollen with prana and whose elements flow smoothly from one to another.

Every detail of the figure has a traditional meaning that guides the artist's hand. The units of measurement are the angula, or a finger width, and the tala, the distance from the chin to the forehead. Twelve angulas equal one tala. The artist creates a figure using an ancient system where the head is one tala high, the neck is four angulas, the torso three talas, and so on. The figure’s eyes, for example, are to be shaped like a small fish or lotus petal; the eyebrow like an archer’s bow; the lips shaped like lotus blossoms; the chin like a mango stone; and the arms like an elephant’s trunk or, in the case of a woman’s arms, long and tapered like a perfectly formed edible root. The male torso should resemble the frontal view of a bull’s head or the chest of a lion. The female should have full breasts, a narrow waist like a drum (damaru), and generous hips, all symbolising nature's abundance and the female procreative powers. Goddesses are slightly shorter in stature and slender, while in a grouping of deities, lesser gods and juveniles are proportionally smaller. These prana filled bodies evoke the serene otherworldliness of spiritual beings who have passed beyond the physicality of the human body.

In Indian art, worshippers recognize images of an individual deity or spiritual being by the particular attributes he or she holds, and by the deity’s pose, gestures, symbols and adornment.

Body Poses

Many poses commonly found in art are drawn from yoga which, according to myth, is practiced by the gods. Another source for poses and gestures in Chola sculpture is classical dance which evolved in Hindu temple ritual and in performances at royal courts. With a visual idiom of particular movements and gestures familiar to their audience, dancers acted out the adventures of the gods and heroes of India’s great epics.

Curving of the body in standing or sitting poses is known as bhanga and the most common bhangas in Chola art are:

Samabhanga; frontal pose with both feet equally weighted or with one knee very slightly bent.
Tribhanga; a swaying pose with the weight on one leg, the head and lower body slanting in one direction, and the torso moving in the opposite direction. This thrice- bent pose suggests potential movement .
Lalitasana; the seated pose of royal ease in which one leg is folded so that the foot rests on the seat and the other leg hangs down.
Atibangha; dancing pose in which all the weight rests on one leg.
Natarajasana; an active standing pose in which a deity tramples upon a demon; one leg is bent, the other is stretched out at an angle.

Hand Positioning

Known as mudras, each has a specific meaning. A devotee learns at a glance whether the deity's hands symbolise protection, meditation, a threat, or a blessing. Again, each figure will have its own traditional mudras specific to the god's attributes and responsibilities.

Multiple Features

One of the most striking features of Hindu art is the portrayal of multiarmed and occasionally multiheaded gods. These images express the multiple powers and responsibilities of the gods. The several hands were needed to display the deity’s attributes and make gestures symbolising concepts associated with the deity. The attributes, gestures, and physical form of each god are distinct and worshippers are able to identify each god by these features. Occasionally a god's features are ugly and horrific but these wrathful deities are protective because their terrifying energy is directed against evil and ignorance. They represent human failings such as greed, hatred, and ignorance which one must recognize and overcome on the path to enlightenment. Hindu gods may be depicted as serene in one guise and wrathful in another, and such contrasts reflect the Indian belief that dualities in our world are only an illusion. Seemingly opposite forces are merely aspects of the same ultimate reality.

Skin Colour

While no factor in bronze, in paintings and to some degree in stone sculpture, the gods are often depicted as having skin the colour of 'new clouds', a grey blue colour representing their otherworldliness.

Adornment

Hindu deities and bodhisattvas wear the lavish jewelry and elaborate hairstyles of Indian royalty as well as the “sacred thread,” an upper caste symbol of learning and the transition to adulthood. It crosses the left shoulder and falls in a curve across the torso and around the right hip. The delicate detail in hairstyle, jewellery, scarves, ribbons and draped silk create a wonderful contrast to smooth prana-filled flesh.

Attributes

The Lotus; the quintessential Indian symbol is the lotus, sign of spiritual perfection. As its flower rises untainted from the mud and blooms to the sun, so the Hindu devotee attempts to rise above the impure, illusory material world and become transformed through enlightenment into a spiritually perfected being. The lotus appears in art both as a complete blossom and as stylized petals that form the pedestal upon which deities sit or stand.

The Wheel (or chakra); symbolizes time and the cycles of creation and destruction forming successive universes. It is also one of Vishnu’s attributes, where it functions as a weapon in the form of a discus.

Haloes; while more common in Buddhist art the halo is still used by Hindu artists to depict transcendent radiance. It is thought that this luminous symbol originated somewhere in Western or Central Asia and spread eastward to India by the second century AD, eventually moving westward by the fourth century to appear in early Christian art.

There are countless other attributes and symbols associated with specific gods. Visit our catalogue for more detail.

Guided by this ancient system, Chola artists create idealised figures where each deity's pose, gesture, attributes, and adornments enable the worshipper to more fully connect with their god. The genius of the artists who create Chola Bronzes is their ability to blend the sensuous grace and beauty of the idealised mortal within this structure of traditional sacred symbolism.