Indian dancing

INDIAN DANCING

another — the symbolism of the Dance of Shiva appeats to be poetic in that highest sense in which poetry is a perception of the specific significance and beauty that informs an idea or thing and rendets it alive and valid. . . . The conception of the Dance of Shiva is innate in Eastern ideas of movement, and thetefore of history... . Construction and destruction have been accepted as mutually antagonistic realities. But the work done by physicists since R6ntgen’s accidental discovery, has revealed to us an actual scientific fact fully justifying the Dance of Shiva —- which is continuous, and which is both constructive and destructive at one and the same time. . . .”

So we see that the entire world reverberates to the rhythm of Shiva’s dancing feet. His aspects ate many. He is found teptesented in the form of five different images: the Samhara Muri depicts him in his role of Destroyer (it is only evil and the fettets of illusion that he destroys); the Dakshina, ot Bhikhatana Murti, ptesents him as a Yog/ or mendicant; the Augraha Murti as a boongiver; and the Nrita Murti as Lord of the Dance, annihilating time, space, and evil.

ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

How did dancing, originally a religious art, become a secular practice? Once again we must go back to the dawn of Indian civilization and learn from mythology.

Knowledge of the four Vedas of the ancient Hindus was the esoteric, jealously guarded preserve of the priesthood ot Brahmins. The Kshatriyas, ot wattiors, the Vassyhas, ot merchants, and the Sudras, ot menials, could not partake of this wisdom; it was exclusively fot the Brahman. There was a minor revolt, and Brahma the Creator was petitioned, through Indra — King of the Gods — to invent an att that could be enjoyed by the humblest.

Considering the request reasonable, Brahma went into tetreat and, in solitary contemplation, received the inspiration for the Fifth Veda. This new creation was called the Natya Veda, ot the Book of Knowledge and Drama. It was meant for the delectation of all.

The Natya Veda detives its essence from each of the four Vedas, besides being an introduction to a new mode of expression —

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