SHIVA as NATARAJA – The Cosmic Dancer – King of Dances or Lord of Dancers
NATARAJA THE COSMIC DANCER
I am the greatest said SHIVA, to which PARVATHI retorted, there is no SHIVA without SHAKTHI. What started as a playful conversation, changed into major proposition and both wanted to prove a point. SHIVA took the form of NATARAJA and started dancing. PARVATHI matched her dance with SHIVA step by step. SHIVA knew he would not be able to excel PARVATHI in the art form of Dance and hence he started the URDHVA THANDAVAM. The Gods,Gana's and Rishi's had assembled to see this cosmic dance. Nandi played the drums and Bhrigu took notes of the postures. in all there are supposed to be 108 postures of the LORD.
The URDHVA THANDAVAM is a posture, in which the lord, lift his right leg upwards towards his face, thereby exposing his gentalia. The coy and demure PARVATHI seeing the precarious position of her lord, became shy and stopped dancing. She went away from the town of CHIDAMBARAM and sat in the outskirts, in a temple dedicated to her known as THILLAI KALI or THILLAI AMMAN temple. Even today, people visit her first before visitng the Lord in the Gold Sabha or "PONAMBALAM"
GHARAPURI - ELEPHANTA CAVES 9 SHIVA as NATARAJA – The Cosmic Dancer – King of Dances or Lord of Dancers.
The dance of the LORD SHIVA is known as TANDAVA. There are supposed to be sixteen Tandava’s, out of which Ananda Tandava signifies creation and Rudra Tandava signifies destruction. There are also 108 Karana’s of the Tandavam, which forms part of the Indian traditional Dance of BHARATANATYAM. NATARAJA the CREATOR.
In the normal pose of Nataraja, The lord stands on his right leg, with the left leg lifted towards the right, with his front hands one in Abhaya Mudra( signs of protection) and the other hand pointing downwards are on the right hand side of the Lords body.
SHIVA in Ananda Tandavam. (Ashthabhuja)
This panel shows a UNIQUE posture of the Lord of Dances “NATARAJA”. In normal postures of Nataraja, the lord has four hands, this feature of the Lord seems to have eight hands ASHTABHUJA, out of which the front hands with the Abhaya mudra placed on the other hand pointing downwards, seem to be towards the left side of the lord’s body.
The upper most right hand, seems to be holding a trident, with a snake dangling from it. The upper left hand seems to be holding his (missing) matt locks releasing the rivers GANGA, YAMUNA & SARASWATHI, with what looks like a flow of water. The other hands are vandalized.
The exquisite carvings of the crown, large ear rings, flowing hair on to the shoulders, amulets and the belt with its knot hanging from the waist to the extended right thigh are a sight to behold. In total the figure of NATARAJA would have been 10 feet 8 inches when intact. To the left of Shiva is the perfectly carved figure of PARVATHI at 6 feet 9 inches in finely carved drapery
PARVATHI ON THE RIGHT OF THE PANEL
On the right side of the Panel, one cans see LORD GANESHA holding a Parashu in his right hand, broken tusk in the left hand & LORD BRAMHA on a pedestal of five swans. Below Ganesha is the depiction of KUMARA the commander-in-chief of the gods with the VEL or Shakthi ayudham and to the right corner is the depiction of skeletal BHRINGI the devoted attendant of Shiva replicating his master’s perfection in the art of dancing. To the left of KUMARA is a damaged figure of a damsel whose beautiful dress carved in stone is worth noting.LORD BRAHMA GANESHA AND KUMARA
On the left hand side you can see the king of the Deva’s INDRA on his mount AIRAVATA & MAHAVISHNU on GARUDA with GADA (KOUMODAKI) mace on his right hand and SHANKHA (PANCHAJANYA) conch on his left hand.MAHAVISHNU on GARUDA, INDRA on AIRAVATHA
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