Bless you, my heart.
The shell bangles slip
from my wasting hands.
My eyes, sleepless for days,
are muddied.

Kurunthogai poetry

Her waist is tiny, which is important in Tamil aesthetics.  Kodi-idayaal, or she with a waist like a creeper is an often used metaphor. 

Listen: a small forehead shining near black hair,

like the young, white, crescent moon appearing on the eighth day, amidst the vast ocean

has bound me, like an elephant, freshly caught.

Kurunthogai 129.  1st century B.C. by Kopperuncholan, Chola king.

The Tamil aesthetic is rooted in tradition and comes from Sangam poetry, Chola bronzes, Bharatanatyam dance, and what is available in the land.  Women part their hair in the centre, wear jasmine strings in the hair, and adorn themselves with dancing jhimmikis.

Akam poetry is littered with jewellery, often used as metaphors for the heroine’s mental state. 

She who wears

the fragrant jasmine bud garland around her neck

and seduces me with her scent.

The lonely wife places her finger on her nose and dreams of her long-lost husband.

The finger ring glints like a light on a dark night.

Epitomises beauty in Indian aesthetics. 

Krishna plays the flute in this pose.

This Chola bronze of Shiva and Parvati have them both standing in this pose. 

Look at their jewellery.  Do you see the makara kundala on Shiva’s ear?

Do you see Parvathi’s ear is long with holes that can hold a pampadam or thandatti earring if she so chooses?

Interesting that both Shiva and Parvati are wearing a sacred thread, lending credence to the belief that both young boys and girls had the upanayanam (or twice-born) ceremony in the olden days.