INDE DU SUD, TAMIL NADU, FIN DE L'ÉPOQUE CHOLA-DÉBUT DE L'ÉPOQUE VIJAYANAGAR, XIIIÈME-XIVÈME SIÈCLE

The festival bronzes of South India experienced a remarkable flowering during the Chola dynasty (9th–13th centuries), often celebrated as the Golden Age of Tamil art. These portable bronzes played a central role in Brahmanical rituals, where they were carried from the temple to the city streets, enabling a unique spiritual exchange called darshan—a mutually empowering gaze between humans and deities. Before each procession, the sculptures would undergo ritual purification, involving a ceremonial bath, dressing, and adornment, preparing them for public veneration. The Chinese pilgrim Yi Jing, who traveled in India from 671 to 695, provides an early account of these rituals, noting how “images, whether large or small, are to be brightened by rubbing them with fine ashes or brick powder, and pouring pure water over them, until they become perfectly clear and beautiful like a mirror” (J. Takakusu (trans.), I-tsing: A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago AD 671–695, London, 1896, p. 150). Despite layers of adornment covering all but their faces, Chola bronzes were crafted with meticulous attention to detail. Their idealized forms embody both serenity and restraint, with elegantly rippling garments and finely rendered jewelry that convey an inner beauty. This work may be compared with a 12th-century bronze figure of Ganesha from the Pan Asian Collection (P. Pal, The Sensuous Immortals, 1978, pp. 130–131, cat. no. 75).