International Journal of History and Research

(IJHR)
ISSN (P): 2249–6963; ISSN (E): 2249–8079
Vol. 11, Issue 1, Jun 2021, 35-44
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ART IN TAMIL NADU: APPROACHES AND

INTERPRETATIONS

Dr. A. MAHALINGAM
Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Medieval History, School of Historical Studies
Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India
ABSTRACT

The study of Indian art and architecture underwent several changes in the colonial period starting from the initial
aversion to the many armed, many handed monsters to an exploration of the exotic and an appreciation of the sensual
and the spiritual. The interest in art and architecture was matched by a corresponding awareness of the rich literature
relating to Indian religions and iconography, as well as growing collections of images and sculptures in museums in
India and abroad. Art of Tamil Nadu is not a separate entity from the mainstream art historical development of the
Indian sub-continent. Generalization of ideas, concepts and interpretation of scholars and art historians as to Indian art
is applicable to the art of Tamil Nadu. Understanding the approaches and interpretation of scholars may be an
interesting phenomenon which can give clues about the trajectory of art historical research in India particularly in

Original Article
Tamil Nadu. The main focus of this paper is to bring out the different approaches and interpretations of the researchers
and academicians about the form and content of temple arts in Tamil Nadu.

KEYWORDS: Political Iconography, Naturalism, Euro-centric, Symbolism, Mythology & Aesthetics

Received: Mar 17, 2021; Accepted: Apr 07, 2021; Published: Apr 15, 2021; Paper Id.: IJHRJUN20214

INTRODUCTION

Art historical research in India was inaugurated by the collective responsibility of Indologists, Antiquarians,
Orientalists, and archaeologists who made tremendous efforts to study the Indian Art into different contextuality of
ideas, concepts, approaches, interpretations, philosophy and mythological transformation. The foundation of
Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 underwent systematic approaches to bring out the historical and art historical
domain in India. The Asiatic Researches,1 the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was instituted to publish
innumerable articles on different aspects of Indian history, art, culture and literature.

The study of Indian art and architecture underwent several changes in the colonial period starting from the
initial aversion to the many armed, many handed monsters, to an exploration of the exotic and an appreciation of
the sensual and the spiritual. The interest in art and architecture was matched by a corresponding awareness of the
rich literature relating to Indian religions and iconography as well as growing collections of images and sculptures
in museums in India and abroad. Art of Tamil Nadu is not a separate entity from the mainstream art historical
development of the Indian sub-continent. Generalization of ideas, concepts and interpretation of scholars and art
historians as to Indian art is applicable to the art of Tamil Nadu. Understanding the approaches and interpretation
of scholars may be an interesting phenomenon which can give clues about the trajectory of art historical research in
India particularly in Tamil Nadu. The main focus of this paper is to bring out the different approaches and
interpretations of the researchers and academicians about the form and content of temple arts in Tamil Nadu.

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36 Dr. A. Mahalingam

Art Historical Formation in Colonial India

An enduring legacy of the colonial period is the link that was established between forms of architecture and religious
developments and it is intriguing that this connection has survived up to the present day. A prominent votary of this was
James Fergusson 2 followed James Burgess, who catalogued and documented a large number of sites in Western and
Southern India. Among those who pioneered a methodological study of Indian architecture, James Fergusson (1808-1886)
is well known for his systematic study of the history of Indian architecture and Alexander Cunningham 3 (1814-1893) is
remembered for laying the foundation of Indian Archaeology. Both believed in the superiority of western aesthetics,
techniques and canons and categorized the material remains of India’s past within the framework of colonial constructs.
Vincent Smith wrote his famous A History of Fine Arts in India and Ceylon (1911). Smith systematized a host of scattered
evidence and worked out a cohesive account with the premise that a quality of Indian Art has to be judged in terms of the
classical (Graeco-Roman) standards. Thus, archaeological findings found scholarly elucidations in the development of
Indian Art History.4 Attempts by some Indian scholars such as Ram Raz (1790-1830) and Rajendra Lal Mitra (1822-1891)
to interpret Indian art history in the context of its specific cultural matrix and to engage with its textual and regional
coordinates did not find many takers until much later. Ram Raz was in fact the first to study Indian monuments in relation
to indigenous architectural texts and the living tradition of architects and sculptors. His works are recorded in the
posthumously published Essays on the architecture of the Hindus. While focusing on Alexander Cunningham and
Rajendra Lal Mitra respectively in their contributions touched upon several larger issues pertinent to the formative years of
Indian Art history – the intimately allied nature of the discipline of history, the political compulsions of academic research
in the colonial period, issues concerning the region versus the nation, the conflict between ideology and training of the
early native scholar, western assumptions of the derivative nature and gradual decay of Indian art and differing academic
priorities and ideological tension between Alexander Cunningham, James Fergusson, Rajendra Lal Mitra, James Burgess
JDM Beglar and others. The debate and differences between Orientalist and Nationalist ideological Moorings as
exemplified by Fergusson’s disputes with and accusations against Rajendra Lal Mitra, steeped in racial overtones are well
known in colonial art historiography. 5

In the South India, the first antiquarian studies were undertaken by William Chambers, who visited the imposing
ruins of Mamallapuram in 1772 and again in 1776. He described them in Asiatic Researches in 1778. A more elaborate
treatment of the subject was attempted by J. Goldingham in the same Journal six years later. But the guiding spirit of
antiquarian research in the south was Colonel Colin Meckenzie6 (1753-1821) who made it the principal aim of his life to
penetrate ‘beyond the common surface of the antiquities’ in order to recover ‘the history and the institution of South India’.
He systematically prepared the first careful plans and drawings and measurement of sites.7He spent 38 years in India to the
exploration of historical sites and collection of antiquarian objects. According to K. V. Soundara Rajan, temple studies deal
with only the organic part without reference to the organismic and organizational aspects could be taken as essentially
stylistic aesthetic dimension of the subject and would be touching only a part, though a visually inspiring past of the temple
as a totality and the organizational part of the temple which the historian deals with is but a historiographic segment which
may reveal pretty little about the temple as a self changing, dynamic-socio-cultural entity.8

The Search for Origins and Meaning

The nationalist response to colonial prejudices translated as a quest for researching the origins rationale, inner meaning and
above all the ‘Indian-ness’ of Indian Art, beyond its usefulness visual document of Indian history was also is evidence. To

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Historiography of Art in Tamil Nadu: Approaches and Interpretations 37

meet these objectives, methodological approaches came to be rooted at first in Indian symbolism, iconography and
iconology. This in turn led to a concerted engagement with texts during first half of the 20 th C. The search for meaning
required an understanding of cultural contexts, myth, religion, literature, the language of gesture and posture, technical
treatise, literary texts and local culture.

To the western mind, this knowledge seemed more remote and difficult to cultivate than to apply the already
evolved western art historical methods in the interpretation of form and style. Even so the essential Indian-ness of Indian
art was also advocated strongly by some European Scholars like E.B. Havell (1861-1934), Henrich Zimmer (1890-1943)
and Stella Kramrisch (1896-1993).9Many European scholars were ridiculed the Indian artist’s divine ideal whereas E. B
Havell appreciated the ideas and aesthetic quality of Indian art and he classified the Indian art into Schools and ritualistic
categories. He described that Indian art is the true expression of Indian life and of religion as the interpretation of life, not
merely an aesthetic formulae which the student can learn by heart.10

The fascinating study of Partha Mitter traces the history of European reactions to Indian Art from the earlier
encounters of explorers with the exotic east to the more sophisticated but still in a complete appreciation of the early 20th
C.11Mitter’s New preface reflects upon the profound changes in western interpretations of non Western societies over the
past 15 years.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was at the forefront of nationalist represents to Orientalist constructions
of Indian art history during the colonial period. He placed the text image relationship at the centre of his relentless
investigations into the roots and rationale of India’s artistic past.

Kramrisch accepted naturalism as intrinsic to Indian culture and loved to poeticize the qualities of modeling of the
human today where as naturalism for Coomaraswamy was alive to Indian culture as a whole. 12

Coomaraswamy approached the study of traditional Indian architecture from the historical technical as well as
from the metaphysical and theoretical viewpoints. He correlated textual, epigraphic and visual sources, particularly the
relative reliefs of early Indian sculpture at Bharhut, Sanchi and Amaravati to arrive at the earliest available evidence of the
beginnings of Indian architecture and to analyze its subsequent development.13 The same methodological approach was
followed by a number of scholars such as Henrich Zimmer, Susan L. Huntington and Vidya Dehejia.14

Text Image studies in Architecture

The process of discovery of India’s material and artistic heritage may be said to have been at its peak in the early decades
of the 21st C. With the expanding activities of the Archaeological survey of India, the corpus of art remains from different
parts of the country was steadily increasing. Texts and treatises relating to art and architecture were being discovered and
edited and translated with regard to iconography, iconometry, terminology, principles of architecture and canons of
paintings.

The regional and cultural contexts of architecture, its origins, forms, functions and significance and the
methodology of relating the empirical evidence of monuments to texts, inscriptions and the living tradition of architects
and sculptors, gained momentum in the second and third quarters of the 20th C.

In delayed pursuance of Ram Raz’s early initiatives, more regional architectural texts were uncovered and
scholars like Manmohan Ganguli, N. K. Bose, P. K. Acharya and N. V. Mallaya took up the task of interpreting texts, often

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38 Dr. A. Mahalingam

in association with local traditional practitioners. Stella Kramrisch (1946) interpreted textual knowledge on Indian
architecture in the light of Hindu metaphysical concepts to study the meaning and symbolism of the Hindu temple. 15

An integrated approach to the analysis of texts in relation to temple architecture gained considerable momentum,
most notably in the writings of K.R. Srinivasan (1961) M.A. Dhaky and M.W. Meister (Dhaky, (1961) Encyclopedia of
Indian Temple Architecture). M.A. Dhaky’s incisive field work, thorough and scientific analysis and correlation of
architectural practice with its textual basis and simultaneously understanding of the living tradition of architect-sculptors
are work appreciable.

From Ram Raz to M.A. Dhaky, then, the usage of ethnographic parallels has also not been missing from the
process of resurrecting the technical and terminological rationale of Indian temple architecture. The efforts of M.A. Dhaky,
Pramod Chandra, M.W. Meister and others resulted in the Encyclopedia of Indian Temple Architecture project, which was
conceived as early as 1967 and saw the publication of its first volume on the early temple architecture of South India in
1983. With contribution by architectural historians such as K.V. Soundarajajan,16 G. Michell17 and others led by M. A.
Dhaky’s and M. W. Meister’s contributions and editorship, the Encyclopedia of Indian Temple Architecture volumes have
been achieved the most significant just as onerous task of arriving at the authentic technical vocabulary for temple
architecture that does not merely meet a nomenclatural obligation in defining the components of Indian temples, but,
importantly, also addresses the structural, symbolic and functional origins and meanings of the terms and their usage in
practice.

Iconography and Symbolism

Given the misreading of Indian figural sculpture, in particular of religious iconic imagery during the 19th and early 20th
centuries, the first obvious and fundamental need was to arrive at culture-specific readings of the meanings embedded in
Indian images as these may have been understood at the time of their production. 18 Studies in Indian Iconography
(pratimalaksana) and Iconology (pratima-vijnana) thus had remained focused initially on identifications, terminology and
classifications arrived at through intense and meticulous text image studies, especially in relation to the plethora of
religious imagery, classified in accordance with their varied sthanas (body positions) ayuthas (attributes and weapons)
asanas (stances) Mudras (postures) hastas (has gestures) padabhadras (leg positions) colours, etc.

T. A. Gopinath Rao’s, Elements of Hindu Iconography (1914) still remains standard reference on the subject.
Gopinatha Rao drew from a cross-section of ancient and medieval compendia-sastras, samgrahas, puranas, agamas, and
tantras and related these to the images of Hindu deities. The works of Ananda Coomaraswamy, J. N Banerjee H.
Krishnasastri and V.S. Agrawala’s prolific writings on the symbolism of recurrent Indian Art motifs and metaphysical
concepts in the Vedic and post Vedic texts still remain an important source of reference. C. Sivaramamurti considerably
extended the domain of textual references for interpreting iconography to include non-canonical literature, especially
classical, Sanskrit poetry, and also epigraphic evidence as may be observed in his detailed study, Nataraja in Art, thought
and literature (1974) and Sri Lakshmi in Indian Art and Thought (1983).

R. Champakalakshmi demystifies the ideas and concepts of Vaishnavism and the work is a pioneering study to
trace the iconography as a symbol of socio-religious change in Tamil speaking region of South India.19

A. Ekambaranathan’s, The Cult of Chandesa in Tamil Nadu, gives a complete picture of the origin and
development cult and iconography of Chandesa portrayed in the Temples of Tamil Nadu. 20

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Historiography of Art in Tamil Nadu: Approaches and Interpretations 39

Another thematic research on Varaha Avatara of Vishnu in Art and Literature in Tamil Nadu made by S. Vasanthi
attempts to study comprehensively the origin and development of Varaha worship in Tamil Nadu with systematic and
comparative analysis by using artistic, archaeological and literary sources.21

K. R. Srinivasan had studied the early religious cults of Saiva and Vaishnava images represented in the early
monuments in Tamil Nadu by corroborating literature such as Sangam and Post Sangam literature and Bhakti literature and
inscriptions and also emphasized the religious practices related to iconographic themes for instance Navakanta, the head
offering to Durga. Devi Cults, Saptamatrikas, Jeyastha, Ganesa, Muruga, Brahma, Trimurti, Chandesa, and Nataraja, etc.,
are meticulously analysed.22

C. Sivaramamurti had interpreted themes like the power of penance, the glory of dana, attributes of God,
synthesis of cults, the temple, etc., which are connected to the human life and themes, explained through Sanskrit tradition,
literature and artistic delineation.23

To the historian, as well as the intelligent lay person interested in the history of Art, art is not a mere aesthetic
experience. Hence, to make the appreciation and study of Art more meaningful, the historian and its function in society
cannot be treated in society. The history of art and its function in society cannot be treated in isolation from the
sociopolitical and economic processes and the contextual relationship of art to these developments. Descriptive accounts
and conventional methods which focus mainly on chronology and style have dominated the history of art in India, while
the interconnections between art and society have been largely neglected. Alternative perspectives need to be evolved and
methodological refinement achieved in order to make art history context oriented.24The historiography of art in India has
passed through interesting trends for more than a century since the latter half of the 19th C when British colonial and
imperial surveyors, archaeologists and historians began to unravel the rich heritage of India’s past. This was part of their
attempts to familiarize western rulers and their audience at home with the cultural pasts of India. To govern the colonized
country, one of the major needs of the British was to understand India’s culture with its long historical past. This need led
to careful survey of all regions, and the reporting and according of its surviving monuments, art and architectural remains.
The first phase of the historiography of Indian art was thus marked by the romance of discovery, the listing and describing
of art remains, preparing illustrations through photographs and drawings and so on. This phase is important as it produced
numerous works which recorded and catalogued them and attempted a chronology of the monuments, often also trying to
understand their aesthetic principles stylistic development.25 Colonel Meckenzie, A. Cunningham, Henry Cousins, A.H.
Longhurst, A. Rea, G. Jouveau Dubreuil and Percy Brown were some of the pioneers followed by other western as well as
native scholars. A. K. Coomaraswamy was the first Art-Historian to emphasize that it was not possible to understand
symbolism and abstraction in art without reference to philosophy and a history of ideas. These scholars also evolved
theoretical and chronological frameworks to understanding the process of the development of style in time and space. They
made aesthetic evaluations and marked the different stages of technical progress.

Further advance in the historiography of art came with Nihar Ranjan Ray, Anita Ray and others who went beyond
identification of images by highlighting the link between idea and images, between ideas and technical progress. Thereby,
they showed that an art object is a text which should be located in its context, social and religious and that artistic
expression needs to be placed against the art of ideas, changing concepts, ideologies and social function in order to be
meaningfully interpreted. More recent studies on Indian art have concentrated on art per se and have taken up, apart from
their historical background, the representative techniques, stylistic manifestations, and aesthetic qualities based on theories

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40 Dr. A. Mahalingam

and appreciation of art. Ratan Parimoo, Walter Spink, T.S. Maxwell, Devangana Desai, Vidya Dehejia, Lolita Nehru and
others have contributed significantly to this trend.26

In India, a major step forward in the study of art in recent years has been the development of the discipline of
iconology, where the image or icon is analysed as a text with several strata (layers) of meaning. This includes the visual
perception or the direct meaning, the conventional or symbolic expression understood with the help of canonical texts and
the intrinsic meaning which can be comprehended only with the help of specific codes familiar to a society, that is, a
decoding of the meanings and purpose that a work of art has for a particular society. An insight into the unique qualities of
Indian Art is best achieved a broad cultural history which places art production and patronage in its social and cultural
context. Unlike the narrow western interpretation of fine art, the distinction between fine and decorative arts was not
pronounced in India, which evolved, for example, a great tradition of decorated utensils. Any discussion of Indian art must
encompass a wide range of different media, Architecture, Sculpture, illustrated manuscripts, paintings miniatures, textiles,
etc.27

Indian art is generally understood in purely religious or spiritual terms. The religious texts, and eventually the
religion itself were all products of a society which was subsect to and reacting to various forces economic and political and
aesthetic impulses. Pan Indian perspectives on Indian art include a wide variety of traditions – Buddhist, Jain and
Brahmanical – apart from folk and popular traditions and the regional schools with region specific cultural features. The
study of art is hence not of art per se but how art is incorporated in to the texture of a particular pattern of life.

Regional and Dynastic Outlook

The centuries before actual temples survive in South India provide a background for the architectural forms and religious
beliefs represented by the earliest shrines. Though temples in North and South India by the 5th to 7th centuries A.D widely
diverge, the forms employed by both derive from basic types of civil architecture that for earlier period had been Pan-
Indian.28

K.V. Soundara Rajan has made a comparative analysis of the grants and consummation of the South Indian
temples in the areas of Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras with the background of Sanskrit and Silpa text. 29

D. Dayalan’s work focuses on evolution, the technique of their production and the regional bias, iconographic and
religious perspective and chronological evolution of the architectural legacies of South India from pre historical period to
the Vijayanagar period.30 Chronological and metaphysical origin of Hindu temple, the idea and image and image, puja,
utsava and tirtha are the component discussed by R. Champakalakshimi.31

C. Sivaramamurti attempts to study the Indian iconography with the influence of Geographical and Chronological
factors. The earlier iconographic concepts change so vitally that the original ones are difficult to recognize. Ornaments,
apparel pose delineation of the limbs – all these details change from time to time. In addition to the differences due to
chronological reasons, the geographical factor largely contributes to variations in iconographic forms for the same image
concept may have different manifestations in the same period in different parts of India. The study of the differences, due
to age and locality is of great interest.32

In his another work, he approached how the artistic elements travelled from one place to another place through
royal conquest for instance the Chalukya and Rastrakuta influence in the matter of details of decoration and ornamentation
which has transformed the late Pallava and early Chola art into something rich and strange.33 Suresh B. Pillai explores the

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Historiography of Art in Tamil Nadu: Approaches and Interpretations 41

fundamentals of Tamil architecture and art and gives a clear comprehension of the artistic significance of monuments in
Kaveri delta contemporary to the Chola period.34

J. C. Harle adopts a fairly conventional art historical approach emphasizing style, characteristic features, origin
and developments and supplying only as much of the cultural background as seemed necessary for an understanding of the
basic aspects of artistic, sculptural and architectural forms. He has discussed a separate chapter on South India in which
Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagara period artistic developments are emphasized where as the Pandya artistic contribution is
not mentioned.35

K. R. Srinivasan’s approach towards the temples of South India explains evolution of temples into three phases
rock-cut cave temples, monolithic and structural temples. Elevation, structures, religious ideology behind the construction
of the temples, chronological sequence on the basis of inscription and stylistic features are meticulously described. 36 C.
Sivaramamurti interprets the history, architecture, sculpture, epigraphy and literature in the monolithic temple at
Kalugumalai and other rock cut cave temples of the early Pandyas.37

K. V. Soundara Rajan breaks a new ground in being among the first such Juxtaposed studies of two great focal
centres of rock-cut art one in the lower Tamil Nadu and other in the upper Deccan were the distance separating them
notwithstanding on exposition of comparable architectural modes and cultic interactions as a sequence thereto is patently
noticeable, as helped also by broad chronological coevality of occurrence. He also interprets the artistic amalgamation
between Pandyas and other dynasties in Deccan.38

The ASI established a special branch namely temple survey project one for north and the other for the south in
1955, and K. R. Srinivasan a distinguished stalwart in the field was appointed as Superintending Archaeologist of the
Temple Survey project for Southern region and his extensive survey of the Cave Temples of the Pallavas was published in
the series of Archaeological survey of India in 1964.

The phase of South Indian Architecture and sculpture was imparted a brighter glow in the new
dimension.39 Dubreuil‘s Pallava Antiquities examines the characters of Pallava monuments and he has ascertained and
fixed the technical terms that must be used in designating the different parts of a building.40

A. H. Longhurst’s The Pallava Architecture is one of the pioneering works which mentions the architectural
styles of rock-cut cave, intermediary of Narasimhavarma Pallava I and structural modes and the chronological sequence
followed on the basis of stylistic features and epigraphy. 41Pallava Art (2001) of Michael Lockwood is an exhaustive work
comprising of architecture, sculpture, literature and music and the work is a revision and inclusion of new themes from the
outcome of already published two volumes on Mahabalipuram Studies (1974), and Mamallapuram and the Pallavas
(1982).42Many of the early scholars’ identification, interpretation and observation are disproved by the scholars like K. R.
Srinivasan, K. V. Soundara Rajan, C. Sivaramamurti and George Michell.

S. R. Balasubramanyam’s works on Chola temples (3 Vols.) describe the stylistic features of the Early, Middle
and Later Chola temples on the basis of elaborate field survey and inscriptions. 43 In dealing with the architecture of the
early Cholas, Barret has provided an extensive and comprehensive group of drawings and diagrams and adequate number
of photos to illustrate his view of stylistic and evolutionary pattern. He has chronologically categorized the sculpture on the
basis of highest technical and artistic level. Barret also identifies some specific characteristic features of Chembian Madevi
within the style of early Chola art. S. R. Balasubramanyam has given the chronology of the early Chola period, as between

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42 Dr. A. Mahalingam

850-985 AD, whereas Barret extends the early Chola period including the reign of Rajaraja I i.e., up to A.D 1014.44

Monograph of Temples

K. K. Pillai has made an earnest attempt to focus the Monograph of Sucindram temple which analyses the different phases
of political history reflected in the development of the temple at Sucindram, combined characteristics of the Keralan and
Tamilian variants of the Hindu culture and comparative manner that is so fruitful of historical knowledge and artistic
ideas.45

The Dharmaraja Ratha and its Sculptures at Mahabalipuram is a complete and fully illustrated treatise on the
monument from the points of view of technique, architecture, sculpture, iconography, epigraphy and chronology. It is the
outcome of the critical study of K. R. Srinivasan with vast experience in the Archaeological Survey of India, particularly in
the architectural and iconographic survey of temples.46

K. V. Raman has made an earnest attempt to bring out how the temple played a vital role in the growth of Sri
Vaishnavism. The art and architectural features of the temple are briefly stated as corroborative evidence and he describes
the interesting iconographical details.47

Dennis Hudson’s work on the Vaikunta Perumal temple is one of the most unique places of scholarship. Bringing
together the Tamil poems of the dress, Sanskrit literature including traditional texts like the Bhagawad Gita and Bhagavata
Purana on the one hand and Pancharatna works on the other, he includes substantial evidence from iconography, temple
architecture inscription and the ethnography of rituals to his analysis. 48

G. Sethuraman’s work on Ramesvaram Temple is a comprehensive monographic study which explains nuances of
architecture and sculptural details of each and every part comparing with the existing contemporary Chola temples and
justifies Chola contribution in the temple it also traces out the legends, history and rituals of the temple exploring the Vedic
and Puranic legends, epic stories, Tamil literature and inscriptions.49R. Nagaswamy attempts to bring out architecture,
sculptures, paintings, bronze images, coins, inscriptions, portrayed in the Brihadeswara temple at Thanjavur.50

G. Subbiah identifies remarkable stylistic growth and a number of new innovations, material and techniques of
early Pandya art and he follows the classification of Rock-Cut temple by H. Sarkar51 and he also categorizes the structural
temples of the early Pandyas into several types on the basis of plan and style.52

D. Dayalan has given a first hand and authentic documentation of the art and architectural features of the rock
excavation in Southern Tamil Nadu and part of Kerala. He has made a systematic analysis of all relevant aspects and also
put in use the modern technologies for documentation and data collections. This work is the continuation and expansion of
earlier works approached by scholars.53

G. Sethuraman has extensively analysed the later Pandya temples and its architectural forms, sculptures, and
religion and also deal with society, literature and learning developed during the later Pandya period.54 V. Vedachalam55 and
S. Kannan56 made considerable research on the temples of the Pandyas. Raju Kalidos has made a novelty attempt to study
the Temple Cars of Medieval Tamilagam. Temple cars are carved structural monuments and also replica of temple. It has
iconographical embellishments and a kind of art heritage. Raju Kalidos’s artistic perspective outlines the structural styles
of temple cars, the iconography of Saivite and Vaishnavite gods, Shakti goddesses, Brahma and minor gods, symbolism,
car festival and social significance of temple cars.57

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Historiography of Art in Tamil Nadu: Approaches and Interpretations 43

Gustav Le bon was the first art critic and historian who had suggested that the art of Vijayanagara deserved the
attention of scholars. He remarked “I would not sufficiently repeat finally that the city of Bijanagar would be worth a
monograph and I strongly recommend to the artists who would be able to devote some months to its study.” After that
statement many monographs have been produced by scholars on the Vijayanagara monuments. R. N. Saletore was perhaps
the first scholar to mention the vast repertory of Non-religious themes in the carvings in the Vijayanagara temples. His
work Vijayanagara Art (1982) deals with the various aspects of social life of the period through the sculptures and
paintings. The final stage of South Indian temple sculpture during the Vijayanagara and Nayak period in the Tamil Country
reveals both the continuation of long-established artistic patterns and the invention of new types. An argument is made by
different scholars on the style of the Vijayanagara sculpture.58

George Michell, in his recent study on Architectural and Art of Southern India, Vijayanagara and the Successor
States (1995) directs scholars to a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of the seminal importance of the art of
the Vijayanagara, both in its local development and in its subsequent influence throughout the region. 59

Socio-Political Dimension

R. Champakalakshmi (2000) and R. Nagaswamy (1991) on the portrayal of Tripurantaka figures in the
Brahadisvara temple as also repeated reference to Dakshinamurti, while one scholar interprets it at the level of Indian
myth and Saivite ritual; the other sees it as an expression of the assertion of power. A more comprehensive view of the art
historian would be to see schema of visual imagery of the Brahadisvara temple at all levels of the conceptual,
metaphysical, religious, as also political and social. 60 R. Champakalakshmi also interprets that the two great edifices
namely, the Rjasimhesvara and the Rajarajesvara were intended as statements of Pallava and Chola political iconography
and metaphor. 61 A. Mahalingam’s work on Vijayanagara Nayakas: Art and Culture (2012) describes innumerable
sociological aspects pertaining to Nayak period in Tamil Nadu. In which he uses corroborative sources like Tamil and
Telugu literatures, inscriptions and foreigners accounts to trace out the social themes. A few attempts have been made to
identify the social history of the Vijayanagar Nayak period by using the art as sources for understanding the life style of the
contemporary people.62

Study of painting is one of the interesting phenomena and it contains aesthetic perception and meaningful socio-
religious implication. C. Sivaramamurti’s work on South Indian Paintings elucidates the origin of paintings, Sanskrit and
epigraphical sources, the skill of the painters, tools, and materials. It also elaborates the Chitrasala, canons of art criticism,
texts on painting63 and evolution of painting from Satavahana period to (2nd century BC – 2nd century AD) 19th century
paintings. It also explains development of painting in Tamil Nadu such as Pallava, Early Pandya, Cholas and Vijayanagara
and Nayak period.64 Paintings in Tamil Nadu are written by I. Job Thomas gives an account from pre-historic times to 20th
century including colonial period painting. When narrating the painting themes the precious scholars attempts and
approaches explained by Job Thomas. Puranic, mythic, literature and epigraphical sources are exhausted in the work. 65

Art historical research substantiates multi dimensional approaches. Periodisation, dynasty based texts and
thematic aspects, regional consistency, elevations and stylistic features, origin and development monograph, philosophy
are the themes bring many changes and development in temple research followed by scholars. Inter disciplinary and
multidisciplinary approaches can be applied to study the art history as a discipline. The temple art would be interpreted by
the artist or builder point of view. Anthropological methodology may be applied to study socio-cultural significance of
people in relation to temples. The political sovereignty how implicitly and explicitly reflects the temple’s architectural

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44 Dr. A. Mahalingam

forms, iconography and paintings should be assessed by studying the contemporary social and political milieu. History can
be reconstructed through systematic analysis of artistic representation in temple forms.

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1. The Journal brought out in 1788 made great impact on contemporary scholarship and the journal attracted many scholars to
investigate the past of Indian Subcontinent. Journal pirated in London and translated into French in Paris the pioneering
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2. Fergusson had a brief stint in India as an indigo merchant but came to be better known as the author of a number of learned
books on the history of architecture. He proclaimed a justified strong racial prejudice of Euro-centric superiority and under
estimated the contribution of Indian scholars.

3. Alexander Cunnigham arrived in Calcutta on 9th June 1833 a young man of 19 years for military service. After resigning at
the age of 47 to take up appointment as archaeological survey a designation given him by Viceroy Canning. Later Lord Mayo
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4. G. Sethuraman (1995), Trends in Indian Art History: Existing and Expected in Facets of Indian Art and Culture, Madurai.
Also see (2001), Trends in Art History, VIII session of Tamil Nadu History Congress, Chennai, and (2004), Perspectives of
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5. Parul Pandya Dhar, (ed) (2011), Indian Art History Changing Perspectives, New Delhi, p.4.

6. Mackenzie did not systematize his collection not use it in any large measure to construct the history of India. Noreport or
journal of his surveys ever appeared in print. His collection compiled and catalogued several years after his death by H. H.
Wilson in 1828.

7. Sourindranath Roy (2011), The Story of Indian Archaeology 1784-1947, ASI, New Delhi, p. 118.

8. K. V. Soundara Rajan 1981, Glimpses of Indian Culture, Architecture, Art and Religion, Delhi.

9. Parul Pandya Dhar, (ed.,),Op.cit, p.5.

10. E. B. Havell, (1980), Indian sculpture and Painting, New Delhi.

11. Partha Mitter (1977), Much Maligned Monsters A History of European Reactions to Indian Art, The University of Chicago.

12. Ratan Parimoo (2011), Stella Kramrisch’s Approach to Indian Art History in Indian Art History Changing Perspectives, Parul
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13. Parul Pandya Dhar, (ed.,), Op.cit, p.6.

14. Henrich Zimmer (1997), The Art of Indian Asia, Princeton University, 1955, Susan L. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India
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15. Parul Pandya Dhar, (ed.,), Op.cit, pp.6-8.

16. K. V. Soundara Rajan (1972), Indian Temple Styles, The Personality of Hindu Architecture, New Delhi.

17. George Michell, The Hindu Temple an Introduction to its Meaning and Forms, New Delhi, 1974.

18. Partha Mitter (1977), Op.cit.

19. R. Champakalakshmi (1981), Vaishnava Iconography in the Tamil Country, New Delhi.

20. A. Ekambaranathan (2008), The Cult of Chandesa in Tamil Nadu, Chennai.

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7084 NAAS Rating: 2.90

Historiography of Art in Tamil Nadu: Approaches and Interpretations 45

21. S. Vasanthi (2012), Varaha Avatara of Vishnu in Art and Literature in Tamil Nadu, Delhi.

22. K. R. Srinivasan (1959-60), Some Aspects of Religion by Early Monuments and Literature of the South, Madras University.

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24. R. Champakalakshmi (2011), Religion, Tradition and Ideology Pre Colonial South India, New Delhi, p.463.

25. Ibid, p.464.

26. Ibid, p.465.

27. Partha Mitter (2001), Indian Art, oxford.

28. Michael W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky (eds) (1983), Indian Temple Architecture, South India: Lower Dravidadesa, Delhi.

29. K. V. Soundara Rajan (1978), The Art of South India Tamil Nadu and Kerala, New Delhi, P.18.

30. D. Dayalan (2017), South Indian Architecture, Delhi.

31. R. Champakalakshimi (2007), The Hindu Temple, New Delhi.

32. C. Sivaramamurti, Geographical and Chronological factors in Indian Iconography in Ancient India Vol. VI.

33. C. Sivaramamurti (1955), Royal conquests and Cultural Migrations in South India and Deccan, Calcutta.

34. Suresh B. Pillai (1976), Introduction to the study of Temple Art, Thanjavur.

35. J. C. Harle (1986), The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, London.

36. K. R. Srinivasan (1972), Temples of South India, New Delhi.

37. C. Sivaramamurti (1961), Kalugumalai and Early Pandyan Rock-cut Shrines, Bombay.

38. K. V. Soundara Rajan (1998), Rock-Cut Temple Styles Early Pandyan Art and The Ellora Shrines, New Delhi.

39. Jouveau Dubreuil (1917), The Pallavas, Pondicherry.

40. G. Jouveau Dubreuil (1916), Pallava Antiquities, London.

41. A. H. Longhurst (1924), The Pallava Architecture, Simla.

42. Michael Lockwood (2001), Pallava Art.

43. S. R. Balasubramanyam (1971), Early Chola Temples (907-985), Bombay; (1975), Middle Chola Temples (985-1070),
Faridabad; (1979), Later Chola Temples (1070-1280) Faridabad.

44. Douglas Barret (1974), Early Cola Architecture and Sculpture (866-1014), London.

45. K. K. Pillai (1953), The Sucindram temple, Madras.

46. K. R. Srinivasan (1975), The Dharmaraja Ratha and its Sculptures Mahabalipuram, New Delhi.

47. K. V. Raman (1975), Varadarajaswamy Temple at Kanchi A Study of its History, Art and Architecture, New Delhi.

48. Dennis Hudson (2009), The Vaikunta Perumal Temple, Chennai.

49. G. Sethuraman (1998), Ramesvaram Temple, Madurai.

50. R. Nagaswamy (2011), Master Pieces of Chola Art, Chennai.

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46 Dr. A. Mahalingam

51. H. Sarkar (1990), Cave-Architecture of South India in H.M. Nayak and B. R. Gopal (eds.), South Indian Studies, Mysore.

52. G. Subbiah (1976), Pandya Architecture – Early Phase- (From C.A.D 600 to C.A.D. 900), (Unpublished Ph.D., Thesis),
Calcutta University.

53. D. Dayalan (2014), Cave – Temples in the Regions of the Pandya, Muttaraiya, Atiyaman and Ay Dynasties in Tamil Nadu and
Kerala, New Delhi.

54. G. Sethuraman (2018), The Later Pandyas: Contribution to Art and Culture of South India, New Delhi.

55. V. Vedachalam (2002), Parakarama Pandya Puram, Madurai and also see (2018), Society and Culture of Pandyas (C.E.900 –
1300) Thanjavur.

56. S. Kannan (1998), Temples of Ambasamudram Taluk – A Study of Architecture and Sculpture, (Unpublished Ph.D.,
Thesis), Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai.

57. Raju Kalidos (1989), Temple Cars of Medieval Tamilagam, Madurai.

58. R. N. Saletore (1982), Vijayanagara Art, New Delhi.

59. George Michell (1995), Architecture and Art of South India, Vijayanagara and the successor States, Cambridge University
Press.

60. Kapila Vatsyayan (2011), The Discipline of Art History its Multidimensional Nature in Indian Art History Changing
Perspectives, Parul Pandya Dhar, (ed.,), New Delhi, p. 37.

61. R. Champakalakshmi (2011), Op.cit, p. 496.

62. A. Mahalingam (2012), Vijayanagara Nayakas: Art and Culture , New Delhi.

63. The Chitrasutrain Vishnudharmottara is one of the standard texts for almost whole of sub- continent. Most of the other books
of the medieval period like the Abhilashitarthachintamani, Sivadatvaratnakara, Silparatna, Naradasilpa, Sarasvatisilpa, and
Prajapatisilpaare from South India.

64. C. Sivaramamurti (1968), South Indian Paintings, New Delhi. Also see (1932), Frescoes of the Cholas, Trinveni, Madras and
(1985) Vijayanagar Paintings, Publication Division, Govt. of India, New Delhi

65. I. Job Thomas (2010), Paintings in Tamil Nadu, Chennai.

66. Jung, Kyunghee & Choi, Hee, “An Unaccredited Alternative School Principal’s Life History 27 in Perspective of the Practical
Knowledge Forming Process”, International Journal of Educational Science and Research (IJESR), Vol. 6, Issue 4, pp, 25-30

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.7084 NAAS Rating: 2.90