The Development of Hindu Iconography c14.64

Language: English

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The 26th chapter of Book III of the same text deals with the names and descriptions of various types of hand-poses which are adopted in the different modes of dance (nr̥tyahastavyavasthāvarṇana). These names are :—caturasra, vr̥tta, laghumukha, arāla, khaṭakāmukha, āviddha, vakrasamvyāsva(?), recita, arddharecita, avahitthaḥ, pallavita, nitamba, keśavardhanī, latākhya, karihasta (the same as gajahasta or daṇḍahasta discussed above), pakṣoddyota, artha(?)vardhita, garuḍapakṣa, daṇḍapakṣa, ūrdhvamaṇḍala, pārśvamaṇḍala, pārśvārdhamaṇḍala, uromaṇḍala, iṣṭasvastika(?), avanī, padmakauśika, alipallava, ulvana, lalita and balita (verses 8-13). To the above fairly formidable list will have to be added twenty-two asaṃyuta- and thirteen saṃyuta-hastas, the names of some which are already familiar to us. I have referred earlier in this chapter to Poduval's division of the hand-poses into two groups, viz., saṃyuta and asaṃyuta; our text here names the constituents of each group. The following are the 22 asaṃyutahastas adopted by one expert in dancing :—patākā, tripatākā, kartare(i)mukha, ardhacandra, aṭā(rā?)la, guru(śuka)tuṇḍa, muṣṭi, śikhira (should be śikhara), kapittha, khaṭakāmukha, sūcyardha, padmakośa, mr̥gaśīrṣa, mr̥ga, lāṅgula, kālapadma, catura, bhramara, haṃsāsya, haṃsapakṣa, saṃdaṃśa and mukula (verses 1-4).

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The thirteen saṃyutahastas are :—añjali, kapota, karkaṭa, svastika, khaṭaka, vardhamāna, utsaṅga, niṣidha or niṣadha, dola, puṣpapuṭa, makara, gajadanta and avahittha (vardhamāna is again mentioned after this, but that would enhance the number to 14 ; verses 5-7). The list given above is to a great extent similar to the various nr̥tyahastas mentioned in the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata and there is very little doubt that much of it, if not all, was borrowed from the same work. Nandikeśvara, the traditional author of the Abhinaya-darpaṇa speaks of as many as 28 single (asaṃyuta) and 24 combined (saṃyuta) hand-poses (hastas). His list is not the same as the Viṣṇudharmottara list, inasmuch as it supplies us with a few names like ardhapatākā, mayūra, candrakalā, sarpaśīrṣa, siṃhamukha, tāmracūḍa and triśūla in the case of the asaṃyuta typés (mṛga in the Viṣṇudharmottara list is omitted and solapadma in his list is probably the same as kālapadma in the other list) ; the saṃyuta hastas in the Abhinayadarpaṇa are more numerous, and new names, such as Śiva-liṅga, kartarī-svastika, śakaṭa, śaṅkha, cakra, saṃpuṭa, pāśa, kīlaka, matsya, kūrma, varāha, garuḍa, nāga-bandha, khaṭvā and bheruṇḍa are included in the list which, however, omits four, viz., vardhamāna, niṣidha, makara and gajadanta from the Viṣṇudharmottara one (khaṭaka in the latter is a mistake for kaṭaka which is written as kaṭaka-vardhana in the former).

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These have been elaborately described in the Abhinayadarpaṇa, and the joint authors of The Mirror of Gesture have made elaborate comments on the description and have illustrated many of these hand-poses by drawings from old sculptures and from life (Coomaraswamy and Gopālakriṣnāyya, The Mirror of Gesture, 2nd Edition, pp. 45 ff. and plates VII, VIII, XIV-XX). The names of some of these hand-poses were also used in designating several of the dancing modes which are described in detail in Bharata’s work. The great temple of Śiva-Naṭarāja at Chidambaram contains well-arranged illustrations of these interesting dance poses and the artists appended fully descriptive labels to each.¹ But these sculptures, mainly carved on the walls flanking the passages in the great gopurams of the temple, are comparatively late—none of them dating from a period earlier than the 13th century A.D. ; again the reliefs illustrating the karaṇas contain mainly the figures of female dancers. The principal image of Śiva in the main sanctum of the temple, however, depicts him ‘ dancing his cosmic dance, the right foot trampling down Mūyaḷaka, the left raised in the kuñcitapāda with one right hand sounding the cosmic drum, the other in the abhayahasta, with one left hand holding the fire and the other in *daṇḍahasta* pose.'¹ Numerous bronze replicas of the same type of dancing Śiva are found in Southern India, but most of them belong to the 14th or 15th century A.D. or even later.

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Much earlier figures of Śiva dancing in various ways have been found in the Brahmanical cave shrines at Ellora, and T. A. G. Rao has rendered useful service to students of iconography by recognising in them two of the *karaṇas* or dance poses described in detail in Bharata's work. Plates LXII and LXIII in his 2nd volume are reproductions of two Ellora panels which illustrate the *kaṭisama* and *lalita* modes of dance as described by Bharata. Several other South Indian bronze and stone figures of Śiva, of the mediaeval period, reproduced by him portray other dance poses such as *lalāṭa-tilaka*, *catura* and *talasaṃsphoṭita* as delineated in the *Nāṭyaśāstra*. Śiva dancing in the *catura* mode has been recognised in an early relief at Badami. The mediaeval dancing images of Śiva that have been found in Bengal usually show him ten-armed and dancing vigorously on the back of his mount Nandin; this fits well the *Matsyapurāṇa* passage which says that the god endowed with ten arms and wielding elephant hide should be shown dancing on his bull (259, 10-11; *Vaiśākhasthānakam kṛtvā nṛtyābhinayasamsthitah* || *Nṛtyandaśabhujaḥ kāryo gajacarmadharastathā*). In much earlier Indian art, especially the Central Indian art of the Śuṅga period, many reliefs depict male and female dancers; Pl. II, Fig. 23, depicts two of the four dancing *apsarās* in the scene of Māra's defeat (with none of the *karaṇas* in the *Tāṇḍavalakṣaṇam* could I fully identify these two dance types).

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But, for the earliest Indian representation of dancing posture we shall have to go back to the art of the Indus Valley. Several female figurines, bronze and terracotta ones, have been discovered at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, which have been explained by Marshall and others as dancers. But the most interesting discovery, in this connection, is that of a mutilated figure of dark grey slate at Harappa, which has been described by Marshall as the statue of a male dancer. The pose of the dancer is full of movement and swing; he stands on his right leg with the body from the waist upwards bent well round to the left, both arms thrown out in the same direction, and the left leg raised high in front. Marshall says, ‘ Although its contours are soft and effeminate, the figure is that of a male and it seems likely that it was ithyphallic, since the membrum virile was in a separate piece. I infer, too, from the abnormal thickness of the neck, that the dancer was three-headed or at any rate three-faced and I conjecture that he may represent youthful Śiva Naṭarāja. On the other hand, it is possible that the head was that of an animal.’¹ Whichever suggestion of Marshall be correct, it appears that this is one of the earliest cult-objects depicted in the attitude of dancing.