The last Pallava ruler surrendered to the Chola king Aditya in 897 AD after he was attacked by the Pandyas and Cholas together.
The Cholas were great warriors with an expansive nature and by the 10th century AD, they not only took the holy city of Madurai from Pandyas, but also moved fuirther down south to invade Sri Lanka.
Up in the north-east Deccan too, the Cholas subjugated the re- emerging Chalukyan powers.
The Rajarajeshvara temple, a masterpiece of South Indian architecture, was dedicated by Rajaraja I to Shiva, after his victorious return to Tanjore from his expansions up North.
And the greatest triumph for the Cholas was brought by Rajendra I when he marched right up to the banks of the holy river Ganga in Bengal! There, to commemorate his achievement, he built the royal city of Kumbakonam and constructed a temple for Lord Shiva called Gangaikondacholapuram.
But the Chola sculptural medium par-excellence was bronze which was a continuation of the style and technique of the Andhras. The cire perdue, or the lost wax process was the technique used for Indian bronzes wherein a model of the object complete in all details is first made in wax with wax stems projecting from it at strategic points.
This model is then coated with clay and baked which causes the wax to melt out leaving the desired shape of cavity in the clay cast. Then, the molten bronze is carefully poured through the channels left by the wax stems and allowed to cool. Once cool, the baked clay is broken off and the stems of bronze are then filed off.
Since the mould is destroyed with each sculpture, they were all unique and the similarity came only from following the strict rules of measurement and iconography laid down in the shilpa-shastras (manual of Indian sculpture architecture and other crafts).
Famous among these is the great image of Shiva-Nataraja in his cosmic dance pose which not only symbolises the creation and destruction of the universe, but is considered a visual sermon of sorts by the devotees. Copies of this bronze icon continue to be made till date in south of India.
Dear Mr. Balasubramani That was a very nice mail. The "lost wax" process description was especially nice. Did you know that this process with a slight modification is still being used? Investment casting is slightly similar to this, only that instead of coating with clay the wax model is dipped in a "ceramic slurry" which gives a much smoother finish than clay. Clay does sound very inexpensive, maybe for not-so-accurate components this can still be used. Most techniques used in that era could still be relevant to us. Investment casting is very much used by us for prototyping. Maybe we can use clay?
> And the greatest triumph for the Cholas was brought by Rajendra I > when he marched right up to the banks of the holy river Ganga in > Bengal! There, to commemorate his achievement, he built the royal > city of Kumbakonam and constructed a temple for Lord Shiva called > Gangaikondacholapuram. >
hi there is a small mistake
kumbakonam alias kudanthai is much older than the cholas
it has the legend of the pot of amrit from hoary history
appar and sambandar sang about this town 350 years before rajendra was born perhaps you meant gkc near kumbakonam