DANCES OF THE GODS The Veda knows of gods who dance; thus, in Rigveda x., 72, we have a creation hymn in which the gods, dancing apparently in a ring, set up a rhythmic flux in the primeval waters, and this magic dance sets all nature in motion: When there, 0 gods, ye stood in the primeval sea, holding each the other by the hand, then rose from you as dancers (nrtyatam iva) clouds of dust.
Indra is also said to appear as an aged dancer, as a presage of victory in battle ; Usas, the Dawn, is called a dancer adorning herself. But none of these conceptions of a dancing god or gods seems to have had the importance later attained in the case of Siva, who as the divine dancer par excellence is known as Nataraja.
Dance of Siva.—We find an invocation (commencement of the Mirror of Gesture) addressed to Siva, the great patron of the drama and an actor whose gesture is the world process, whose speech is the sum of all languages and whose ornaments are the moon and stars. His dances are te"ndava dances, energetic and virile. The most significant is the nadanta, represented in the well known south Indian metal images of Nattaraja (Plate I., fig. 7). The significance of this dance is often alluded to in the mediaeval Saiva literature : "Our Lord is the dancer, who, like the heat latent in firewood, diffuses his power in mind and matter, and makes them dance in their turn." More specifically, the dance represents the deity's five activities (Pancakrtya), viz., the world process of creation or evolution, maintenance, and destruc tion or involution ; the embodiment of souls and their release from the cycle. The drum in the upper right hand stands for creative sound, the flame in the upper left for the fire of destruc tion or change. It should be understood that in Indian mythology the cosmic process is conceived as a succession of vast cycles of manifestation and non-manifestation, or creation and destruction; and also that the phenomenal world at all times is one of perpetual change, involving perpetual creation and destruction. The dance is the entire process in all its complexity ; and it is only rightly apprehended when it is realized as taking place within the wor shipper's own consciousness. Siva is also called Sudalaiyadi, Dancer of the Burning Ground (cemetery), and the heart of the lover of god, made bare of all else, is this bare field prepared for him. The same idea is met with in connection with the goddess in the form of Kali : I have made a burning-ground of my heart, That Thou, Dark One, haunter of the burning-ground Mayest dance the eternal dance therein.
Siva also performs an evening dance on Mt. Kailasa, before the assembled gods and the goddess, and paintings of the subject are known. The elephant-headed deity, Ganesa, son of Siva, is also spoken of as taking part in this evening dance, and is repre sented in sculpture as dancing. It is probable that most of the dances referred to above belong to the non-Aryan and ancient Dravidian elements in the personality of The tandava in particular, and the dance of Kali, must have been originally orgiastic dances, later interpreted in a philosophical and mystical sense. The principal "primitive deity" in Ceylon, Gale Yaka, the God of the Rock, is worshipped by an annual dance on the summit of the rocks sacred to him, with which may be com pared the ritual dances of south Indian hill-men in honour of Murugan.
While every Saiva temple in southern India has a copy of the metal image of Siva as Nattaraja kept in a special Hall of Audi ence (sabha-mandapa) at Cidambaram, he is worshipped in this form as the principal deity ; here in the Golden Hall (kanaka sabhi) is the premier Nataraja image of the south. The western and eastern gopurams of this temple, dating from the 13th cen tury, contain sculptured panels with accompanying text, illus trating no less than 93 of the 1o8 dancing poses described in the Bharatiya Natya-sastra.