Collections-Virtual Museum of Images and Sounds

Site Name: Tiruvengadu / Tiruvenkadu

Date: 900-999 CE

Subject: Shiva as Pradosamurti with Parvati, back. The Uma Maheswara idols taken on procession as Utsavmurtis on Pradosha or the thirteenth day of every fortnight in the Hindu calendar. A detail from the image. This is the back view of the image.

Site Name: Kilayur

Date: 900-925 CE

Subject: Shiva, seated. A bronze sculpture of a seated figure of the Hindu god Shiva. He has four arms and carries a parasu (axe) in his right rear hand, an antelope in his left rear hand. He holds his right fore hand in abhaya mudra (the gesture of protection). One leg is raised upon the throne in lalitasana (position of royal ease).

Site Name: Kilayur

Date: 900-925 CE

Subject: Shiva, detail: A bronze sculpture of a seated figure of the Hindu god Shiva. He has four arms and carries a parasu (axe) in his right rear hand, an antelope in his left rear hand. He holds his right fore hand in abhaya mudra (the gesture of protection). One leg is raised upon the throne in lalitasana (position of royal ease). Shiva wears the makarakundala or the earring of a man on his left ear and the talanka or the earring of a woman on his left ear represents the principle of Ardhanarishwara showing the equality and the complementary nature of both male and female principles in nature.

Site Name: Kilayur

Date: 900-925 CE

Subject: Shiva, seated, back. A bronze sculpture of a seated figure of the Hindu god Shiva. He has four arms and carries a parasu (axe) in his right rear hand, an antelope in his left rear hand. He holds his right fore hand in abhaya mudra (the gesture of protection). One leg is raised upon the throne in lalitasana (position of royal ease). This is the back view of the image.

Site Name: Kilayur

Date: 900-925 CE

Subject: Shiva, back, detail: A bronze sculpture of a seated figure of the Hindu god Shiva. He has four arms and carries a parasu (axe) in his right rear hand, an antelope in his left rear hand. He holds his right fore hand in abhaya mudra (the gesture of protection). One leg is raised upon the throne in lalitasana (position of royal ease). This is a detail of the back view of the image.

Site Name: Jambavanodai

Date: 1000-1099 CE

Subject: Valli: A detail of the Hindu goddess Valli, the second consort of the god Kartikeya.

Site Name: Nagapattinam

Date: 1000-1099 CE

Subject: Buddha: In South India, the Buddhist and Jain faiths were quite vital in the Chola period. Buddhist monasteries attracted donations of individual images of the Buddha and Buddhist deities. The early arrival of Buddhism in south India is evident from the ancient Buddhist monastic sites that dot Godavari and Krishna basins of the Andhra region as well as literary sources. However with the upsurge of Shaiva nayanmars and the Vaishnava alvars, the power of Buddhists greatly reduced. Buddhism received new impetus during the eleventh century partly because of the arrival of a colony of Buddhists from the kingdom of Shrivijaya in Indonesia. In this image of Buddha, he has a serenely elegant face and elongated ear lobes, stands erect with his right hand raised in the abhaya gesture of protection and his left lowered in the varada gesture of wish granting. His head is covered with tiny curls, and rising from the top of the head in a stylized flame, characteristic of south Indian images of Buddha. His monastic robe covers his shoulders and the scalloped folds along its lower outer edges is a feature that becomes highly pronounced from the twelfth century onwards. Chola Buddhist bronzes are portable images intended for processional festivities as is evident from the holes in the Buddha's circular lotus pedestal intended to help hoist the image and the ceremonial aspects of Hindu and Buddhist images overlapped considerably. This is the front and the back view of the image.

Site Name: Perunthottam

Date: 800-899 CE

Subject: Vishnu: From the time of the devotional poet-saints through the Chola period, temples became an increasingly prominent part of the Tamil religious landscape. The scale of annual festivals also expanded greatly in Chola times. With this development, the demand for processional icons also increased. Bronze images of Vishnu were the first Hindu metal images being produced toward the end of the Pallava period (750-850 CE). Vishnu the Preserver is most often portrayed holding the militant attributes that symbolize his protective role. Here he holds a chakra (war discus) in his upper right hand and a shankha (conch battle trumpet) in his upper left hand. His lower left hand makes the gesture of resting on a gada (mace), while his lower right hand is held in abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear).

Site Name: Thiruvidaimarudur

Date: 1200-1299 CE

Subject: Skanda: Skanda, the Hindu god of war who was the firstborn son of Shiva. Skanda has obscure origins and probably represents a conflation of a number of Shiva myths. In this figure he holds a lotus bud in each hand. The image shows front and back of the sculpture.

Site Name: Adambar

Date: 1400-1499 CE

Subject: Vishnu: From the time of the devotional poet-saints through the Chola period, temples became an increasingly prominent part of the Tamil religious landscape. The scale of annual festivals also expanded greatly in Chola times. With this development, the demand for processional icons also increased. Bronze images of Vishnu were the first Hindu metal images being produced toward the end of the Pallava period (750-850 CE). Here, Vishnu the Preserver is most often portrayed holding the militant attributes that symbolize his protective role. Here he holds a chakra (war discus) in his upper right hand and a shankha (conch battle trumpet) in his upper left. His lower left hand makes the gesture of resting on a gada (mace), while his lower right hand is held in abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). The image included both from and back views of the sculpture.

Site Name: Manjakkudi

Date: 1200-1299 CE

Subject: Vishnu: From the time of the devotional poet-saints through the Chola period, temples became an increasingly prominent part of the Tamil religious landscape. The scale of annual festivals also expanded greatly in Chola times. With this development, the demand for processional icons also increased. Bronze images of Vishnu were the first Hindu metal images being produced toward the end of the Pallava period (750-850 CE). Here, Vishnu the Preserver is most often portrayed holding the militant attributes that symbolize his protective role. Here he holds a chakra (war discus) in his upper right hand and a shankha (conch battle trumpet) in his upper left. His lower left hand makes the gesture of resting on a gada (mace), while his lower right hand is held in abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). The image included both front and back views of the sculpture.

Site Name: Perunthottam

Date: 1000-1099 CE

Subject: Visnu, standing, front and back views. From the time of the devotional poet-saints through the Chola period, temples became an increasingly prominent part of the Tamil religious landscape. The scale of annual festivals also expanded greatly in Chola times. With this development, the demand for processional icons also increased. Bronze images of Vishnu were the first Hindu metal images being produced toward the end of the Pallava period (750-850 CE). Here, Vishnu the Preserver is most often portrayed holding the militant attributes that symbolize his protective role. Here he holds a chakra (war discus) in his upper right hand and a shankha (conch battle trumpet) in his upper left. His lower left hand makes the gesture of resting on a gada (mace), while his lower right hand is held in abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). The image included both front and back views of the sculpture.