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and trampled beneath the foot of Nataraja (Shiva as lord of dance).]] Apasmara (, ) is a diminutive man who represents spiritual ignorance and ahamkara in Hindu mythology. Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), Chola period, c. 10th/11th century The Art Institute of Chicago, United States He is also known as Muyalaka or Muyalakan.
Ahamkara, literally means the "I-maker", and is the faculty by which jiva (souls) identify with the physical body rather than their higher self. The Shiva Purana describes ahamkara as originating from Prakriti (nature).Shiva Purana, J. L. Shastri, 1950, Chapter 6: 56–59 Apasmara symbolizes the ignorance of selfhood ( ahamkara), a universal, cosmic form of ignorance essential for jivas to function in samsara across their countless reincarnations by forgetting past lives and identifying with a new body each time. This "necessary evil" of Apasmara is part of the cosmic balance between spiritual knowledge and the inherent ignorance in one's sense of self, and cannot be eradicated without disrupting the cosmic order. Killing Apasmara would represent gaining spiritual knowledge without the effort, will, and dedication required, thereby devaluing that knowledge itself.
To enable moksha (transcendence) while preserving the cosmic balance between spiritual knowledge and ignorance inherent in samsara, Apasmara must be subdued rather than killed. To suppress Apasmara, Shiva assumes the form of Nataraja—the Lord of Dance—and performs the cosmic dance of tandava. During this dance, Shiva subdues Apasmara under his right foot, symbolizing the subjugation of ignorance and ahamkara. Apasmara is believed to remain eternally subdued beneath Nataraja's foot, with Shiva perpetually maintaining this balance through his cosmic dance.Knappert, Jan Indian Mythology, a volume in the series Encyclopedias of Myth and Legend pub. The Aquarian Press (An Imprint of Harper Collins) 1991 pps. 181-2. Similar symbolism is seen in representations of Dakshinamurti, another form of Shiva as a guru, where Apasmara is subdued under Shiva’s right foot.
English writer and philosopher, Aldous Huxley has described and summarized the symbolism of Nataraja and Apasmara, also known as Muyalaka in his utopian novel, Island:
Nataraja right foot is planted squarely on a horrible little subhuman creature - the demon, Muyalaka. A dwarf, but immensely powerful in his malignity, Muyalaka is the embodiment of ignorance, the manifestation of greedy, possessive Selfishness. Stamp on him, break his back! And that's precisely what Nataraja is doing. Trampling the little monster down under his right foot. But notice that it isn't at this trampling foot that he points his finger; it's at the left foot, the foot that, as he dances, he's in the act of raising from the ground. And why does he point at it? Why? That lifted foot, that dancing defiance of the force of gravity - it's the symbol of release, of moksha, of liberation.Huxley, Aldous Island First published by Chatto and Windus 1962.
/ref> Charakhas instituted this classification depending upon the different doshas of the body.
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