During my end of the year trip to Chennai, I got to attend a few cultural events (Carnatic Music, Bharata Natyam) and ended the trip with a guided tour of the Bronze Gallery at the Madras Museum. The tour was a highlight since it was guided by none other than Dr. Chithra Madhavan, noted historian who seems to be among other things an expert of bronze art of South India. The gallery is remarkable as it houses examples of metal art undoubtedly at its finest, especially those from the Later Chola period (10th-12th centuries CE). Cholas seem to be to bronze, what Pallavas were to granite. Of course, attributing authorship to a dynasty is doing grave injustice to the artisans who actually did the work, be it at Mamallapuram or here. However, the expenses and massive effort required, the consistency of pattern (more technically, iconography) and style across multiple statues unearthed from places that are 100s of kilometers apart, suggests a central and prosperous entity that sponsored it. I am sure there is other evidence linking it to the Cholas, I just don't remember hearing it during the tour. Dr. Chithra walked us through how the statues were made (the Lost Wax method) and described them with great detail, passion, flavored by her own personal insights and opinions. This is an attempt to faithfully record my experience and any omissions or misstatements are entirely because of my poor listening skills.
The gallery consists of three floors, the ground flood dedicated for Saivite art, the first for Vaishnavite, and the second for Buddhist/Jain specimens.
How they were made
The actual sculpting happens using beeswax with which the statue (the level of detailing includes the finger and toe nails of the deity) is first made. Then they used clay of a certain quality that is from the Cauvery basin (even today, the bronze sculptural art thrives in towns on the banks of Cauvery like Kumbakonam) to make the mold surrounding the beeswax. After the clay mold dries, they heat the wax and melt it out. Now the mold is ready to pour the molten metal into it - be it bronze or if you had the resources, gold.
It is believed that they may have done finer detailing - like in the jewellery - after the mold was broken. At this point it is a statue. Making it a deity to be put into a shrine or as a Utsava Murthy in a procession, there is an elaborate ritual that has to be completed. The end of this ritual involves putting a mirror in front of the statue and the pupil in the eye is carved out, so that the God looks at himself as the first sight when he opens his eyes.
It is believed that the Hindu sculptures followed the rules written down in the Agama Shastras and the Shilpa Shastra. This doesn't constrain the creative expression of the sculptor. The finest examples (mostly from the Chola period) sport a delicate pose with perfect iconometry (perfect proportions) and the faces often sport a smile; things that no rule book can possibly teach. I honestly can't imagine how you carve a smile on a face.
How they were found
Many of the Hindu bronze statutes were found near temples, often dug up from the earth or from water bodies (the temple Theppakulam or a nearby well). It is believed that when the invaders came, the priests tried to hide the idols by throwing into the water body or buried it near the temple. In some cases, the priests may have returned and reinstalled the deities, but in other cases, were killed or for whatever reason never came back. The idols were later found in the last 2 centuries by chance when someone was cleaning the theppakkulam or if it dried out.
The iconography
When the idols are found, you of course don't find a label conveniently next to it, so the very interesting problem of identifying the god or mythological figure depicted comes up. As per Wikipedia, iconography is the branch of art history that deals with the identification, description and interpretation of the content of historic artifacts (Robert Langdon of the Dan Brown series was an iconographer). To me, this was the coolest part. You identify the deities based on the weapons they carry, their garments and sometimes their pose. Lord Shiva is portrayed with 4 hands, two of which carry an axe and a doe. The doe represents the human mind that darts about wildly and him holding it represents the control of the mind. The pose of the other two arms depends on which form of Shiva is portrayed. One of my favorite forms is the Tripurantaka. As per the legend, Shiva kills the three sons of Tarakasura using a single arrow. In this form, he proudly wields the bow (except the bow is not part of the statue - it definitely cannot be made as part of the same mold). The bow may have been made and attached separately. But the idols in the museum showed no sign of this. In any case, the way you identify Tripurantaka is how Shiva's left arm is held high up as if he would be holding the bow at its top. To make things interesting, there is another form of Shiva in the museum which is clearly a form of Shiva because of the doe and the axe. However his left arm is a little lower and the right arm is even lower and the fingers are in a position as if they are strumming a string instrument. This is Shiva holding a Veena in the form of Dakshinamurthy. There are only subtle differences between Tripurantaka and Dakshinamurthy. Then there is Adhikara Nandhi who looks like Shiva in that he is holding the doe and the axe. But we know he cannot be Shiva because his hands are in a supplicative posture of the bhakta, in this case Nandhi in human form.There are also the nayanmars, notably Appar who has a distinct ring of beads on his head and a very finely detailed angavashtram.
At the far end of the gallery, is a stunning large Nataraja. The circular framing you see around Nataraja is called a prabha. The other well known prabha is the one around Lord Venkatachalapathy in Tiruppathi (or Hyderabad's own Birla Mandir). The flames you see around Nataraja's prabha (typically 27 in number) represent the 27 nakshatras and the circle holding them represents the cosmos. Shiva's pose is of course well known for its majesty, his hair flaying in both directions as he swirls, his left arm pointing to his crossed left foot asking for the soul to surrender at his feet and his right arm in the blessing mudra. The other stunning idol is that of the Ardhanari, where the difference in between the shape of the shoulders between the male and female sides and the hair on the back are remarkable (Shiva's jata mudi is actually longer than Parvati's half).
The 1st floor holds Vaishnavite work. Vishnu is portrayed with the Sudarshana Chakra and the Conch (shanku). As for the front arms, the left one is down as if holding a mace. There is one rare piece where the chakra is in prayogachakra form, ready to be deployed, turned 90 degrees with the sharp edge facing the enemy. Since we spent more time on the Saivite gallery, and I reached information overload by the time we reached there, I am not going to do justice in this entry. Hope to go there again with more focus on the 1st and 2nd floors.
The Bronze gallery is perhaps 1/10th of the museum and we spent a good 2 hours on it. It is amazing how we don't pay attention to a place (the Chennai Museum) right under our nose and travel all around the world looking for fine art. I know I will not look at any sculpture (bronze or granite) the same way again, looking for the various elements trying to identify the god and the elements to look for artistic excellence.
R. Balaji
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