Page 125 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

Representations of Balakrishna, the dancing child
Krishna, from the Chola period are relatively rare and it
is perhaps due to the fact that only 16 out of 211 Chola
temples were dedicated to Vishnu, with the Chola
mandala composed mostly of Shaivite worshippers.
These temples were constructed during the Chola rule
in the two districts that form the heart of the Kaveri
delta – coastal Nagapattinam and the more interior
Thanjavur. Therefore, Vishnu and his two avatars,
Rama, prince of Ayodhya and Krishna, the enchanting
cowherd youth, the king of Dwarka are hard to come
by. Images of Shiva and his entourage dominated the
Chola scene during the ninth through eleventh century
and Vishnu became more popular towards the end of
the Chola period.
One of the most loved and revered images from the
Vishnu group is that of Balakrishna, the enchanting
royal infant brought up in the safety of a cowherd
village. The proverbial story relates that as Yashodha
finished churning the butter, she would tie the pot of
butter high on the rafters to place it out of Krishna’s
reach. Aided by his fellow cowherds, Krishna would
climb and reach the pot and eat the butter and dance
in gleeful abandon (see lot 477 for a Pahari painting
on the subject). Sometimes shown with his butterball
or in Abhayamudra, the image is joyful, exuding youth
and affection towards his devotees. Dance, with its
expressive forms of rhythmic movement and dramatic
content, became the subject of the most beautiful
sculptures during later Chola period as Vaishnavism
gained popularity.
Naked, yet lavishly adorned in jewels, Balakrishna is
beautifully and skillfully cast, highlighting the youthful,
supple muscles and undulating form suspended in a
moment of rhythm and movement as he dances on the
lotus base, standing on his left foot with the right leg
raised, bent at the knee. His outstretched left hand is
poised in a graceful gesture of dance, while his right
hand is in the gesture of protection. The rhythm is
beautifully captured by the sculptor with the eyes of
the beholder flowing effortlessly from one arm to the
other, tracing the sinuous contour of the torso and
then resting on the foot of the divine child in adoration.
His hair is styled as row upon row of ringlet-like curls,
neatly stacked upon his head in towering glory, a
signature element seen is some of the finest examples
from the later Chola period. This is further attested by
the treatment of the jeweled tassels hugging Krishna's
ears and descending towards makara-shaped earrings
resting on his shoulders. This is one of the best
examples of the subject in private hands and may be
compared to the Dancing Child Krishna at the Walters
Art Museum, Baltimore, illustrated in V. Dehejia, The
Thief who Stole my Heart:The Material Life of Sacred
Bronzes from Chola India, 855-1280, Princeton, 2021,
p. 235. Though the example from the Walters Art
Museum is of an earlier period, the gracefulness and
the lyrical quality flowing through this example is
very similar to the present lot. It is a work of a master
sculptor, who successfully brings the rhythm and joy of
child Krishna to life.

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