Page 2 - Stone and Bronze, Indian art of the Chola Dynasty, Metropolitan Museum, NYC

in
enlargement of the Chola kingdom fights against the ern Chalukya dynasties finally led to a personal union of
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Pandyas in the south and the Rashtrakutas in the north these two kingdoms under Kulottunga (I070-I 18).
and northwest. The capital of the Pandya kingdom, Ceylon was lost but the south was pacified once more,
Madurai, was conquered soon after o, and the Pandya and there were several victorious campaigns into Ka-
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ruler had to flee to his ally, the king of Ceylon. Before linga, celebrated in a famous poem. Diplomatic rela-
916, the Chola king Parantaka I defeated the Rash- tions with Sri-Vijaya, Burma, Cambodia, and China
trakutas and their tributaries. continued. Wars against the Pandyas and the Ceylon-
However, in 949, the Chola crown prince was de- ese weakened the Chola kingdom during the second
feated and killed in a battle with the Rashtrakutas and half of the twelfth century, but Rajaraja II was still
their Ganga allies. The turn for the worse in the Chola strong enough to build the Darasuram temple (before
fortunes lasted until about 985, and the territory of the I 167). A last great ruler, Kulottunga III (I I78-1218),
Cholas was temporarily much reduced, although they delayed the disruption of the empire and built the last
managed to lead some victorious campaigns against great Chola temple at Tribhuvanam, probably after
the Pandyas and the Ceylonese in the south as well as the third conquest of Madurai (c. I205).
against the Rashtrakutas in the north. The campaigns against the Pandyas and Sinhalese
The accession of Rajaraja I in 985 marked the be- continued with varying fortune. One traditional en-
ginning of the great period of Chola power. He de- emy, the Western Chalukya kingdom, collapsed under
stroyed the Pandyas and Cheras in the south and, in the revolt of the Hoysalas and other former feudatories
an amphibious expedition, overran northern Ceylon. (c. I90). But the Pandya resurgence finally was vic-
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He conquered the Ganga territory in Mysore and, torious, and the Cholas had to recognize the Pandya
around 1007, administered a crushing defeat to the king as suzerain. King Rajendra III (I246-I279) made
Western Chalukyas, successors of the Rashtrakutas in an unsuccessful attempt to restore the Chola power,
the Deccan. Toward the close of his reign, he destroyed and Jatavarman Sundara Pandya, who came to the
the Chera fleet and conquered the Maldive Islands. It Pandya throne in 1251, once more brought the old
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was Rajaraja who in 10IO built the Rajarajesvara, the Pandyan kingdom to the peak power in south India,
great temple at Tanjavur. defeated the Hoysalas, and invaded Ceylon. His suc-
His son and successor, Rajendra I, completed the cessor again defeated the Hoysalas in I279 along with
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conquest Ceylon (I o8) and installed a viceroy over their ally Rajendra III, who was the last Chola king.
the Pandya and Chera countries in the south. He de- This was the end of the Chola dynasty and of one of the
feated the Western (Deccan) and Eastern (Kistna most glorious periods in south Indian history.'
River) Chalukyas as well as the rulers of Kalinga This article will summarize the theological and icono-
(Orissa) and marched northward until he reached the graphical traditions that the Chola sculptors so beau-
Ganges. After this victorious campaign to the north he tifully translated into stone and bronze. It will examine
built his new capital and the great temple at Gangai- some of the most important images of Hindu deities,
kondacholapuram; into the temple tank was poured nearly all of them in situ in dated or datable monu-
water that his war elephants had carried back from the ments, along with comparable examples in The Metro-
sacred Ganges River. Called to help by the Khmer politan Museum of Art.
king Suryavarman I, Rajendra also launched, during
the first quarter of the eleventh century, one or two
maritime expeditions against the kingdom of Sri- I. BRAHMA
Vijaya in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra; this
country had probably been obstructing his profitable We generally think of Brahma as one of the members
trade with Cambodia and China. Rajendra sacked -together with Vishnu and Siva-of the Hindu Trin-
the capital and took the king into captivity. ity (trimurti), which represents three basic aspects of
Under his successors, the campaigns against the God: as creator, preserver, and destroyer. However,
Chalukyas were repeated; so were the naval expedi- the concept of the trimurti was a relatively late and
tions. Intermarriage between the Chola and the East- artificial one, developed during Gupta times in order

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