Casting
There once lived a king called Vajra. He
was a pious and devout man. One day he found
himself standing at the feet of sage Markandeya
with a request. "Oh! Great sir, grant
me but one wish," begged the king.
"Teach me the art of iconography so
that I may make my own idol for worship,
using my devotion and yet another input."
Though the sage appreciated King Vajra's
sentiment, he was forced to ask him a few
questions before handing him the first lump
of metal. "Do you know how to paint?"
asked the sage. The king did not, but requested
that he may be taught it if that was a pre-requisite
to learning sculpture. "But for that
you need to know how to dance," insisted
the sage. To learn dancing, in turn the
king was required to have a rudimentary
knowledge of instrumental music, which needed
a foundation in vocal music. So the king
had to begin with the octaves to be able
to pour his sensibilities into any other
material and make a form out of it. It is
no surprise therefore that the beauty of
Indian bronzes lies in their efficient capturing
of all these artistic forms within the figure
created. So close is the association that
the different disciplines also share certain
common terminology like the word tala. To
a sculptor tala means one measure and to
a musician or a dancer it refers to one
beat, or the measure.
This unified aspect of culture is more
than evident when one sees the fluidity
of movement in these static figures. With
Shiva (one of the gods of Hindu religious
Trinity) symbolizing the cosmic forces of
nature, dance becomes the epitome of life's
rhythmic motion. The sthapathi or craftsman
seeks to capture this motion in bronze.
The contours of the legs, the arms and the
whole body of a standing figure has so much
of realism in it that one can perceive not
only the previous stance but also the following
one.
The evolved technique and the material
used contribute to the magnificence of the
end product in these bronze figurines. The
conventions, rituals and instructions of
measurements etc. are the same old traditional
ones, which have come down through the ages.
While bronze iconography is age-old, it
was only around the 10th century AD that
there was a large-scale revival of this
art form. Subsequently, within a few centuries,
it reached its zenith. At this time, there
was a strong religious fervor in the southern
states following the waning of the influences
of Buddhism and Jainism. The Chola reign
saw many temples being constructed. The
presiding deity was constructed in granite.
But there was a need for more idols that
could be carried around the village or town
on festive occasions. These figures were
called utsavamurthis. Granite was too heavy
for this purpose and so came the alloy of
five metals symbolizing the five elements.
The metals were copper, brass and lead with
a little bit of gold and silver.
Generally, deities are made from bronze.
The favorite ones being Lord Shiva and his
consort Parvati, Ganesha, the elephant faced
one and Lord Rama, the incarnation of Vishnu.
These are of course the more popular ones.
However, there are innumerable variations
upon the same theme, which capture every
myth that is associated with the deities.
After the Cholas, the degree of finesse
seemed to fade away from this art and was
never carried into subsequent generations
though newer styles did evolve. The tradition
has remained unbroken. | 
