Semantics of visible symbols: Interpretation of sacred images and iconic encoding in the Tamil epigraphic texts
Résumé
Aesthetic experience and creative process, according to Indian view, are a synthesis of religion, art and technique. The Vedic as well as Āgamic traditions offer a firm background for such a premise. After centuries of effort, techniques of art were led to perfection and ideals of aesthetics were devised with precision. The abundant canonical literature available on iconography and iconometry has enabled art historians to understand and interpret the significance and symbolism of the images. In general it is admitted that Indian iconographic studies rely on different sources such as archaeological, epigraphic as well as normative texts like silpasastras, puranas and agamas. However, a quick survey of existing literature in Tamil shows that the epigraphic source is less exploited for the iconographic and iconometric analysis. In this paper I am concerned about of the metal images donated to different temples and their iconic coding in Tamil inscriptions.