Page 8 - Stone and Bronze, Indian art of the Chola Dynasty, Metropolitan Museum, NYC

the upper story he sits with crossed legs, on a regular perfect example of this period (except for the face) we
throne.9 In the devakoshta image (Figure 6), Brahma have to refer to the standing Brahma on the neighbor-
again is sitting on a throne, his right foot supported ing Agastyesvaram (see Figure 2).
is
(this part of the sculpture unfinished). The crown is At some distance from the Chola center, a seated
quite elongated. The sacred cord, tied rather high on Brahma in the northern sanctum niche occurs in the
the chest, falls to a positionjust below the stomach band. Kadamba-Vanesvara temple at Erumbur in South
The back hands hold their emblems well above the Arcot district (Figure 7),10 built in the twenty-eighth
shoulders. The front right hand is tilted outward as on year of Parantaka I (935). Here Brahma is seated on a
the Agastyesvaram, in a manner typical for this early double-lotus throne in a yoga position called "lotus
period. The pensive face is sensitively modeled; the
eyes are half-closed. The body is either much eroded 9. Balasubrahmanyam, Four Chola Temples, fig. 9.
10. S. R. Balasubrahmanyam and K. V. Raju, "Parantaka
or, more probably, never was completely finished. The Cola's Erumbur Temple," Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art
back panel fills almost the entire niche. For a more 7 (I939) PP. II3-I 4.

FIGURE 6 FIGURE 7
Brahma, 884. Cholisvaram temple, Kilayur Brahma, 935. Kadamba-Vanesvara temple, Er-
umbur

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