The bronze Shiva of the Chola dynasty

The Chola dynasty (9th to 13th century) was one of the wealthiest in southern India, and much of its wealth was used in the advancement of the arts, from reams of beautiful Tamil literature to awesome architectural works and technically advanced sculptures and paintings. The bronze sculpture of Shiva at the Royal Museum in Tanjore, one of a collection of four hundred, is representative of the peak of sculptural achievement in this most creative period in Tamil artistic history. Also known as the ‘Bhikshatanamurti’, it depicts Shiva in severe and wild mood—an unusual representation of ‘the destroyer’ in itself, since he is normally represented meditating peacefully. His attitude here is due to his having become a tormented, wandering beggar in search of peace, after cutting off one of Brahma’s five heads in anger, as revealed in the Hindu stories of the Trimurti.