There is a certain arresting appeal in the Indian Temple art : a Casual glance to complement their technical brilliance or artistic prowess when seen in isolation will never suffice : for their true magnificence is in the delightful confluence of devotion, spirituality, art and aesthetics seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of worship: No Museum or Art Gallery can recreate this unique flavor that invades you while viewing  Temple Art while it is in its Womb – in and around the Temple’s Sanctum Sanctorum.

The highlight of such a sacred confluence of devotion and art yield the high water mark of Indian Art - South Indian bronzes  – created as Tirumeni – the body of God, it’s a sight to behold as they are celebrated as living Gods in our temples. So much so that the process to create them via the lost wax process is glorified in this verse of Aandal.

PASURAM 10.8
mazhaiyE! mazhaiyE! maN puRam pUSi uLLAi ninRa
mezhugu URRinARpOl URRu nal vE’nkaTattuL ninRa
azhagap pirAnAr tammai en ne’njattu agappaDat
tazhuva ninRu ennai tagaittuk koNDu URRavum vallaiyE

Oh rainy clouds! like the clay which embraces the wax mold, which on being fried in the oven melts the wax, The azhagar of tiruvenkatam has embraced me outside, and is melting me inside out and destroying me. Wont you first unite me with Him so that I can embrace Him closely just as I am imagining in my mind, and then shower your rains.

They have lasted over a 1000 years – many under continuous worship and a few unfortunate ones went literally underground – to escape the Iconoclasts invasions of 1314. The custodians paid the ultimate price – their lives, as they refused to reveal their hiding spots to the invaders. The Gods remained buried for centuries in their sub altern sanctuaries waiting for the devote to bring them up and back into daily worship.  It is indeed sad that these sacred objects have been reduced to showcase curios for human greed – robbed from temples and some from buried hoades, ending up in the private rooms of the rich and the famous – auctioned for millions of dollars.

Sadly, even after action to recover a few of them ( currently seized in America by US Law enforcement) – there is little awareness of where their original abodes are.

The above bronzes were on sale in the illicit antiquities market for prices over 50 crores ! Someday hopefully they will return back to India, but its sad that we do not even know from which temples they have been looted, no theft reports etc.

But this seizure is a mere drop in an ocean. Many slip the dragnet and are still being offered for sale in the art markets especially in Europe. This cannot be more evidenced from the number of incomplete sets of bronzes we have in our temples.

Lakshmana ( later replacement)

Sita ( later replacement)

Lakshmana ( later replacement)

The last one is possibly the most famous of the Rama bronzes of South India – Vaduvur.  Chola bronzes especially of the 10^th C CE have a certain allure, and being singularly hand made via the lost wax process, every single bronze is unique as the cast cannot be reused. The artist’s signature styling is evident as they the entire group were cast by a single hand. Therein lies the millennium old hard coded clues for us to solve this puzzle.

The India Pride Project – a citizens initiative working at combating the illicit trade in Indian antiquities has been working on a database of dispersed Indian Art while monitoring objects that are coming for sale in auctions aboard.  Their efforts have resulted in several high profile restitutions including the Sripuranthan Nataraja from Australia, the Vriddhachalam Ardhnari from Australia, The Sripuranthan Uma from Singapore, the Kashmir Tengpura Durga from Germany and almost 2655 odd objects in America pending restitution to India. The team behind ipp.org.in is a group of dedicated volutneers and subject experts and they seem to have a lead in this case – which can reunite the brothers!

They have tracked this hitherto unreported bronze Lakshmana to a dealer John Eskenazi who is offering it for sale in London.

http://www.bada.org/dealers/d/john-eskenazi-ltd/104

Stylistically the bronze matches the Vaduvur set in terms of general features, rough dating, ornamentation etc. The condition of the bronze also indicates more recent removal from active worship – no Patina, no encrustations etc. Could he be the long lost brother ? Lakshmana – the devote brother.  Some of the most heart warming verses of Valmiki’s Ramayana are those that deal with the conversation between Rama and Laxmana when the elder brother tries to convince his younger sibling to stay back in Ayodhya.  Lakshmana refuses and instead offers his services as a dutiful attendant to his brother and true to his word – never leaves him for the entire 14 year forest dwelling - Vanavaasam.  Infact being an aspect of Sesha – the divine serpent he is never known to leave the side of Rama.

Consdiering that the United Kingdom is already a signatory to the UN Statue Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property – 1970 and there have been set precedence in UK Courts of the Pathur Nataraja case –  The legal principle says “A Hindu idol is according to the long established authority founded upon the religious customs of the Hindus and the recognition thereof by the courts of law in India and the Privy Council, a juristic entity. It has judicial status with the power of suing and being sued.” This had been an English decision – that a Hindu deity is a personality of its own and can sue or be sued in a court of law. They applied the principle that once a deity always a deity and so the principle continued to be relevant in the 1980s.

Can we unite and work to bring him back to India?