Chola Bronzes: Nataraja and the Dance of the Cosmos
Between the 9th and 13th centuries CE, the sculptors of the Chola dynasty of Tamil Nadu produced the greatest bronze sculptures in the history of Indian art — and possibly the greatest bronze sculptures in the history of the world. Working in the ancient lost-wax ( cire perdue ) technique, they created figures of extraordinary formal beauty and spiritual precision: the Nataraja (Shiva as Lord of the Dance), the Parvati (the ideal feminine), the Vishnu, the Krishna — each one a theological statement encoded in metal, the divine quality made tangible in a form that could be carried in ritual procession, anointed with sacred substances, dressed in silk and flowers, and worshipped as the deity's actual presence. The Nataraja is the most celebrated: Shiva dancing in a ring of fire, simultaneously creating and destroying, his four arms enacting the cosmic drama — left leg raised, right foot planted on the dwarf of ignorance, the damaru drum of creation in one hand and the fire of destruc...