# Nataraja

Nataraja is a depiction of Shiva, one of the main deities in Hinduism, as the divine cosmic dancer.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · From Hindu texts · See also · External links

## Quotes

* "This conception itself is a synthesis of science, religion and art. In the night of Brahma, Nature is inert, and cannot dance till Shiva wills it. He rises from His rapture, and dancing sends through inert matter pushing waves of awakening sound, and lo! Matter also dances appearing as a glory round about Him. This is poetry; but nonetheless, science." ..."Whatever the origins of Siva's dance, it became in time the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of." ..."How amazing the range of thought and sympathy of those rishi-artists who conceived such a type as this, affording an image of reality, a key to the complex tissue of life, a theory of nature , note merely satisfactory to a single clique or race, not acceptable to the thinkers of a country only, but Universal in its appeal to the philosopher, the lover and the artist of all ages and all countries ... " "Every part of such an image as this is directly expressive not of any superstition or dogma, but of evident facts. No artist of today, however great, could more exactly or more wisely create an image of that Energy which science must postulate behind all phenomena? "It is not strange that the figure of Nataraja has commanded the adoration of so many generations past; familiar With all skepticisms, expert in tracing all beliefs to primitive superstitions, explorers of the infinitely great and infinitely small, we are worshippers of Nataraj a still."
** Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, Coomaraswamy, Ananda K The Dance of Shiva: Essays on Indian Art and Culture Dover Publications New York 1985 p. 57-66
* "The essence of the Indian experience, rooted in 'a constant mtUltion' of the unity and harmony of all life. Everything has its place, every being its function and all playa part in the divine concert led by Nataraja (Siva), Lord of Dancers.
** Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, quoted quoted in Goswami, Satsvarupa Dasa: Readings in Vedic Literature: The Tradition Speaks for itself, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust California 1990 p.38
* Shiva dances, creating the world and destroying it, his large rhythms conjure up vast aeons of time, and his movements have a relentless magical power of incantation. Our European allegories are banal and pointless by comparison with these profound works, devoid of the trappings of symbolism, concentrating on the essential, the essentially plastic.
** Sir Jacob Epstein, Epstein, Jacob Let there be sculpture New York: G. P. Putnam's sons, [c 1940] p. 193
* Whether he be surrounded or not by the flamming aureole of the Tiruvasi (Pabhamandala) - the circle of the world which he both fills and oversteps - the King of the Dance is all rhythm and exaltation. The tambourine, which he sounds with one of his right hands, draws all creatures into this rhytmic motion and they dance in his company. The conventionalized locks of flying hair and the blown scarfs tell of the speed of this universal movement, which crystallizes matter and reduces it to powder in turn. One of his left hands holds the fire, which animates and devours the worlds in this cosmic whirl. One of the God's feet is crushing a Titan, for "this dance is danced upon the bodies of the dead", yet one of the right hands is making a gesture of reassurance (abhayamudra), so true it is that, seen from the cosmic point of view ... the very cruelty of this universal determinism is kindly, as the generative principle of the future. And, indeed, on more than one of our bronzes the King of the Dance wears a broad smile. He smiles at death and at life, at pain and at joy, alike, or rather, his smile is death and life, both joy and pain ... From this lofty point of view, in fact, all things fall mto their place, finding their explanation and logical compulsion. Here art is the faithful interpreter of a philosophical concept. The plastic beauty of the rhythm is no more than the expression of an ideal rhythm. The very multiplicity of arms, puzzling as it may seem at first sight, is subject in tum to an inward law, each pair remaining a model of elegance in itself, so that the whole being of the Nataraja thrills with a magnificent harmony in his terrible joy. And as though to stress the point that the dance of the divine actor is indeed a sport, (lila) - the sport of life and death, the sport of creation and destruction, at once infinite and purposeless - the first of the left hands hangs limply from the arm in the careless gesture of the gajahasta (hand as the elephant's trunk). And lastly, as we look at the back view of the statue, are not the steadiness of these shoulders which uphold world, and the majesty of this Jove-like torso, as it were a symbol of the stability and immutability of substance, while the gyration of the legs in its dizzy speed would seem to symbolize the vortex of phenomena.
** Grousset, Rene, The civilizations of the East New York, London, A. A. Knopf, 1931-1935 Vol. II, p. 252 - 53