Shiva Nataraja (Lord of the Dance) front

India, state of Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, ca. 990
Bronze
Purchase—Margaret and George Haldeman, and Museum Funds F2003.2

This bronze image reveals how Chola sculptors transformed profound belief into requisitely realized form. Shiva Nataraja dances the world into existence as he holds aloft the cosmic flames of its cyclic destruction. His posture radiates graceful energy. Poised upon the dwarf of ignorance, he lifts his left foot high across his body and extends his left arm to offer refuge to devotees. His wildly streaming locks of hair and the flaming, oval aureole (prabha) expand the radius of energy outward and upward.

Though stone images of Nataraja were created before the tenth century, it took the technical mastery and artistic genius of Chola bronze casters to perfect this form, which remains the Nataraja archetype to this day.