Shiva As Lord Of The Dance

395 Words2 Pages
I choose to write about this piece of art in particular because I found it very interesting and appreciated the many meanings behind it. Though made in a different country and with different religious connotations than I own I believe that is sculpture still holds much significance to our society, definitely not the same sense but somehow figuratively. The sculpture stands 28 inches high, made of bronze and in the 10th century or Chola period in Asia. The details of the markings distinguish this sculpture from anything like it in its time period. The symbolism that goes along with makes it that much more interesting. I couldn’t have picked a better piece to write about. In the sculpture God Shiva is shown doing many things. The most apparent is obviously dancing, but in addition to dancing Shiva is holding two different objects in two of his hands, stepping on what seems to be a small child, and also wrestling a snake. Beginning with what stuck out the most to me was his hair. The goddess of the Ganges is shown nesting in Shiva's hair that has also been called dreadlocks. The river Ganges that flows in God’s hair originally flowed in heaven. “When the heavenly Ganges was needed on earth, she was unwilling to fall to earth because she realized that her fall from heaven would be too much for the earth to withstand. Shiva as Nataraja agreed to break the violent power of the sacred Ganga's fall by catching her in his tangled hair, breaking the fall with his hair on its way to the Himalayas and Northern India.” Another thing that stood out on the sculpture was the arms. The upper left hand holds a flame, the lower left hand points down to the dwarf, who is shown holding a cobra. The upper right hand holds an hourglass drum that stands for the male-female vital principle, the lower shows the gesture of fearlessness. A broad overview of the statue at first glance include
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