The Thief Who Stole My Heart

Sacred Bronzes from Chola India
bangaloreinter...
This talk commences by introducing the audience to the sacred bronzes created by a master sculptor around the year 1000, and suggests that his inspiration may well have been child-saint Sambandar’s opening hymn that hails god Shiva as “the thief who stole my heart.”
Vidya Dehejia explores this sensuous imagery before moving to ask questions of this material that have not been asked before. Where did the Cholas acquire the copper required to cast the many temple bronzes that are solid heavy pieces of metal? Why were the Cholas obsessed with island Sri Lanka? What were the circumstances that permitted the creation of hundreds of temples and vast numbers of sacred bronzes despite the constant warfare that the Chola monarchs were engaged in? What was the source of the extraordinarily vast number of pearls that, together with coral, rubies and diamonds, were embedded in gold jewelry gifted to adorn temple bronzes? Why did the Cholas cover the walls of their temple walls with inscriptions- some 13,000 in total - using temple walls as if they were the public records office?
A Q&A session with the audience will follow.