Chapter 12

Nataraja

The proud sages of a forest sent a tiger, a snake and a dwarf against Shiva — and Shiva put all three on and began to dance

The sages of the Daruka forest

In the Daruka forest lived a group of sages who believed only in ritual — mantra, sacrifice, procedure. They thought that beyond the right act there was no need of any god.

Shiva went to them in the guise of a naked beggar — smeared with ash, begging for alms. The sages' wives found themselves drawn to the mysterious beggar, and the sages took offence.

"This is no ordinary beggar," they said. "Teach him a lesson."

Tiger, snake, dwarf

The sages, by the power of their ritual, lit a fire-pit and drew weapons out of it.

First a tiger came out and sprang at Shiva. Shiva tore it with his nails and stripped off its skin and wound it round his waist.

Then a huge snake came out. Shiva lifted it and put it round his neck — another ornament.

Then a dwarf demon came out — Apasmara, whose name means forgetting, ignorance. It lunged at Shiva's feet.

Shiva set one foot on its back — and standing on it, began to dance.

Five acts, one dance

That dance was no performance. Tradition says that in it the five acts of the whole of creation were running at once:

The drum — from which the first pulse of creation comes. The raised hand (the abhaya mudra) — which says, do not fear, this will hold. The fire in the other hand, symbolising dissolution. The foot on Apasmara — which presses down ignorance. And the raised foot — which points toward release, refuge.

Creation, preservation, destruction, veiling, grace — all five in one body, in one rhythm.

All around was a ring of fire — the universe turning inside this dance.

The sages' heads bowed

The sages of the Daruka forest stood watching.

Everything they had conjured to destroy Shiva — the tiger, the snake, the dwarf — had become part of his iconography instead. Their weapons were now his identity.

They understood: the right act is one thing, but behind it is something else they were denying. The sages bowed.

The dance contest with Kali

Another story is from near Tillai (Chidambaram).

There a fierce form of Kali ruled over that land. Shiva set a dance contest with her — whoever lost would leave the land.

The two danced on, matched. Then Shiva did a pose — the urdhva-tandava, in which one leg is raised straight up, higher even than the head.

Kali did not repeat that pose — some forms say out of modesty, some say she was the goddess of that land and it was her own place which she left out of respect. Shiva won the contest, and Tillai became the land of the "Ananda Tandava."

What stayed at Chidambaram

At the temple of Chidambaram there is no ordinary image of Shiva — the main form there is Nataraja's, and in one part of the sanctum there is nothing at all, only empty space (the "Chidambaram secret") — that is, that which is not seen.

Patanjali (in snake-form) and Vyaghrapada (the sage with a tiger's feet) are held to be the witnesses of this dance. And that bronze image of Nataraja that the whole world recognises today — the ring of fire, the raised foot, Apasmara — came to its settled form in the Chola period (the tenth to twelfth centuries).

Note: The story of the sages of the Daruka forest (or Taragam forest) is in the Shiva Purana, the Linga Purana and the Kurma Purana; the root of the tiger's skin, the snake and Apasmara is here. The dance contest with Kali at Tillai/Chidambaram and the Ananda Tandava story are of the Tamil sthala-puranas (the Chidambara Mahatmya, the Koyil Puranam) and Tirumular's Tirumantiram. The "five acts" interpretation is of the Agama texts and the Tamil Shaiva tradition; its global spread came from Ananda Coomaraswamy's 1918 essay. Nataraja's settled bronze form is of the Chola period (roughly the 10th–12th centuries). The deluge-time tandava and the grief-dance of the Shakti Pithas (chapter 4) are separate from this Ananda Tandava.

Source: from several texts, Nataraja

Now — how much stayed with you?

Who said it?

What did the sages of the Daruka forest decide about the Shiva who came in a beggar's guise?

That he was Shiva himself and should be worshipped
That he should be put out of the forest, without doing anything
That this was no ordinary beggar, and he should be taught a lesson
That their wives should be shut up in the house

Read the whole story — Pride, which took a wound

The story of the Daruka forest sages is in the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana — they were strict followers of Mimamsa, who held that right ritual was everything, the gods secondary.

Shiva coming as a beggar and their wives being drawn was a direct strike at that pride — but the sages took it as an insult, not a message.

This is why they loosed weapons, and those very weapons became Shiva's ornaments — the tiger's skin, the snake, and the ignorance pressed down beneath the dance.

Fact

Who is the dwarf pressed under Nataraja's foot, and what is he a symbol of?

Apasmara (Muyalaka)
Rahu
Andhaka
Kali

Read the whole story — Ignorance, on which the dance stands

Apasmara being pressed down is the most necessary part of the Nataraja image — this is the "veiling" act, the power that keeps the truth covered.

Worth noticing: Shiva does not kill Apasmara, only presses him down. Tradition says ignorance cannot be ended entirely — it can only be kept in its place.

Hanuman-Gatha turned on the same pair of ideas, "forgetting and remembering." Here that forgetting takes the shape of a dwarf under Shiva's foot — Shiva stands on the very thing that brings everyone else down.

Why is that?

Why is Nataraja's dance not held to be only a dance?

Because it is a very difficult dance that no one else can do
Because it happens only at the time of the deluge
Because tradition sees in it the five acts of creation at once
Because it can be seen only at Chidambaram

Read the whole story — Five acts, one body

The drum (creation), the abhaya mudra (preservation), the fire (destruction), the foot on Apasmara (veiling), the raised foot (grace) — every limb of the image is an act.

This five-act interpretation is in the Agama texts and in Tamil Shaiva texts like the Tirumantiram. In modern times a famous essay by Ananda Coomaraswamy took it to the whole world — but that essay is an interpretation, not the original text.

This is why Nataraja is the fullest picture of Shiva's whole nature: he stands outside convention, yet the entire cosmic cycle — coming into being, holding, passing away — runs to his rhythm.

Who am I?

I came out of the fire-pit of the Daruka forest sages as a weapon. I was loosed at Shiva to kill him — but Shiva tore me and wound me round his waist. What am I?

The tiger, whose skin Shiva wears
Nandi, Shiva's bull
Apasmara, the dwarf
Vasuki, the snake at the neck

Read the whole story — A weapon that became a garment

The whole joke of the Daruka forest story is this: the sages loosed three things as weapons, and all three became Shiva's permanent identity.

The tiger's skin, the snake's necklace, and the foot set on Apasmara — all three are in every image of Nataraja, and the root of all three is in this one story.

It's another form of the same pattern running through these stories: what is thrown at Shiva, he doesn't throw back — he wears it.

What happened?

How did Shiva win the dance contest with Kali at Tillai (Chidambaram)?

Kali grew tired dancing on and on
Shiva did the urdhva-tandava
Shiva defeated Kali directly, in a fight
Vishnu came in between and gave the verdict for Shiva

Read the whole story — One pose, not repeated

The urdhva-tandava — the leg straight up — is a distinctive and difficult pose of Nataraja. The main image of Shiva at the Tiruvalangadu temple is this.

There are two explanations in tradition for Kali not repeating that pose: one, out of modesty; the other, that she was the original goddess of that land and left the place out of respect. Both are recorded.

This story reverses the "Shiva with the goddess" pairing of the Shakti Pithas — here the goddess and Shiva are face to face, and the result is a division, not a clash.

Who said it?

What do Nataraja's drum-hand and fire-hand together "say"?

That Shiva is the god of war
That creation is fixed and never changes
That what begins with the drum (creation) will end in the fire (destruction)
That Shiva loves both music and fire

Read the whole story — Beginning and end, a hand's width apart

The drum-hand and the fire-hand are face to face in Nataraja — deliberately. In one the first pulse of creation, in the other its last.

In between is the hand of the abhaya mudra — "do not fear" — that is, what lies between creation and destruction is also safe in Shiva's hand.

This is entirely different from the grief-dance of the Shakti Pithas (chapter 4): there the dance was ungoverned grief, here the dance is the law of creation itself.

Put it in order

Which is the correct order of events (in the Daruka forest story)?

Shiva going to the Daruka forest in a beggar's guise → the sages' pride taking a wound and their resolving to teach a lesson → a tiger, then a snake, then Apasmara coming out of the fire-pit → Shiva wearing the tiger's skin, putting the snake round his neck, setting a foot on Apasmara and dancing → the sages' heads bowing
The sages' heads bowing → Shiva coming as a beggar → the dance on Apasmara → the tiger coming out
The dance on Apasmara → Shiva going to the Daruka forest → the sages' pride → the tiger, the snake
The weapons coming out of the fire-pit → Shiva coming to the Daruka forest → the sages' pride → the dance

Read the whole story — Guise, attack, dance, bowing

The build of this story is direct: a provoking guise, a message misunderstood, three weapons, and a dance that makes all three its own.

The turning point is Apasmara's emergence — that is where the story shifts from attack to dance.

The last scene — the sages bowing — echoes the many other clashes across these stories where, in the end, the other side admits it had denied the wrong god.

The texts disagree

The "five acts" interpretation of Nataraja and its spread today — what is their source?

This interpretation is written word for word in the Vedas
It is entirely modern, in no old tradition
It is only in folk tales, in no text
The five-act interpretation is of the Agama texts and Tamil Shaiva texts like the Tirumantiram; in the twentieth century an essay by Ananda Coomaraswamy took it around the world

Read the whole story — An old interpretation, a new stage

Understanding Nataraja as the "cosmic dancer" is centuries old in the Tamil Shaiva tradition — it is plain in Tirumular's Tirumantiram.

Ananda Coomaraswamy's 1918 essay "The Dance of Shiva" took this interpretation to the Western art world — and from then Nataraja began to be used as a symbol of science, art and philosophy (like the image set up outside CERN in Geneva).

Shiv-Mahima holds the interpretation to be of the tradition, but makes clear that its form today has passed through a modern essay too.

Later tradition

What is the "secret" of the Chidambaram temple?

That the largest image of Shiva is there, which is not visible to anyone
That the Shiva-linga there floats in the air
In one part of the sanctum there is no image, only empty space
That worship there is only at night

Read the whole story — Empty space, which is worshipped

At Chidambaram, Shiva is worshipped as "Akasha" (ether/open expanse) among the five elements — which is why there is nothing there to see, only a curtain and empty space behind it.

This is the meaning of the "Chidambaram secret": the greatest thing is the one that has no form.

This echoes the very first chapter — the pillar of Lingodbhava was also "with no beginning, no end," beyond measuring. Chidambaram is the temple built on that same idea.

Fact

The Nataraja bronze image that is Shiva's identity around the world today — the ring of fire, the raised foot, Apasmara — in which period did it come to its settled form?

In the Chola period, roughly between the tenth and twelfth centuries
In the Gupta period, in the fourth-fifth centuries
In the Mughal period
In the twentieth century, after Coomaraswamy's essay

Read the whole story — Chola bronze, which became a symbol

The image of Nataraja existed before this too (in stone sculptures of the Pallava period), but that balanced, dynamic bronze form — called the "Ananda Tandava" — was settled by the Chola craftsmen.

These images were carried in temple processions, so they had to be made both light and strong — and that very constraint makes them so balanced from the point of view of art.

That is, Shiva's most famous image is made both from a story and from the metal-craft of one particular place — both of Tamil Nadu.