Śiva as Naṭarāja at Cidambaram
Since his genesis around the year 900 in sculpture and in hymns, Śiva as Naṭarāja has been associated with Cidambaram (in Tamil, Tillai), residing in the innermost enclosure of the temple complex in the Hall of Consciousness, the cit-sabha. By the seventh century, saints Appār, Sambandār, Sundarar, and Māṇikkavācakar had sung of Cidambaram’s long-established ancient sanctity. The temple’s traditions themselves evoke the powerful image of Cidambaram as the Centre of the Universe. The Naṭarāja icon, therefore, does not simply represent the dance of Śiva in general, but is specific to the ānandatāṇḍava performed at Cidambaram.
Śiva’s Ānandatāṇḍava is described in Koyil purāṇam (koyil referring to Cidambaram). The Rṣis of Darukavana (the forest adjoining Cidambaram) send the tiger, the fire, the serpent, etc., against the Lord and He seizes all of them as mere playthings and ornaments and begins to dance on muyalakaṇ — the dwarfish figure signifying ignorance — who is also sent by them. Adiśeṣa prays for having a glimpse once again of His majestic dance and for him, the Lord dances at ‘Tillai’, the centre of the Universe. Vyāghrapāda and Patañjali are ever witnessing that dance there.
Appār writes of Śiva’s dance at Cidambaram:
“The very foot he raised
to dance the dance
in the little hall of Tillai —
it claimed me as a slave.”
— From T.V. Gopal Iyer and Francois Gros, eds., Teveram: Hymnes Sivaites du pays Tamoul, vol. 2 (Pondicherry: Institute Francais d’Indologie, 1985), 8. Appar 4.81.10. Translation by Vidya Dehejia.
“If there are men who want to see anything in the world
other than the dance of Aran, whose feet we serve,
in Cirrampalam shrine in Tillai,
where the areca tree with broad fronds grows tall,
the streets are lined with great mansions,
and all the fields are watered
by streams full of valai fish —
then they are but devil-devotees,
seeing worthless things with rheumy eyes.”
Appar, translated by Indira Viswanathan Peterson
In the Sabhāpati stotra (Sabha being the Citsabha, the hall of consciousness at Cidambaram) is found a verse: “May that Śiva protect us, who, summoning all the worlds, drowned in the misery of cycles of births and death, by the sound of his drum and, most merciful, offers them protection, assuring the suppliants removal of all fear, and raising up his leg slightly bent, points to it with a hand, as the path of liberation, and as an assurance holds forth fire, as he dances gaily in the dance hall.”
The 19th century Carnatic composer Gopalakrishna Bharati composed multiple kritis on the Lord Naṭarāja at Chidambaram. The lyrics to one of the compositions, Sabhāpatikku, rendered in the rāga abhogi, read as follows:
“Can there be another god equal to the Sabhāpati (Lord Naṭarāja) of Cidambaram? Is there another, as merciful on this earth?
If one but once chants his name, of Śiva at Cidambaram, one is sure to attain salvation without needing to perform a penance of virtuous deeds (puṇya). It is in this manner that the three wise souls attained his lotus feet in the purāṇas. Let us hear about him from the song of Gopalakrishan.”
Muttusvāmi Dīkṣitār also has multiple compositions on Naṭarāja in his vast repertoire. One of them, in the rāga naṭṭakurinji, Sivakami Patim, may be translated as follows:
“I contemplate on the Consort of Sivakamī, the Lord of Dance who surpassed that of Kāli, the embodiment of Nāda, Bindu, and Kāla, the one praised by the Indra and other gods, and sages led by Sanaka, and whose effulgence equals that of crores of suns.”
References:
- Wessels-Mevissen, Corinna. (2012). The Early Image of Śiva Naṭarāja: Aspects of Time and Space
- Peterson, Indira Viswanathan. Poems to Śiva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints. India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.
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