Nataraja - Statues

Statues

The origins of the Nataraja sect is in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. The trajectory of the dancing Shiva is traced: from the processional worship of metal icons outside the sanctum to the cultic elevation of the Nataraja bronze into the sanctum at Chidambaram.

Archaeo metallurgical studies made on south Indian bronzes by Sharada Srinivasan combined with iconographic and literary evidence showed that the Nataraja bronze was a Pallava innovation (seventh to mid-ninth century), rather than tenth-century Chola as widely believed. That the depiction was informed of 'cosmic' or metaphysical connotations is also argued on the basis of the testimony of the hymns of Tamil saints.

The largest gold Nataraja statue is in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu.

The image of the Lord as the Cosmic Dancer is shown at the Chidambaram temple, an unusual fact as Shiva is depicted in an anthropomorphic form rather than in the usual non-anthropomorphic form of the linga.

In 2004, a 2m statue of the dancing Shiva was unveiled at CERN, the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva. The statue, symbolizing Shiva's cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian government to celebrate the research center's long association with India. A special plaque next to the Shiva statue explains the significance of the metaphor of Shiva's cosmic dance with quotations from Fritjof Capra: "Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics."