Sunday,  December 3, 2000		Article

OF all the classical arts that have survived time, the oldest in India is said to be the tradition of sculpting in bronze. It predates even stone and wood carving and can be traced back to a long-forgotten epic called the Matsyapurana.

Later, during the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000 BC), bronze carvings became very popular, both for religious offerings and decorative purposes. One of the most striking archaeological finds from the ruins of Mohenjodaro (in present-day Pakistan) was an intricately-carved bronze figurine of a dancing girl.

The technique and skills that went into creating that figurine have been sustained to this day by descendants of those early craftsmen. Most of them are scattered about the many temple towns of South India and specialise in making Hindu deities like Ganesha, Shiva, Saraswati and Radha-Krishna.

"We religiously follow the dictates of the shilpasashtra," informs Raghu Krishnan, a master sculptor near the Meenakshi temple at madurai. "It is the oldest known treatise on iconography, which not only tells you the various methods and processes of sculpting, but also suggests scope for experimentation."

The Shilpasashtra also traces the origin of the art to a pious and just king, Vajra who, one day, found himself at the feet of the great sage, Markandya. "Oh, Holy Being," implored the king. "Grant me a boon, such that I may master the art of iconography and erect a bronze idol of myself in the public square."

Knowing the king to be a good man at heart, the sage was inclined to grant him the boon. But before handing him the first lump of metal, Markandya put forth a few searching questions to test the sincerity of the king.

"Do you know how to paint"? the sage asked. The king replied in the negative and pleaded that he be taught the skills of painting if that should be a prerequisite to learning sculpture. "In that case, you should know how to dance," insisted Markandya.

In the course of this inquisition, King Vajra realised that in order to dance, he needed to learn music and in turn, singing. Effectively, he had to begin with fine-tuning his artistic sensibilities before finding a medium to express his creative urges.

Explains Murlidhara, another master craftsman: "To this day, we teach our students the rudiments of music, dance and painting before initiating them into the intricacies of bronze moulding. You cannot create a figure until you are familiar with the physical form, the rhythm and fluidity of shapes."

Small wonder the beauty of an Indian bronze lies in the manner movement is arrested and frozen into a static form. For instance, Shiva is represented as a cosmic power with its dancing pose (or nataraja) epitomising the rhythmic motion of life.

Adds Krishna: "So close is the association of different disciplines of art with sculpture that even the terminologies we use are the same. Take the word tala, for example. To a musician or dancer, it means a beat. And to us sculptors, it means one measure — a unit of the metal used."

Significantly, bronze is used only as a ‘base metal’ and more often than not, has to be combined with small portions of copper, lead, gold and silver. Together, they represent the five elements (earth, air, water, fire and space) of nature and are considered essential, especially while creating religious icons.

The sculptors adopt a process of moulding, known as madhu chistam, whereby basic models are created out of beeswax and transferred onto clay die. Into this, molten metal is poured before finishing touches are chiselled and hammered out. The closest parallel to this process is the western cire perdue.

Observes Deepa Rao, an art critic: "The evolved technique and the material used in no small measure contribute to the magnificence of the end product in these bronze figurines. The conventions, rituals and measurements are the same as the old traditional ones which have come down through the ages."

Apart from beauty and durability, bronze iconography owes its popularity to the Chola kings who ruled southern India during the 10th and 11th centuries A.D. They brought about a large-scale revival of this art form with the construction of hundreds of temples across the Deccan plateau.

The impetus provided by them is being felt to this day.