Defining Features of the Statue:  The sheer enormity of this sculpture is amazing. It towers over any person creating an overpowering and calming presence while one is in Shiva's vicinity. Shiva balances, light as a feather, on the knife holding dwarf demon, Apasmara.  Apasmara represents the ignorance in the world.

The Nataraja dances within a fiery circle or prabha.  The prabha represents the glow of the sun, the moon, the stars, everything that is in motion in the cosmos.

During Shiva’s violent destructive dance, the locks of his hair stand out in dreadlocked strands as he whirls around in his dancing frenzy. Shiva's unkempt hair, a symbol of a rejection of society, shows him to be an ascetic.  This contrasts with his role as a grhastha, or householder, with his wife and family. His locks are decked with a cobra and the Goddess of the river Ganges, Ganga. The river Ganges that flows in Nataraja'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.

Nataraja wears a beautiful cobra snake coiled around his upper right arm and in His hair symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human souls transmigration of bodies from one life to another.

He holds a drum or dhamru.  The drum represents the rhythmic sound to which Nataraja dances and ceaselessly recreates the universe.  The front right hand is in the abhaya-mudra (the "fear not" gesture, made by holding the palm outward with fingers pointing up). The back left hand carries Agni (fire) in a vessel or in his hand. The flames represent the destructive energy with which Nataraja dances at the end of each cosmic age, cleansing sins and removing illusion.  The front left hand is across the chest in the gahahasta (elephant trunk) pose, with the wrist limp and the fingers pointed downward toward the uplifted foot. His uplifted left foot, grants eternal bliss to those who approach him.

His handsome face has a slight, impersonal smile as if he smile is directed inward rather than out into the world.  Between his two eyes on His brow is His 3^rd eye which when he opens it emits a powerful beam destroying what is in its path.  He wears two different earrings.  The earring on Shiva’s left is a hoop earring and is worn by men and the earring with a yali on Shiva’s right is typically for by a woman.  This demonstrates Shiva’s respect for women as well as his love for His wife, Parvati. 

The crown on Shiva’s head is decorated with a host of cranes feathers spread out like a fan.  Within his hair are a skull, cobra and a crescent moon.  The crescent moon in his matted hair keeps Kama, the god of nightly love, alive. Through the waxing and the waning of the moon Shiva creates different seasons and rejuvenates life.

About the Pose of the Sculpture:  The symbolism of Siva Nataraja is religion, art and science merged as one. In God's endless dance of creation, preservation, destruction and paired graces is hidden a deep understanding of our universe. Aum Namah Sivaya.  Bhashya Nataraja, the King of Dance, has four arms. The upper right hand holds the drum from which creation issues forth.  The lower right hand is raised in blessing, betokening preservation.  The upper left hand holds a flame, which is destruction, the dissolution of form.  The right leg, representing obscuring grace, stands upon Apasmarapurusha, a soul temporarily earth-bound by its own sloth, confusion and forgetfulness.  The uplifted left leg is revealing grace, which releases the mature soul from bondage.  The lower left hand gestures toward that holy foot in assurance that Siva's grace is the refuge for everyone, the way to liberation.  The circle of fire represents the cosmos and especially consciousness.  The all-devouring form looming above is Mahakala, "Great Time."  The cobra around Nataraja's waist is kundalini shakti, the soul-impelling cosmic power resident within all.  Nataraja's dance is not just a symbol.  It is taking place within each of us, at the atomic level, this very moment.  The Agamas proclaim, "The birth of the world, its maintenance, its destruction, the soul's obscuration and liberation are the five acts of His dance." Aum Namah Sivaya.

Ordering: This piece was commissioned for a client and has been sold. The same artists, tech bronze creative, who made this piece can make the same piece again. If you are interested in ordering this beautiful, large Nataraja please contact us at info@bronzecreative.com or 1-203-629-0902.

Care: The Nataraja can be used both indoors and outdoors. Dust the piece regularly. If you would like the piece to shine use a cotton cloth with some coconut oil or other natural oil to wipe down the statue.

Shipping: Once tech casting is completed the Nataraja will be shipped directly to the closest port to the sculpture's final destination. Bronze Creative pays for the shipping to the port. The purchaser pays for the shipping from the port to the final destination. If you have any questions please contact us at info@bronzecreative.com or 1-203-629-0902.