Page 52 - Bonhams March 22 2022 Indian and Himalayan Art NYC

The consort of Shiva, Parvati is associated with fertility, love, and devotion. Considered the
epitome of female perfection, particularly when this ideal is expressed in alignment with marital,
societal, and dharmic concord, she is beloved as the perfect maiden, wife, and mother. Moreover,
through the prism of Shaktism, she is the active animating force, enlivening her counterpart Shiva
with skill, power, and prowess.

Here, Parvati wears a tall crown resembling piled rings of diminishing size called akaranda mukata.
Her right hand is raised in the gesture of holding a flower (kataka mudra) while the left lingers
seductively beside her thigh (lolahasta mudra). She is cast with an elegant silhouette, agile with
a degree of naturalism and fluidity about her tribhanga pose that otherwise becomes hardened
and static in late Chola bronzes of the 12th and 13th centuries. She is “willowy, tall and slender,
with softly rounded breasts”, as Dehejia has described other Chola Parvatis of the 10th century
(Dehejia, The Thief Who Stole My Heart, 2021, p.102). Additionally, the comparative restraint in
her ornamentation, such as the absence of ornate jeweled clasps hugging the arcs of her ears, or
makara-snout earrings resting on her shoulders, help situate the bronze within the 10th century,
within a period traditionally regarded as early Chola (cf. Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes,
1963, pp.24-43).

Describing the foundation of the early Chola style by the mid-10th century, Dehejia notes:
“There is nothing tentative about the workmanship of these first processional bronzes. Despite
the political instability of a struggling and nascent Chola kingdom, skilled artists working in wax
modeling workshops that were attached to metal foundries produced stately bronzes of rare
elegance that convey an assured sense of artistic maturity. Certain moments in time generate
unprecedented originality and creativity, and the early Chola period is one such rare moment.”
(Dehejia, 2021, p.38).

This elegant Parvati finds its closest stylistic comparisons with other bronzes attributed to the
second half of the 10th century. For example, the bold floret textile designs that enliven her
formfitting lower garment are shared by a goddess in the Cleveland Museum of Art attributed
c.950 (Dehejia,The Sensuous and the Sacred, 2002, p.123, no.12). The design also appears
on a bronze Sita in the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, attributed c.980-90 (ibid., p.191, no.47).
Additionally, the Sita displays a similar encircling body-chain (channavira) that comes together
between the present Parvati’s breasts and then meets again along her spinal column, which is also
worn by Parvati sculptures attributed to c.979 in the Calico Museum of Textiles & The Sarabhai
Foundation Collections, Ahmedebad, and Konerirajapuram temple in Tamil Nadu (Dehejia, 2021,
pp.102-5, figs.4.6 a-b & 4.8 a-b). The face and crown compare favorably with a late 10th-century
standing image of Parvati in the Thanjavur Art Gallery (Barrett, Early Chola Bronzes, 1965, no.22).
Also see examples of Parvati in Somaskanda groups (Czuma, Indian Art from the George P.
Bickford Collection, 1975, no.19; Leidy, Treasures of Asian Art, 1994, fig.33, p.51).

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