Nataraja - Origin

One of the names of the Hindu deity, Shiva. As the Lord of the Dance he dances the creation of the universe.

Nataraja (literally, The King of Dance) is the dancing posture of Lord Shiva, the aspect of God as the Destroyer in Hinduism. The dwarf on which Nataraja dances is the demon Apasmara that symbolises the ignorance of dichotomy, which is defeated by the dance of Shiva. As the Lord of Dance, Nataraja, Shiva performs the tandava, which is the dance in which the universe is created, maintained, and resolved. Shiva's long, matted tresses, usually piled up in a kind of pyramid, loosen during the dance and crash into the heavenly bodies, knocking them off course or destroying them utterly.

Within Lord Shiva's dancing manifestation is represented not only all of time and space, but also the primal creative force that is beyond the circle of illusion that mortals live within, all movement and vibration of the universe, and the stillness beyond all existence.

The entire form of Nataraja can be seen to mirror the Hindu sacred syllable Aum, thus implying that Lord Shiva's dance of Destruction and Creation is contained within the existential principle of the Divine Sound.

The image of the Lord as the Cosmic Dancer is shown at the Chidambaram temple, an unusual fact as Shiva is depicted in an anthropomorphic form rather than in the typical non-anthropomorphic form of the linga.

Origin

The visual image of Nataraja achieved canonical form in the bronzes cast under the Chola dynasty in the tenth century AD, and then continued to be reproduced in metal, stone and other substances right up to the present times.

One of the many legends on the conception of Shiva as Nataraja is this one: In a dense forest in South India, there dwelt multitudes of heretical sages. and so, his last foe prostrate, Shiva resumed the dance.

To understand the concept of Nataraja we have to understand the idea of dance itself. In India, consequently, dance has flourished side by side with the austerities of meditation (as fasting, absolute introversion etc.). Shiva, therefore, the arch-yogi of the gods, is necessarily also the Lord of the dance. Dancing is an art in which artist and the art he creates are one the same, evoking the oneness of God and Creation.

Shiva Nataraja was first represented thus in a beautiful series of South Indian bronzes dating from the tenth and twelfth centuries A.D. In these images, Nataraja dances with his right foot supported by a crouching figure and his left foot elegantly raised. A mirrored posture, where his right foot is raised, represents Moksha

A cobra uncoils from his lower right forearm, and the crescent moon and a skull are on his crest.