standing equipoise on a round carved double-lotus base, above a stepped rectangular plinth with incised lotus petals around the base, right hand in abhayamudra and the left in varadamudra, the palms incised with auspicious markings, clad in a closely fitted sanghati with incised folds, serene face with downcast eyes and gentle smile, elongated earlobes, hair in tight curls topped with a flaming ushnisha; inscription in Tamil to reverse of plinth
21.5 cm. high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private UK collection, acquired in the early 1980s.

While the artistic achievement of the Chola period is best known for its sensuous Hindu figures, a thriving Buddhist community co-existed in Tamil Nadu and artisans produced figures of Buddhas and Jain deities in addition to Hindu gods. The most important Buddhist center in Tamil Nadu was the port city of Nagapattinam. The Buddhist monastic complex in Nagapattinam, the largest in medieval south India, was built by a Javanese king under Chola patronage.

Buddhism came as early as the 3rd Century BC to south India, as recorded by the inscriptions of the Emperor Asoka. The region continued to be a centre of Buddhist learning in the 12th and 13th Centuries. Buddhist scholars and artisans received generous patronage for the creation of numerous Buddha images.

Buddhist art flourished and was sustained not only by the local community but also by transient communities of merchants and pilgrims from Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and China. Portable bronze figures of Buddha, such as the example seen here, would have been easy to carry around and served to perpetuate artistic and religious connections between India and South East Asia. The pointed flame atop the Buddha's ushnisha is a late development in the depiction of the Buddha and is thought to have come to India from Southeast Asia. The robe with scalloped folds at the hem is also a later convention, seen from the 12th Century on.
For further discussion see V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred, Exhibition Catalogue, New York, 2002, pp. 207-210.

There is a comparable example in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, museum no. IPN.2639.

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A bronze standing Figure of Buddha Chola period, Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, 12th/13th Century

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Oliver White