Nataraja (, ; , Naṭarājar), also known as Adalvallan (),[ Encyclopædia Britannica (2015)] The pose and artwork are described in many Hindu texts such as the Tevaram and Thiruvasagam in Tamil language and the Amshumadagama and Uttarakamika agama in Sanskrit and the Grantha texts. The dance murti is featured in all major of Shaivism,[ and is a well-known sculptural symbol in India and popularly used as a symbol of Indian culture,]
The sculpture is symbolic of Shiva as the lord of dance and dramatic arts,[ It typically shows Shiva dancing in one of the Natya Shastra poses, holding various symbols][ which vary with historic period and region,][) who symbolizes spiritual ignorance.][ Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), Chola period, c. 10th/11th century The Art Institute of Chicago, United States]
The classical form of the depiction appears in a pillar of rock cut temple at Seeyamangalam – Avanibhajana Pallaveshwaram Temple constructed by a Pallava King Mahendravarman I in 6th century CE, which is known by Archeological Survey of India and Archeological Survey of Tamil Nadu as the oldest known Nataraja sculpture in India. The stone at the Ellora Caves and the Badami Caves, by around the 6th century, are also among the oldest Nataraja sculptures in India.[ some over.][ Nataraja reliefs have been found in many parts of South East Asia such as Angkor Wat and in Bali, Cambodia, and Central Asia.]
Etymology
, Tamil Nadu, 10th or 11th century.]]The word Nataraja is a Sanskrit term, from नट Nata meaning "act, drama, dance" and राज Raja meaning "king, lord"; it can be roughly translated as Lord of the dance or King of the dance.
The form is known as Nataraja and as Narteśvara (also written Nateshwar) or Nṛityeśvara, with all three terms meaning "Lord of the dance". However, Nataraja and Nateshwar represent different forms of Shiva.
In Tamil, he is also known as “ Sabesan” () which splits as “ Sabayil adum eesan” () which means “The Lord who dances on the dais”. This form is present in most Shiva temples, and is the prime deity in the Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram (Tillai).
Depiction
The sculpture is symbolic of Shiva as the lord of dance and dramatic arts,[Carmel Berkson, Wendy Doniger, George Michell, Elephanta: The Cave of Shiva, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). ]
According to Alice Boner, the historic Nataraja artworks found in different parts of India are set in geometric patterns and along symmetric lines, particularly the satkona mandala (hexagram) that in the Indian tradition means the interdependence and fusion of masculine and feminine principles.
It typically shows Shiva dancing in one of the Natya Shastra poses, holding Agni (fire) in his left back hand, the front hand in gajahasta (elephant hand) or dandahasta (stick hand) mudra, the front right hand with a wrapped snake that is in abhaya (fear not) mudra while pointing to a Sutra text, and the back hand holding a musical instrument, usually a Udukai ().[Ananda Coomaraswamy (1922), Saiva Sculptures: Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, Vol. 20, No. 118 (Apr., 1922), pages 18-19][Gomathi Narayanan (1986), SHIVA NATARAJA AS A SYMBOL OF PARADOX, Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 21, No. 2, page 215] The details in the Nataraja artwork have been variously interpreted by Indian scholars since the 12th century for its symbolic meaning and theological essence.
Symbolism
The dance of Nataraja is revealed in a story mentioned in the Koyil Puranam.[ The Dance of Shiva, Ananda Coomaraswamy][ Shiva Nataraja, lord of the dance Encyclopedia of Ancient History (2013)]
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He dances within a circular or cyclically closed arch of flames ( prabha mandala), which symbolically represent the cosmic fire that in Hindu cosmology creates everything and consumes everything, in cyclic existence or cycle of life. The fire also represents the evils, dangers, heat, warmth, light and joys of daily life. The arch of fire emerges from two makara (mythical water beasts) on each end.
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He looks calm, even through the continuous chain of creation and destruction that maintains the universe, that shows the supreme tranquility of the Atma.
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His legs are bent, which suggests an energetic dance. His long, matted tresses, are shown to be loose and flying out in thin strands during the dance, spread into a fan behind his head, because of the wildness and ecstasy of the dance.
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On his right side, meshed in with one of the flying strands of his hair near his forehead, is typically the river Ganges personified as a goddess, from the Hindu mythology where the danger of a mighty river is creatively tied to a calm river for the regeneration of life.
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His headdress often features a human skull (symbol of mortality), a lunar phase and a flower identified as that of the plant Datura metel.
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Four-armed figures are most typical, but ten-armed forms are also found from various places and periods, for example the Badami Caves and Ankor Wat.
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upper right hand holds a small drum shaped like an hourglass that is called a in Sanskrit.
[For the damaru drum as one of the attributes of Shiva in his dancing representation see: Jansen, page 44.] A specific hand gesture (mudra) called (Sanskrit for "-hand") is used to hold the drum.[Jansen, page 25.] It symbolizes rhythm of creation and time.
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The upper left hand contains Agni or fire, which signifies destruction.
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A cobra uncoils from his lower right forearm, while his hand is in the Abhayamudra gesture as a sign to not fear
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The lower left hand is bent downwards at the wrist with the palm facing inward, we also note that this arm crosses Naṭarāja's chest, concealing his heart from view. It represents tirodhāna, which means “occlusion, concealment.”
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The face shows two eyes plus a slightly open third on the forehead, which symbolize the triune in Shaivism. The eyes represent the sun, the moon and the third has been interpreted as the inner eye, or symbol of knowledge ( jnana), urging the viewer to seek the inner wisdom, self-realization. The three eyes alternatively symbolize an equilibrium of the three Guṇas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
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The dwarf underneath his foot is the demon Apasmara purusha or Muyalaka, who symbolizes ignorance which Nataraja destroys.
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The slightly smiling face of Shiva represents his calmness despite being immersed in the contrasting forces of universe and his energetic dance.
[ British Museum Collection]|273x273px]]Padma Kaimal questions some of these interpretations by referring to a 10th-century text and Nataraja icons, suggesting that the Nataraja statue may have symbolized different things to different people or in different contexts, such as Shiva being the lord of cremation or as an emblem of Chola dynasty.[Padma Kaimal (1999), Shiva Nataraja: Shifting Meanings of an Icon, The Art Bulletin Volume 81, Issue 3, pages 390-419] In contrast, Sharada Srinivasan questions the link to Chola, and has presented archaeological evidence suggesting that Nataraja bronzes and dancing Shiva artwork in South India was a Pallava innovation, tracing back to 7th to 9th-centuries, and its symbolism should be pushed back by a few centuries.
Interpretation
Coomaraswamy summarizes the significance of Shiva's entire dance as an image of his rhythmic or musical play which is the source of all movement within the universe, represented by the arch surrounding Shiva. Secondly, the purpose of his dance is to release the souls of all men from illusion. And third, the place of the dance, Chidambaram, which is portrayed as the center of the universe, is actually within the heart.
James Lochtefeld states that Nataraja symbolizes "the connection between religion and the arts", and it represents Shiva as the lord of dance, encompassing all "creation, destruction and all things in between".[Gomathi Narayanan (1986), SHIVA NATARAJA AS A SYMBOL OF PARADOX, Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 21, No. 2, pages 208-216] a fearless celebration of the joys of dance while being surrounded by fire, untouched by forces of ignorance and evil, signifying a spirituality that transcends all dvaita.
In the hymn of Manikkavacakar's Thiruvasagam, he testifies that at Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram had, by the pre-Chola period, an abstract or 'cosmic' symbolism linked to Pancha Bhoota. Nataraja is a significant visual interpretation of Brahman and a dance posture of Shiva. The details in the Nataraja artwork have attracted commentaries and secondary literature such as poems detailing its theological significance.
Srinivasan notes that Nataraja is described as Satcitananda or "Being, Consciousness and Bliss" in the Shaiva Siddhanta text Kunchitangrim Bhaje, resembling the Advaita doctrine, or "abstract monism" of Adi Shankara, which holds the individual Self (Jiva) and supreme Self (Paramatman) to be one, while "an earlier hymn to Nataraja by Manikkavachakar ... identifies him with the unitary supreme consciousness, by using Tamil word ' Or Unarve', rather than Sanskrit 'chit'." This may point to an "osmosis" of ideas in medieval India.
According to Ian Crawford, professor of planetary science at University of London, the cosmic dance of Shiva as Nataraja represents particle physics, entropy and the dissolution of the universe.
History
Stone reliefs depicting the classical form of Nataraja are found in numerous cave temples of India, such as at the Ellora Caves (Maharashtra), the Elephanta Caves, and the Badami Caves (Karnataka), by around the 6th century.[Rupendra Chattopadhya et al. (2013), The Kingdom of the Saivacaryas, Berlin Indological Studies, volume 21, page 200; Archive] The Asanapat inscription also mentions a Shiva temple in the Saivacaryas kingdom.
Literary evidences shows that the bronze representation of Shiva's ananda-tandava appeared first in the Pallava dynasty period between 7th century and mid-9th centuries CE.
Archaeological discoveries have yielded a red Nataraja sandstone statue, from 9th to 10th century from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, now held at the Gwalior Archaeological Museum.
The depiction was informed of cosmic or Metaphysics connotations is also argued on the basis of the testimony of the hymns of Tamil people saints.[ Sharada Srinivasan, "Shiva as 'cosmic dancer': on Pallava origins for the Nataraja bronze", World Archaeology (2004) 36(3), pages 432–450.]
In medieval era artworks and texts on dancing Shiva found in Nepal, Assam and Bengal, he is sometimes shown as dancing on his vahana (animal vehicle) Nandi, the bull; further, he is regionally known as Narteshvara.
In 2004, a 2 meter statue of the dancing Shiva was unveiled at CERN, the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva. The statue, symbolizing Shiva's cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian government to celebrate the research center's long association with India.
Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.
Though named "Nataraja bronzes" in Western literature, the Chola Nataraja artworks are mostly in copper, and a few are in brass, typically cast by the cire-perdue (lost-wax casting) process.[
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Nataraja is celebrated in 108 poses of Bharatanatyam, with Sanskrit inscriptions from Natya Shastra, at the Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India.
In dance and yoga
In modern yoga as exercise, Natarajasana is a posture resembling Nataraja and named for him in the 20th century. classical Indian dance]]
in modern yoga as exercise]]
Gallery
File:Temple troglodytique dédié à Shiva (Badami, Inde) (14146091479).jpg|6th/7th century Nataraja in Cave 1 of Badami cave temples
File:Elephanta Island.jpg|A damaged 6th-century Nataraja, Elephanta Caves
Further reading
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Shiva Nataraja Iconography, Freer Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian
