- 278
Sambandar Copper alloy South India, Chola Period
Description
- Sambandar
- Copper alloy
- height 18 in. (45.7 cm)
Provenance
Vasundhara Gallery, Switzerland, December 1975
Condition
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Catalogue Note
Saint Sambandar is among the most famous of the nayanmars, a group of sixty-three Shaivite saints who are widely venerated in South India. These holy men traveled throughout the land singing hymns in praise of Lord Shiva, and their songs and poems form a rich corpus of devotional literature constituting the core of the Tamil sacred canon. Reputed to have lived in the seventh century, Sambandar was the son of Brahmins. According to legend, his father returned from a ritual bath in the temple tank one day to find the previously hungry and crying child playing contentedly with a golden cup while milk trickled from his mouth. In answer to his father's bewilderment, the child pointed upwards to the image of Shiva and Parvati that was carved on the temple tower and burst into joyous song in praise of the Divine Couple. The incident forms the basis of Sambandar's iconography.
The creation of bronze images for the purpose of worship began in the 8th Century during the Pallava period and reached an artistic apogee under the patronage of the Chola monarchs. Chola bronzes were made of by ciré perdue or lost wax process. Besides the skill required in casting, Chola craftsman perfected the harmony of line and form in these images, as well as a vibrant sense of movement as witnessed in the present sculpture. The plump and pleasing proportions of the child saint in the present image bears an immediate realism, while his serene, idealized countenance imparts a sense of divinity.
For a bronze Sambandar from a similar period, see V. Dehejia et al., The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, New York, London & Seattle, 2002, pp. 197-199, cat. 51, although the current work is imbued with greater movement and elaborate embellishments in ornamentation.