Indian dancing

INDIAN DANCING

ot king. ‘. . . In the sight of Brahma, Natute is inett and cannot dance until Shiva wills it; he tises from his taptute and sends through inert matter pulsing waves of awakening sound and lo, matter also dances, appearing as a glory round about him. Dancing, he sustains its manifold phenomena. In the fullness of time, still dancing, he destroys all names and forms by fire and gives new TESEsn”

Shiva is like a master conductor, and the dainic nrtya, of daily dance, is the eternal response of all creation to his rhythmic force, which combines, in the symbolic Tandava Dance, the Panchakritya, ot fivefold activities, of as many gods (pancha=five; kritya= activities): Brahma creating through the action termed shrshfj or avirbhava, Vishnu preserving by means of s¢hiti; Rudra destroying through sambara, Maheshwara conferring illusion by means of 7iroLhava; and Sadashiva releasing the human soul from its cycle of re-births, through annugraha.

The most popular representation of Shiva depicts him in a pose suggesting the foregoing actions: The upper tight hand holding the sacted drum, or damaru, implies creation (. . . Thy hand holding the sacred drum has made and ordered the heavens and earth and other worlds and innumerable souls. . . .”) The lower tight hand raised aloft in the pafaka gestute signifies protection (“. . . Thy lifted hand protects both the conscious and unconscious order of thy creation . . .’). The upper left hand holding a flame symbolizes destruction («. . . All these worlds are transformed by thy hand bearing fire.’), The tight foot planted on the demon Mayulaga stamps out evil (“. . . Thy sacted foot planted firmly on the demon Mayulaga stamps out evil and gives an abode to the tired soul struggling in the toils of causality .. .?). The left foot raised aloft signifies release (‘. . . It is that lifted foot that grants eternal bliss to those that approach thee. These five works are indeed thy handiwork’). Many and fascinating are the legends woven tound the Dance of Shiva. One relates that duting the season of the Dakshya Jagna, ot the Sacred Fire Ceremony, offered to King Dakshya, the father of

* From Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s Dance of Siva.