A Copper Alloy Figure of Chandikeshvara, South India, Chola Period, 12th/13th Century

This elegantly cast sculpture depicts the Saint Chandesha, or Chandikeshvara, a devotee of Shiva. Between the sixth through tenth centuries, fervent followers of Shiva arose in south India and became known as nayanmar or ‘leaders’. Their impassioned devotion, or bhakti, to Lord Shiva as the supreme deity gave rise to idealized portraits of these Saints cast in copper, which in turn were worshipped.

The hagiographies of these saints were composed in poetic accounts illustrating stories of their supreme reverence to Shiva. The miraculous story of the cowherd Chandesha recounts how he worshipped a small mud lingam using milk from the cows to make his daily ritual offering. Hearing of his son’s wasteful use of the milk, his father came to scold him, only to find him so deeply engaged in meditation that his reprimands went unnoticed. Furious, his father kicked the lingam and Chandesha in return struck his father with his staff which transformed instantly into Shiva’s battle axe. Lord Shiva, pleased with the devotion shown to him, blessed Chandesha with a divine garland.

The graceful reverence of Chandikeshvara in this sculpture can be seen in the gentle position of the hands held at his chest in anjali mudra, as his body drops into the right hip in the posture of tribhanga. The body is ample and fleshy, and bedecked in scrolling armbands, bracelets at the wrists, a collared necklace, tassels along the ears, and a tall jatamukuta redolent of the twisted locks of hair seen in cast sculptures of Shiva (see Vidya Dehejia, Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India, London, 2006, pp. 76-77-3, cat. no. 9). The fluttering dhoti falls across both thighs and is incised with a foliate design and secured with a girdle clasp hung in a half loop, the dhoti and belt design which can be related to another similar design in a cast of Saint Sundarar (Dehejia, ibid., 2006, p. 161, cat. no. 32).

Other examples of Chandikeshvara include two slightly earlier figures of the saint, one in the British Museum (acc. no. 1988.0425.1), which shows a similar robust physique to the present sculpture (see Vidya Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, New York, 2003, pp. 162-3, cat. no. 33) and one in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (acc. no. 50-19), which shows a similar girdle style and arrangement of hair.