The Cosmic Form of Siva
THE COSMIC FORM OF SIVA Rekha Menon Ohio University The west reads the images in Indian art as countless presentations communicating different aspects of the one, the divine. These multiple images are deemed to be illusory manifestations (maya) of a single ultimate reality. The notion is that truth lies beyond the world of appearances. The forms in Indian visual vocabulary are seen, in essence, as various appearances of a complete whole, which is omniscient, omnipotent, and transcendental. Traditionally the patterning of images in Indian art is couched in a language of myths and symbols. This paper will place emphasis on the cosmic form of Siva expressed in the myth of the cosmos as a dance of Siva. The distinctive characteristics of the visual vocabulary the sculptor has used are ways of compacting the cosmic dynamics revealed in the images of Siva's dancing. The hand gestures, the body movement, are an expressive language imbued with meaning and aesthetic emotion (rasa). The mudras, as sacred language and stories, express myths that are narrated to create transparent awareness of the essence of Siva as the cosmos in dynamic rhythms and formation and transformation, birth and death. The cosmic form of Siva–a living god–transcends all categories. He is existence–with all its paradoxes. Beyond existence, he is the indefinable absolute. Thus speaks the Western interpretation. Yet in its aesthetic appearances, Siva is an all pervasive presence that, even in its move to become distant, continues to be the symbol of the Indian understanding of the cosmic dynamics. "Bhairava is the form of Siva in which the god–in his passion play (lila)–overcame sin, suffering, time, death, thereby attaining release. Siva speaks of himself as the god who sets everything in motion and is always dancing, absorbed in yoga, enjoying supreme bliss. His dance is a form of his being." 1 Lord of the dance (Natraja or Lalitha) Siva's dance takes two forms: the gentle erotic dance (lasya) associated with the creation of the world, and violent dangerous dance (tandava) associated with the destruction of the world. Both are said to have originated in the pine forest. The north and south Indian variants of the myth are significantly different. According to the former myth, a group of sages were living in the forest with their wives; to demonstrate to them they had not yet subdued their lust and anger, Siva came to the forest in the form of a handsome beggar, stark naked and with an erect phallus. He danced with the sage’s wives and excited them; blind with rage, the sages cursed Siva to be castrated. Like a bolt of lightning, his phallus fell to the ground, plunging the universe into darkness. The sages than realized who he was, and begged him to forgive them. He did so on one condition that they worship his phallus (linga) forever. (Figure 1). This myth appears relatively late in the sanskrit texts and is the source of classical traditions that regard Siva's dance as an act of cosmic creation. In the south the myth varies; the castration is omitted from the myth. Siva danced with the sage’s wives and the sages threw weapons at him but, oblivious to their efforts, he continued to dance. Then they sent a tiger; he flayed it and wrapped it around his shoulders like a shawl and continued to dance. And then they conjured up fire, but he Taken from "Isvaragita" (Song of the lord), of the Kurma Purana, 2.4.33, ed. Anand Swarup Gupta (Varanasi, 1971).
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