A COPPER ALLOY SHRINE TO SURYA

KARNATAKA, WESTERN CHALUKYA PERIOD, 11TH CENTURY

Footnotes

Surya, the Sun-god, stands tall like a cosmic pillar holding two fully-blown lotuses emphasizing his supreme generative powers. He is adorned with regalia, but not too ostentatiously as to distract from his idealized physique. Paired with an Indian dhoti around his hips, Surya wears tall boots which scholars have suggested indicate a Eurasian origin. As in other Indo-European religious systems, the Vedic Sun-god rides a chariot through the sky, representing the sun's daily passage. His charioteer and team of seven horses are depicted below, while immediately to either side stand Surya's alluring consorts, representing the two phases of dawn. Columns emerging from the shine's base are decorated with the gajavidala motif, which depicts a mythical lion triumphing over an elephant. Two cherubs float on either side of Surya's halo, surrounded by a magnificent profusion of vegetal and floral volutes emerging from the gaping mouth of a horned kala face. As Pal notes, this bronze shrine marks the apogee of Western Chalukyan metal sculpture, striking a "remarkable balance between decorative exuberance and elegant figural forms to create a harmonious composition of restrained energy". (Pal, The Elegant Image, New Orleans, 2011, p.134)

From their dynastic capital in Kalyani (modern-day Basavakalyan), the Western Chalukyas ruled over Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the Deccan Plateau between the late-10th and late-12th centuries. Among their artistic achievements, they patronized the poet Bilhana who produced the famous love poem, the Chaurapanchasika, in the same century this bronze was created. The Western Chalukyas also produced the most engaging and aesthetically satisfying sculptures in the Deccan at this time, building upon a regional artistic tradition of robust figures and ornate frames, which the Hoysalas (r.1026-1343) furthered. The Western Chalukyas built over 50 temples ranging throughout Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, a notable example of which is the Mahadeva temple in Karnataka, dedicated in 1112 CE, whose outer walls display similar scrolling vines as the present bronze's arch (see Huntington, The Art of Ancient India, New York, 1993, pp.545, figs.22.6).

As Pal identified, this bronze is one of the most impressive surviving metal sculptures in the Western Chalukyan style (Pal, op cit.). Probably the closest other example to its scale and importance is an albeit much smaller shrine to Vishnu in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad (Chandra, The Sculpture of India 3000BC-1300AD, Michigan, 1985, pp.184-185, no.89). Other notable examples of Western Chalukyan metal sculpture are a Vishnu shrine in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (EA2005.12), an enthroned Jina at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1987.142.335), and a shrine to the Jain Goddess Ambika at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.72.1.12). Like them, the present shrine has a smooth surface produced by many years of ritual worship that included the pouring of liquids (ghee, honey, milk, water, and the like) onto the sculpture, followed by a thorough cleansing that effectively polished its surface. 

Published
Pratapaditya Pal, The Elegant Image: Hindu, Buddhist And Jain Bronzes From The Indian Subcontinent In The Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, New Orleans, 2011, pp.134-5, no.67.

Exhibited
The Elegant Image: Hindu, Buddhist And Jain Bronzes From The Indian Subcontinent In The Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, August 5th to October 23rd, 2011, New Orleans.

Provenance
Barling of Mount Street Ltd., London, by mid 1970s
Collection of Siddharth K. Bhansali, New Orleans
On Loan to the New Orleans Museum of Art, 2018-2020