Bronze Sculpture in India: Chola Bronzes to Dhokra

The correct answer is B, Mohenjo-daro. The Dancing Girl is a small bronze figure about ten and a half centimetres high, found at Mohenjo-daro in the Larkana district of Sindh and now displayed in the National Museum, New Delhi. She stands with her right hand on the hip, her left arm covered from shoulder to wrist with bangles, her hair tied in a bun and her head tilted back, and she is the earliest known Indian object made by the lost-wax process. Option A is wrong because Harappa gave the red sandstone male torso and the granaries, not this figure. Option C is wrong because Lothal is known for its dockyard, beads and the terracotta of a bird, not for bronze figures. Option D is wrong because Kalibangan gave the ploughed field and the fire altars. Learning the site with the find is the usual way this topic is tested.

The correct answer is B, lost-wax casting. The craftsman models the image in beeswax, covers it with fine clay, heats the mould until the wax runs out through a vent, and fills the cavity with molten alloy; when the metal sets the clay is broken away, so each cast is a single original. The process is called cire perdue in French and madhuchchhista vidhana, the beeswax method, in Sanskrit texts on image making. Option A is wrong because repousse is hammering a design out from the back of a metal sheet, as in Pembarthi brass work. Option C is wrong because granulation is the soldering of tiny metal beads on to jewellery. Option D is wrong because damascening is inlaying gold or silver wire into a darker metal, the method behind Bidriware and Koftgari. Questions often ask for the French or Sanskrit name rather than the English one.

The correct answer is A, copper, zinc, tin, gold and silver. Panchaloha means five metals, and the Shilpa texts of the south prescribe this mixture for an icon that is to be consecrated and worshipped, with copper as the dominant metal and only a token quantity of gold and silver. The eastern schools of Bengal and Bihar instead used ashtadhatu, an eight-metal mixture, which is why Pala images are described by that term. Option B is wrong because iron and nickel are not used in icon casting; iron rusts and would crack the image. Option C is wrong because mercury is liquid at ordinary temperatures and cannot be cast, though it appears in some ashtadhatu recipes in small measure. Option D is wrong because brass, bronze and pewter are themselves alloys, not metals, so they cannot be the five constituents. Examiners also ask that bronze itself is copper with tin.

The correct answer is B, Chola. The workshops of the Kaveri delta produced their finest images under Chola rule, and the term Chola bronze is used for the whole class of processional icons cast in that period at centres connected with Thanjavur, Chidambaram, Tiruvarur and Tiruvenkadu. Royal women were among the chief patrons, and the queen Sembiyan Mahadevi is named in inscriptions as a donor of metal images. Option A is wrong only in degree: bronze casting did begin in Tamil Nadu under the Pallavas in the eighth and ninth centuries, but the Pallava output is smaller and stiffer, and the question asks for the peak. Option C is wrong because the Pandyas of Madurai are better remembered for temple gopurams than for bronzes. Option D is wrong because the Cheras of Kerala belong to an earlier Sangam phase and to a different craft tradition. The period and the dynasty are asked together, so fix the tenth to twelfth century with the Cholas.

The correct answer is A, Apasmara. The dwarf is Apasmara, also called Muyalakan in Tamil, and he personifies ignorance and forgetfulness; by pressing him down with the right foot while dancing the ananda tandava, Shiva shows that knowledge subdues the darkness of the mind. The whole group stands on a lotus pedestal inside a ring of flames known as the tiruvasi or prabhamandala, which represents the cosmos. Option B is wrong because Nandi is the bull mount of Shiva and is shown seated facing the sanctum, never trampled. Option C is wrong because Bhringi is a devotee of Shiva shown in the retinue, usually as a thin three-legged figure. Option D is wrong because Chandesha, or Chandeshvara, is the guardian of temple property in Shaiva temples and has a shrine of his own. The dwarf, the ring of flames and the four attributes are the four details a paper setter picks from this image.

The correct answer is B, the damaru. The upper right hand of Nataraja holds the damaru, the small hour-glass shaped drum whose beat stands for the sound from which creation begins. The upper left hand balances it with agni, the flame in a cup or on the palm, standing for destruction, so the two upper hands together carry the cycle of creation and dissolution. The lower right hand is raised in abhaya mudra, the gesture of protection, and the lower left sweeps across the chest in gajahasta, the elephant-trunk gesture, pointing towards the raised left foot that promises release. Option A is wrong because agni is in the upper left hand, and swapping the two is the commonest error in this question. Option C is wrong because the trident belongs to standing and seated forms of Shiva, not to this dancing form. Option D is wrong because the conch is an attribute of Vishnu.

The correct answer is A, Birmingham. The image was dug up in 1861 at Sultanganj in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar during railway work, stands over two metres high, and was cast in copper in the transition between the Gupta and Pala periods. It was taken to England soon after its discovery and is displayed in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which is why it appears in questions on Indian antiquities held abroad. Option B is wrong because the Government Museum at Chennai holds the great collection of Chola bronzes, not this Buddha. Option C is wrong because the Patna Museum holds the Didarganj Yakshi in stone and the Chausa bronze hoard, which are different objects often confused with it. Option D is wrong because the Indian Museum at Kolkata, the oldest museum in India, holds the Bharhut railings and other sculpture but not the Sultanganj figure. Link the find spot in Bihar with the present home in England.

The correct answer is A, Pala. Under the Pala rulers of Bengal and Bihar, from about the ninth century onwards, the monastery workshops of Nalanda and the village of Kurkihar near Gaya cast hundreds of small metal images of the Buddha, Tara, Avalokiteshvara and other Bodhisattvas in ashtadhatu, the eight-metal alloy. Pala figures are recognised by slim elongated bodies, sharply cut features, high ornamented crowns and a plain back slab. Option B is wrong because Gupta metal work is represented by the Buddha of Dhanesar Khera and the Sultanganj figure, which are earlier and heavier. Option C is wrong because the Kushana period is represented by the Jain hoard from Chausa in Bihar, not by Nalanda. Option D is wrong because Vijayanagara metal work belongs to the far south and is known for royal portrait figures. Pala bronzes also travelled to Tibet and Nepal and shaped the art there, a point UPSC has used.

The correct answer is A, Maharashtra. Daimabad lies on the Pravara river in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra and is the southernmost late Harappan site known. Its hoard of heavy solid-cast metal objects includes a chariot with two yoked bulls and a driver, and separate figures of an elephant, a rhinoceros and a buffalo, each mounted on a platform with wheels or legs. The pieces matter because they prove that metal casting of large animal figures continued in the Deccan after the Harappan cities declined. Option B is wrong because Gujarat's Harappan sites, Lothal, Dholavira, Rangpur and Surkotada, are known for the dockyard, water reservoirs and the horse-bone claim, not these bronzes. Option C is wrong because Kalibangan, the best known Harappan site of Rajasthan, gave ploughed fields and fire altars. Option D is wrong because Rakhigarhi and Banawali in Haryana are known for town plans and burials.

The correct answer is A, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Dhokra takes its name from the Dhokra Damar metal workers and is the hollow lost-wax craft of this eastern and central belt, with Bikna village in the Bankura district of West Bengal and the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh as its best known centres; Bastar Dhokra carries a geographical indication tag. The products are small figures of horses, elephants, owls and deities, along with measuring bowls, lamps and jewellery, built from fine wax threads that leave a ribbed surface on the finished metal. Option B is wrong because the northern states are known for Koftgari, Thathera copper work and Jaipur enamel. Option C is wrong because the south is the home of solid-cast panchaloha icons, a different method. Option D is wrong because the north east is known for the bell metal of Sarthebari in Assam and for cane and bamboo work.

The correct answer is A, Tamil Nadu. Swamimalai is a temple town in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, in the old Chola heartland near Kumbakonam, and its stapathi families have cast panchaloha images by the solid lost-wax method in an unbroken line from the Chola workshops. Swamimalai bronze icons are registered as a geographical indication, which is why the place appears in questions on both art and the GI list. Option B is wrong because Kerala's metal crafts are the Aranmula kannadi mirror and the bell metal vessels of Payyanur and Mannar. Option C is wrong because Karnataka's metal craft is Bidriware from Bidar, which is a zinc alloy inlaid with silver. Option D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is associated with Budithi brass and Kondapalli wooden toys rather than panchaloha icons. The pairing of craft, town and state is the standard form of this question.

The correct answer is A, Tirumala, Tirupati. The Vijayanagara workshops extended the bronze tradition from deities to royal portraiture, and the standing copper figures of the emperor Krishnadevaraya with his two queens, Tirumala Devi and Chinnaji Devi, were placed in the Venkateshvara temple at Tirumala, where they remain. They show the ruler with hands joined in anjali mudra, an attitude of worship rather than command, and they are the standard example of portrait sculpture in Indian metal. Option B is wrong because Hampi, the Vijayanagara capital, preserves stone architecture such as the Vitthala temple and the stone chariot, not these figures. Option C is wrong because Thanjavur is the Chola centre, associated with the Brihadeeswara temple and processional bronzes of deities. Option D is wrong because Madurai is the Nayaka centre known for the Meenakshi temple and its pillared halls.