The British Museum Tara and Situating Early Sri Lankan Bronzes in Relation to South India

• In Event: New Perspectives on Relationships between the Art of Sri Lanka and South India

Abstract

The British Museum Tara is among the most important extant bronzes sculptures in early Sri Lankan art. Found on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka and donated to the museum by Sir Robert Brownrigg in 1830, it has enjoyed pride of place in their South and Southeast Asian Art galleries ever since. Standing nearly five feet tall, this impressive statue is unique in the material record. It has been published by numerous scholars with various attributions and dates ranging from the eighth to the thirteenth century, though it is commonly accepted as a Tara image dating to the first half of the eighth century. The Tara’s affinity with South Indian bronzes is clear, and most scholars have connected it to the Pallava style of Tamil Nadu. This is highly problematic given the scarcity of bronze sculptures that have been identified as Pallava. The goal of this paper is to situate the British Museum Tara in relation to Buddhist and Hindu metal sculptures produced in Sri Lanka and South India during the Pallava and Chola dynasties, a period when there were close political ties between Tamil and Sinhalese royalty that encouraged cultural exchange between the two regions. Stylistic analysis, iconography, and technical studies are used to establish a framework for understanding the process of localization of Indian models that contributed to the standardization of Sri Lanka’s own sculptural tradition. The Tara sculpture thus provides a point of departure for a broader discussion of artistic relationships between South India and Sri Lanka.

Author

• Julie Romain, Los Angeles County Museum of Art