SOUTH INDIA, VIJAYANAGARA PERIOD, 16TH CENTURY

Amongst the most popular images of dancing deities in South India is the Krishna child. The iconography between Dancing Krishna and Sambandar is quite close, making it difficult to identify this figure conclusively. As a child, Krishna would often steal butter from his mother's larder. When his mother Yasodhara caught him, she opened his mouth to find the butter and saw the entire universe, twinkling inside. Similarly, Sambandar was left alone by his father in a temple courtyard, and was fed milk by none other than the goddess Parvati herself. When asked by his father who fed him, he gestured towards the heavens, and therefore Sambandar is shown traditionally pointing to the sky in reference to his deep spiritual knowledge of the universe. Having drunk this cup of divine milk, the child is said to have burst into song and dance, praising Shiva and Parvati. This merging of depictions likely evolved out of the conceptual similarity, with Krishna delighted with the ball of butter and Sambandar happy with Parvati's milk, one being divine, the other blessed. This delightful image of a dancing, divinely-inspired child would remind viewers of either Krishna's or Sambandar's unusual childhoods.