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Lot Essay
He smiles his charming smile
little white teeth in pink mouth
like silvery crescent moon
in a coral sunset sky –
The lord who reclines on Ananta
the great precious gem
Vasudeva from whose conch-strung girdle
hangs the tortoise pendant –
Will he not walk his toddling walk!
With chuckling laughter he comes
dripping water from his mouth
like sugarcane from an open pot –
I am drowned in waves of joy
as he trips forward
to kiss me with that honeyed mouth.
That cloud-colored One
Lord of the sacred form –
over the heads of those who oppose him
will he not walk his toddling walk!
- Periyalvar, Periyalvar Torumoli 1.7.2, taken from V. Dehejia, Slaves of the Lord: the Path of the Tamil Saints, New Delhi, 1988, p. 101.
Representations of Balakrishna, the dancing child Krishna, from the Chola period are relatively rare and it is perhaps due to the fact that only 16 out of 211 Chola temples were dedicated to Vishnu, with the Chola mandala composed mostly of Shaivite worshippers. These temples were constructed during the Chola rule in the two districts that form the heart of the Kaveri delta – coastal Nagapattinam and the more interior Thanjavur. Therefore, Vishnu and his two avatars, Rama, prince of Ayodhya and Krishna, the enchanting cowherd youth, the king of Dwarka are hard to come by. Images of Shiva and his entourage dominated the Chola scene during the ninth through eleventh century and Vishnu became more popular towards the end of the Chola period.
One of the most loved and revered images from the Vishnu group is that of Balakrishna, the enchanting royal infant brought up in the safety of a cowherd village. The proverbial story relates that as Yashodha finished churning the butter, she would tie the pot of butter high on the rafters to place it out of Krishna’s reach. Aided by his fellow cowherds, Krishna would climb and reach the pot and eat the butter and dance in gleeful abandon (see lot 477 for a Pahari painting on the subject). Sometimes shown with his butterball or in Abhayamudra, the image is joyful, exuding youth and affection towards his devotees. Dance, with its expressive forms of rhythmic movement and dramatic content, became the subject of the most beautiful sculptures during later Chola period as Vaishnavism gained popularity.
Naked, yet lavishly adorned in jewels, Balakrishna is beautifully and skillfully cast, highlighting the youthful, supple muscles and undulating form suspended in a moment of rhythm and movement as he dances on the lotus base, standing on his left foot with the right leg raised, bent at the knee. His outstretched left hand is poised in a graceful gesture of dance, while his right hand is in the gesture of protection. The rhythm is beautifully captured by the sculptor with the eyes of the beholder flowing effortlessly from one arm to the other, tracing the sinuous contour of the torso and then resting on the foot of the divine child in adoration. His hair is styled as row upon row of ringlet-like curls, neatly stacked upon his head in towering glory, a signature element seen is some of the finest examples from the later Chola period. This is further attested by the treatment of the jeweled tassels hugging Krishna's ears and descending towards makara-shaped earrings resting on his shoulders. This is one of the best examples of the subject in private hands and may be compared to the Dancing Child Krishna at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, illustrated in V. Dehejia, The Thief who Stole my Heart:The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes from Chola India, 855-1280, Princeton, 2021, p. 235. Though the example from the Walters Art Museum is of an earlier period, the gracefulness and the lyrical quality flowing through this example is very similar to the present lot. It is a work of a master sculptor, who successfully brings the rhythm and joy of child Krishna to life.
little white teeth in pink mouth
like silvery crescent moon
in a coral sunset sky –
The lord who reclines on Ananta
the great precious gem
Vasudeva from whose conch-strung girdle
hangs the tortoise pendant –
Will he not walk his toddling walk!
With chuckling laughter he comes
dripping water from his mouth
like sugarcane from an open pot –
I am drowned in waves of joy
as he trips forward
to kiss me with that honeyed mouth.
That cloud-colored One
Lord of the sacred form –
over the heads of those who oppose him
will he not walk his toddling walk!
- Periyalvar, Periyalvar Torumoli 1.7.2, taken from V. Dehejia, Slaves of the Lord: the Path of the Tamil Saints, New Delhi, 1988, p. 101.
Representations of Balakrishna, the dancing child Krishna, from the Chola period are relatively rare and it is perhaps due to the fact that only 16 out of 211 Chola temples were dedicated to Vishnu, with the Chola mandala composed mostly of Shaivite worshippers. These temples were constructed during the Chola rule in the two districts that form the heart of the Kaveri delta – coastal Nagapattinam and the more interior Thanjavur. Therefore, Vishnu and his two avatars, Rama, prince of Ayodhya and Krishna, the enchanting cowherd youth, the king of Dwarka are hard to come by. Images of Shiva and his entourage dominated the Chola scene during the ninth through eleventh century and Vishnu became more popular towards the end of the Chola period.
One of the most loved and revered images from the Vishnu group is that of Balakrishna, the enchanting royal infant brought up in the safety of a cowherd village. The proverbial story relates that as Yashodha finished churning the butter, she would tie the pot of butter high on the rafters to place it out of Krishna’s reach. Aided by his fellow cowherds, Krishna would climb and reach the pot and eat the butter and dance in gleeful abandon (see lot 477 for a Pahari painting on the subject). Sometimes shown with his butterball or in Abhayamudra, the image is joyful, exuding youth and affection towards his devotees. Dance, with its expressive forms of rhythmic movement and dramatic content, became the subject of the most beautiful sculptures during later Chola period as Vaishnavism gained popularity.
Naked, yet lavishly adorned in jewels, Balakrishna is beautifully and skillfully cast, highlighting the youthful, supple muscles and undulating form suspended in a moment of rhythm and movement as he dances on the lotus base, standing on his left foot with the right leg raised, bent at the knee. His outstretched left hand is poised in a graceful gesture of dance, while his right hand is in the gesture of protection. The rhythm is beautifully captured by the sculptor with the eyes of the beholder flowing effortlessly from one arm to the other, tracing the sinuous contour of the torso and then resting on the foot of the divine child in adoration. His hair is styled as row upon row of ringlet-like curls, neatly stacked upon his head in towering glory, a signature element seen is some of the finest examples from the later Chola period. This is further attested by the treatment of the jeweled tassels hugging Krishna's ears and descending towards makara-shaped earrings resting on his shoulders. This is one of the best examples of the subject in private hands and may be compared to the Dancing Child Krishna at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, illustrated in V. Dehejia, The Thief who Stole my Heart:The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes from Chola India, 855-1280, Princeton, 2021, p. 235. Though the example from the Walters Art Museum is of an earlier period, the gracefulness and the lyrical quality flowing through this example is very similar to the present lot. It is a work of a master sculptor, who successfully brings the rhythm and joy of child Krishna to life.