The Dance of Siva: Religion, Art and Poetry in South India.

• Author: Rocher, Ludo
• Position: Brief Reviews of Books

The Dance of Siva: Religion, Art and Poetry in South India. By DAVID SMITH. Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions, vol. 7. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. xii + 301, illus. $59.95.

"Our subject is Nataraja's Dance of Bliss in Cidambaram, and this comprises three elements, which all appear at the same time: the Nataraja bronze, the Ananda Tandava and the historical buildings of the Cidambaram temple" (p. 4). The special feature of this volume is that, even though it also uses other Sanskrit and Tamil sources (pp. 8-9), it is built around Umapathi Sivacarya's (beginning of the fourteenth century) Sanskrit poem, Kuncitanghristava, "Hymn of Praise to the Curved Foot" (313 verses) which, "[f]or the purposes of this book...has been seen to contain a kind of essay on the Dance of Siva" (p. 228).

After two initial chapters, on the bronze statue of Nataraja, which in Cidambaram takes precedence over the linga, and on the myths and legends of Cidambaram (including a revision of Kulke's dating of the Cidambaramahatmya), the next two chapters discuss in great detail the vast complex (sixteen hectares) of the Sabhanayaka temple (plan on p. 6), its priests (pp. 57-66), and its rituals and festivals (pp. 66-79); chapter four is entirely devoted to the Citsabha "The Hall of Consciousness, the Heart of the Universe." Chapter five describes the connections between the Dance and the Saivasiddhanta, as well as the growing influence of Vedanta. In chapter six the author...