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Legend of Dancing
Siva Worship |
Legend of Nataraja |
Lord Siva of Hindu religious is usually represented and worshiped in His unborn, invisible form, Sthanu or Linga form. He is the Supreme Being. He is personified as eternal fire, Jyothi. The Supreme Being cannot be described in any other fashion. The Linga format therefore evolved to represent a pillar of that brilliant fire within which resides Lord Siva. The root and the roof of that pillar cannot be traced even by Gods like Brahma and Vishnu.
As per ancient Hindu
scriptures, Linga is not a phallic symbol. The Tantric form of worship
of Siva in ferocious forms like Bhairava, Virbhadra, Kapolika etc., and
of His consort, the Devi, in forms like Kali and Durga evolved and
became popular in later years. This tantric school of worship,
according to some researchers, was responsible for interpreting the
Linga as a phallic symbol. Over a period of time, the tantric concept
(misconcept?) has been wrongly quoted as the belief of Hindus.The tenets and philosophy of Hinduism, as our early preceptors practiced and preached, lie scattered in various scriptures in Sanskrit and other Indian Languages and in Scripts like Devanagari, Grantham etc., some of which are not even in common use these days. When foreigners, who were not very familiar with Hinduism and its tenets in its ancient traditional pure form, became interested in consolidating Hindu religious ideas and started writing books, they found it convenient to explain the Linga as a phallic symbol! Their books become a convenient storehouse even for the Hindus to learn more about their own religion. Gradually, the Hindus themselves started believing that the Linga is a phallic symbol! Slowly and steadily, legends and rituals started growing around that belief and today, We have numerous stothras, Slokas, Poems and stories built around that interpretation of the Linga!
Siva is also represented in His anthropomorphic aspects, i.e., in various human forms like Chandra-Sekhara, Somaskandha, Ardha-nareeswara, Dakshinamurthy, Bikshtana etc., and the popular Nataraja. Most of us are aware that the Nataraja Bronze icons have been appreciated as a piece of art all over the world, and that the Nataraja Statue can be identified as the presiding deity on stages where classical Indian dance artists perform. ls that all?
Nataraja- represents the dancing Siva; the Lord who is performing the dance of creation of the Universe, the cosmic dance; and that too in the graceful and joyful way, by performing the ananda tandava. The name Nataraja Itself means Lord of Dancers, or King of Actors. A lot of thoughts, care and perhaps centuries of evolution and perfection should have gone behind the emergence of the presently familiar Nataraja. Posture, which has not undergone any basic changes over at least the past ten centuries. What does this figure signify?
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