The school of metal images cast under the Chola dynasty (roughly 9th to 13th centuries CE) in south India using the lost-wax (cire perdue) technique, regarded as the high point of Indian bronze art.
- Made by the lost-wax method: a wax model is coated in clay, the wax is melted out, and molten bronze (an alloy of copper, tin and other metals) is poured in.
- The most celebrated form is the Nataraja, Shiva as the cosmic dancer in the ananda tandava pose within a ring of flames (prabhamandala), standing on the dwarf Apasmara.
- The Nataraja iconography encodes creation (the drum, damaru), destruction (fire), protection (abhaya mudra) and liberation, a symbolic summary of Shaiva theology.
- Bronzes were processional images (utsava murtis) carried in temple festivals, distinct from the fixed stone deity in the sanctum.
- Patronage came from Chola rulers and queens; Sembiyan Mahadevi and the temple at Thanjavur (Rajaraja's Brihadeeswara) are associated with this art.
The Nataraja-as-Chola-bronze identification, the lost-wax (cire perdue) technique, and the processional (utsava murti) function are standard art-history points, often paired with the Brihadeeswara temple of Rajaraja Chola.
Chola images are cast bronze processional idols, not carved stone; the Nataraja is Shiva (the cosmic dancer), and the lost-wax method (cire perdue) is the casting technique, not a style of painting or stone-cutting.
Chola lost-wax bronzes, above all the Shiva Nataraja, the peak of Indian metal sculpture.