Early Cola Kings and "Early Cola Temples": Art and the Evolution of Kingship

Goddess Worship and the Dancing Form: Exploring Ritual in Indian Prehistory and South Indian Antiquity

“…They played a dominant role in state and in patronage and in the issuing of grants (Venkataraman 1976;Srinivasan 1996). Kaimal (1996) points out that apparently the donation of temples and art lay almost exclusively within the female sphere of authority in 10 th century south India (as also observed under the Satavahanas and Iksvakus). She opined that this derived from kinship patterns and endogamous cross-cousin marriages that could have enhanced women's positions in their husband's households through their natal relatives.…”

Dancing architecture at Angkor: ‘Halls with dancers’ in Jayavarman VII's temples

“…In her study of Śiva Naṭ arāja, Padma Kaimal argues: Naṭ arāja's association with the town (of Cidambaram) deeply rooted in the autochthonous cults of popular, non-orthodox Hinduism may have made Naṭ arāja quite an effective god through whom to appeal to the population of a region in which the non-hierarchical and intensely personal religious tradition of bhakti had flourished for centuries. 86 The dancing Naṭ arāja was elevated from its local origins to the emblem of the Chōl ̣a kings during their period of expansion and its cult continued to evolve, transforming a Tamil local deity into a Sanskritic god of broader significance who was more precisely suited to the ambitious dynasty and its powerful religious community. 87 Naṭ arāja exemplified what Hermann Kulke calls a 'royalising' deity, one whose identity and worship contributed directly to the reputation and authority of the affiliated king.…”