South Indian Portraits

Contents: 1.A Persistent Art 2.The Element of portraiture 3.The Craving for Portraiture 4.The Statues for worship 5.Memorial Stones 6.Memorial Temples 7.Statues to ancestors 8.Origins 9.Conclusion.
The Book deals extensively with the different types of sculptors  and portraits found in various temples and elsewhere and how  they found important places in monuments and temples.  Fully illustrated with samples from various sources will be an  important contribution to the art and history of south Indian  Archeology and Iconography.

Portrait-sculptures have been discovered in almost every part of  India, and we can now point to specimens representative of the  work of almost every period in the history of Indian sculpture.  Nowhere in India, however has the art had so persistent a life as  in South India or Such a creditable record of achievement, and  nowhere else has the art drawn its inspiration more freely from  the fondest beliefs and the clearest convictions of the people.

The south Indian sculptor was not a flunkey devoting his talents  to the immortalizing of the facial lineament of the rich and the powerful; his chisel was very frequently employed in carving the  features of those who, though lowly,, were yet endowed richly  with the rare virtue of faith.

Literary works in the various languages of India do not generally allude to this class of sculptures. A few references in Sanskrit  literature are utilised later in discussing the evolution of portrait  sculpture. The earliest Tamil literature now available contains  indications of the popularity of sculptures portraying human beings.