Indian Bronze Sculpture

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Fine Arts Class XI (An Introduction to Indian Art Part I), Chapter 7.

How do you make a dancing god out of a lump of metal?

A Chola Nataraja stands on one leg, flings his other leg across his body, spreads four arms and sends his hair flying, and yet the whole figure is cast in one piece. A bronze like that cannot be carved, because metal does not take a chisel the way stone does. It is modelled in wax first and then replaced by metal. That one trick, the cire perdu or lost wax process, was known as early as the Indus Valley and is still alive in Indian workshops today. This chapter follows it across about four thousand years, from a tiny dancing girl to life size portraits of kings.

The lost wax process and the metal

Indian sculptors mastered casting just as they mastered terracotta and stone. The Indus people learned both lost wax casting and the making of an alloy by mixing metals. Bronze figures of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain deities, dated from the second century to the sixteenth century, have been found in many regions. Most were made for ritual worship. The same casting skill produced everyday vessels for cooking, eating and drinking, and tribal communities still use the lost wax process for art today.

The process is practised in regions such as Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, with a slightly different method in each. The steps in outline are as follows.

The firing is carried out almost like a religious ritual, and all the steps take place in dead silence. Sometimes an alloy of five metals (gold, silver, copper, brass and lead) is used for bronze images.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: bronze is an alloy of copper, zinc and tin. In reality: strictly, bronze is copper with tin, while copper with zinc is brass. Many Indian images are copper rich alloys of several metals. Why it matters: in the exam, keep the textbook definition; in conversation, expect the word bronze to be used loosely.

The timeline of Indian bronze

Indus and early bronzes

The Dancing Girl from Mohenjodaro, dated to about 2500 BCE, is perhaps the earliest bronze sculpture. Her limbs and torso are simplified into tubular forms. Similar statuettes were found at Daimabad in Maharashtra, about 1500 BCE. The best known is the Chariot, where the wheels are simple circles, the driver is elongated and the bulls in front are sturdy.

Two views. For the exam: the Dancing Girl is the earliest bronze sculpture, datable to 2500 BCE. Another reading: "dancing girl" is a name given by excavators to the figure's pose. Some scholars treat the title as an interpretation rather than a proven fact, because a standing pose with a tilted hip does not by itself show that she danced. The date and the lost wax technique are the safe parts to remember.

Jain bronzes

Jain tirthankara images from Chausa, Bihar, belong to the Kushana period in the second century CE. They show how Indian sculptors had mastered the male body and the simplified treatment of muscles. Adinath or Vrishabhnath is identified by long locks of hair falling on his shoulders, while other tirthankaras have short curly hair. Many Chausa bronzes are in the Patna Museum.

Gujarat and Rajasthan have been strongholds of Jainism since early times. The famous Akota hoard on the outskirts of Baroda (Vadodara) shows that bronze casting was practised in Gujarat or western India between the sixth and ninth centuries. The bronzes were cast by lost wax and often inlaid with silver and copper to highlight eyes, crowns and the textiles on which figures sit. Most show Mahavira, Parshvanath or Adinath. A new format arrived in which tirthankaras sit on a throne, alone or in groups of three or of twenty four. Female images were also cast of yakshinis or Shasanadevis, in a style influenced by the Gupta and Vakataka bronzes. Chakreshvari is the Shasanadevi of Adinath and Ambika is of Neminath. Jain bronzes from Hansi in Haryana and from sites in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are also in museums.

Gupta and Vakataka Buddhas

Many standing Buddhas with the right hand in abhaya mudra (the gesture of reassurance) were cast in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between the fifth and seventh centuries. The monk's robe, the sanghati, covers the shoulders, turns over the right arm and is wrapped over the left arm, with the pleats held in the hand. The drapery falls in a wide curve at the ankles. The figure looks youthful and proportionate compared with the Kushana Buddha, and the cloth seems thin and the body subtle beneath it.

Why it matters. These bronzes were portable. Monks carried them from place to place for individual worship or for installation in viharas. That is how the refined classical style spread across India and to Asian countries overseas.

Pause and predict: two Buddha bronzes of the same age differ. In one, the right hand is free and the robe clings to the right side in a flowing line. In the other, the robe falls in drooping curves. Which is Vakataka, and which is Mathura style?

Check your answer: The free right hand and the flowing line on that side mark the Vakataka bronze of Phophnar, with Amaravati influence. The drooping curves are the Mathura style seen at Dhanesar Khera.

Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir

Himachal and Kashmir produced bronzes of Buddhist deities and of Hindu gods and goddesses, mostly in the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, in a very distinct style. A noteworthy development was new Vishnu iconography. Four headed Vishnu, also called Chaturanana or Vaikuntha Vishnu, has a central face representing Vasudeva with the other faces of Narasimha and Varaha. The Narasimha avatar and the Mahishasuramardini Durga from Himachal are among its most dynamic bronzes. A seventh century Ganesh from Kashmir is also shown in the chapter.

The Pala school: Nalanda and Kurkihar

Around the ninth century, under the Palas in Bihar and Bengal, a school of bronze casting grew at Buddhist centres such as Nalanda. In the gap of a few centuries, the sculptors at Kurkihar near Nalanda revived the classical Gupta style. A four armed Avalokitesvara is a good example of a male figure in graceful tribhanga (three bend) posture. With the growth of Vajrayana, the worship of female deities spread and images of Tara became popular. She sits on a throne with a growing curvilinear lotus stalk beside her, and her right hand is in abhaya mudra.

South India: Pallava and Chola

Bronze casting reached a high stage in South India in the medieval period. Bronzes were made under the Pallavas in the eighth and ninth centuries, but the most beautiful were made under the Cholas from the tenth to the twelfth century. The craft is still practised skilfully, particularly at Kumbakonam. The distinguished patron of the tenth century was the widowed Chola queen Sembiyan Maha Devi. Chola bronzes are among the most sought after collectors' items in the world.

An eighth century Pallava bronze shows Shiva seated in ardhaparyanka asana, with one leg dangling, and the right hand in achamana mudra, suggesting that he is about to drink poison.

The Nataraja was evolved and fully developed in the Chola period, and many variations have been modelled since. Read the figure as a set of meanings.

The Thanjavur region developed a wide range of Shiva iconography. The ninth century Kalyanasundara murti shows the marriage ceremony (panigrahana) through two separate statuettes: Shiva extends his right hand to accept the right hand of Parvati, who steps forward with a bashful expression. The union of Shiva and Parvati is shown in a single image in the Ardhanarisvara murti. Independent figures of Parvati stand in tribhanga.

Pause and predict: a bronze shows a four armed Shiva in a ring of flames, with one foot on a small figure. What is the figure under his foot, and what does it stand for?

Check your answer: It is the apasmara, a demon that stands for ignorance or forgetfulness. Shiva stands on it with his right leg while his raised left leg shows the lifting of the veil of illusion.

Vijayanagara portraits

In the sixteenth century, in what was then Vijayanagara rule in Andhra Pradesh, sculptors experimented with portrait sculpture to preserve knowledge of the royal patron for posterity. At Tirupati, life size standing bronze statues show Krishnadevaraya with his two queens, Tirumalamba and Chinnadevi. The sculptor combined likeness of the facial features with idealisation, so the bodies look imposing as well as graceful. The three stand with both hands joined in namaskara mudra.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: the lost wax process is traced back to the Indus Valley, and the finest Indian bronzes are Chola. In reality: the craft never stopped. Tribal communities still use the lost wax process, Kumbakonam workshops still cast images, and each region follows its own variation of the method. Why it matters: it shows that bronze casting is a continuous tradition and not only a museum subject, which is a safe way to answer a question on its continuity.

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Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Temple Architecture and Sculpture shows the shrines, such as Thanjavur, for which many South Indian bronzes were made.
• Next: Some Aspects of Indo Islamic Architecture turns from sculpture to the buildings of the Sultanate and Mughal periods.
• Earlier chapter: Arts of the Indus Valley introduces the Dancing Girl and the lost wax method that this chapter follows forward.