Pandya: Chidambaram, East Gopuram, Detail

This sculpture may represent two princely persons who completed the building of this gopuram. They have a surroundings [sic] of bas-reliefs of dancers demonstrating the 108 attitudes of the sacred dance. The temple of Chidambaram is in fact the place where Siva is believed to have invented the dance. The origin of the temple itself is very old. According to the chronicles the Pallava king, Simhavarman, repaired it and built additions. The kings of Vijayanagara completed the temple by adding the north gopuram at a later date. (Source: Frederic, L. Indian Temples & Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, London, 1959. Illus. 221. p.258.