Hi, I have added Mahishasurmardini cave temple in my article. This cave has one of the best animated representation of Mahishasurmardini scene. This is also considered as one of the best plastic art example of the Pallavas.
Yor contribution is amazing. I am not competent to comment on your work on historical matters. But I can point out some aspects of the carvings.
These caves are formations of granite high percentage of silicon -dioxide , kike quartz. Thes are very hard to cut or chip. Tamilnadu is spread all over with such Quartz based stohes. The sculpturers hav ea limitatuon in delineating very fine details , as they can on other softer materials like metals or Ivory or wood.
In this aspect the Hoysala- structures tand in contrast, at Belur ,Halebidu,and Somanathapura in Karnataka. Thes stone materials are made of stearte ,a very soft materil consisting of Zinc silicates. Slates and writing sticks called balapa by school childrn are made of this. So the Hoysala sculpturers had produce beautiful qork of art at at all thee small towns I have mentioned.
Perhaps as aresearcer of historial monuments , you may have already been informed of this. If so why should you not write and publish it.
Hello sir, Thanks a lot for this feedback. Yes, I am aware of this rock/stone characteristics of Tamilnadu as all of the rock-cut temples here are carved in granite rocks, which is one of the hardest. Only Barabar hill in Bihar, which were excavated during Ashoka the Great, were carved in granite rocks, otherwise all over India we see that rock-cut shrines are carved in softer materials. Specially Hoysala temples were done in soapstone which is the softest among all stones used for sculpting in those times. Pallava artists cannot match the artistic details of Hoysala as they were limited in their facilitydue to the granite stone. Still, they did a very good job in their sculptural art. I will surely mention this in my article, I did not mention this here as I have another series in my mind about the architecture of India which includes all the dynasties of India. But I think I must mention a small reference of this in this article as well. And your information on rocks and their constituents is pretty good, I do not have much information on rocks and geology so will come back to you to get further information.
Dear Mr. Raman, The granite of the TN coast & inland may have been much harder to work [what do you mean by 'kike' quartz, by the way?] than the Steatite available to the Hoysalas; but to my mind, the artistic quality of carving of Pallavas, Colas & Pandyas in granite is much higher. In Hoysala work almost all faces are the same and limbs have no delineation. There is a lot of ornament, but the facial expressions of the Pallava & Cola masters. Kathie B.
There are quiet a few of the surviving bronzes from the Pallava period (Note Period) . Natesa from Kuram, Thiruvalangadu Somaskanda, Vishwaparana of Kilappandur are some good specimens of this period.
Thanks for listing, Arvind. It'll help me consolidate my info. Just didn't want people to forget the beauty of Pallava bronzes -- or of Chola stone murthis. By the way, nice wiki on Panamalai, your photos look super. kathie
"kike " a typing error, should be "like ". Sorry if it had caused confusion.
Dear Madam,
I am sorry for few typing error. 'kike' should be read as 'like'.
I have ,nowhere in my post depreciated Mahabalipuram cave structure or carvings. I only indicated the hardship faced by the sculpturers, in working on hard granites.
Imrequested Mr. saurab Saxena to bring out Hoysala period also in Ponny.
You have expressed some views on Hoysala formsculpyures. I admire them for the meticulus art forms. At the same time I always admire ' Dynamics' in the carvings at Mahabalipuram.
I understand from your varioos posts that you have travelled widely. Can ask you show some patencs in reading others posts and also forgive small typing errors.
I have visited Belur, Hallebiddu and shravana BeLagoLa, and Mahabalipuram twice. I admire all work of art, except so called modern art and cubism, which I utterly fail to understand.