Early Chola Art: Origin and Emergence of Style

Medieval south India saw a resurgence in religious experience culminating in the great temple art of the Cholas. Time and again, both in architecture and sculpture, it is the artists’ feeling for form and visual design that is reflected. What were the causes that went into the making of this inimitable Chola style? Prevalent consensus of opinions is based on the archaeological perceptions of influences from neighbouring kingdoms and of a transition caused by religious and political factors. The reviews are so final and tempting, yet, the question of why Chola art stands apart remains unanswered. Early Chola Art-Origin and Emergence of Style is an attempt to shift the art historical perspective from the traditional to a formal approach and analysis. The study focuses on works of art themselves as a starting point and determines the inherent factors that led to the evolution of style. In fact, the inherent evolutionary factors are as important as the socio-religious and historical influences and visual precedents. The vocabulary of visual forms has its own existence of continually transforming and perpetuating into newer forms. It is its own internal logic which allows for a style to be born. This revised approach is what is sought to be achieved by ‘Formal analysis’, which is relatively unexplored in Indian art. It follows the principles of metamorphosis and renewal of forms within a given period that makes transition subordinate to transformational creation. By such an analysis we see that Chola art emerges from the Chola sensibility and feeling for form.