Songs on Nataraja

[MaheshS]

Referred article: http://www.narthaki.com/info/articles/art217.html

The article says the Chola -- and Pallava -- bronzes depict Nataraja with his right leg extended. This is incorrect; Nataraja is depicted with his left leg raised and his right leg on the ground supporting his body. Any doubt about this is easily dispelled by the song Idathu Padam Thookki Aadum Natarajan Adi Panivame .

The exception is the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai where Nataraja is shown with his right leg raised. There is a legend associated with it. The Pandya king of Madurai, saddened that Siva would be tired from standing on his right leg, begged him to change his stance and Lord Nataraja obliged his devotee.

Not sure whether this a legend or not, but from what I've heard around Meenakshi amman temple growing up in Madurai, in dance traditionally only the right leg is raised, in a competition against Parvathi, Shiva in order to "win" , used the left leg and touched his right ear ring which Parvathi couldn't repeat. Madurai is an exception [?] because of the devotion of the King where his right leg is raised as opposed to normal Nataraja where his left leg is raised.

And of course you also have the "Pancha Sabais" ala, Pancha Bhutha kshetrams,

Rathana Sabai -Thiruvalangadu
Por Sabai - Chidambaram
Velli Sabai - Madurai
Thamirai Sabai - Thirunelveli
Chitra Sabai - Kutralam

[shankarank]

Although this book is on SrI tyAgaraja of tiruvarur, the deity, it has some refences to naTarAja as well: https://books.google.com/books?id=ORwNm ... &q&f=false

[Ponbhairavi]

King Rajasekara pandian addresses arequest to kanaka sab esan:”you are always dancing with your left leg up. Will not your right foot ache ? Why don’t you ch ange your posture to give it some rest? To oblige his devotee the kanakasabesan dances with his right leg up and this givesachance toBrahma (vedan ) and tirumal who could not see his foot in their upward journey can have a dharsan now .there is a clever twist in the sentence of the poet
Kanakasabesan kAl. Mari AdiyadhAl ha now become Silver ambalathAn( velli ambalam ) Hencethe song is factually correct.
For a picture of velli ambala nataraja at Madurai pl see the link below.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M83AE ... MA5bJ1d_o5

You are the same kanakasabesan, but now you are the kAl mAri Adiya Kanakasabesan
A police inspector in his wedding medai is a pancha kacham kattiya inspector !!

[harimau]

..............

And of course you also have the "Pancha Sabais" ala, Pancha Bhutha kshetrams,

Rathana Sabai -Thiruvalangadu
Por Sabai - Chidambaram
Velli Sabai - Madurai
Thamirai Sabai - Thirunelveli
Chitra Sabai - Kutralam

Not the Pancha Bhutha Kshetrams.

While Tamra Sabha is always identified in popular literature and in people's minds as being in Tirunelveli, it is actually in a small village called Chepparai -- literally, Copper Room -- somewhat northeast of Tirunelveli. The confusion arises from the fact that at the Chepparai temple, Siva and Parvathi are given the names Nellayappar and Kanthimathi, the same names given to them at the Tirunelveli temple.

The very first Nataraja idol is supposed to have been installed at this temple, not at Chidambaram!

The story is that, after seeing the beautiful Nataraja, the king felt that the sculpture would be even more magnificent if made out of gold. He gave the sculptor enough gold and dutifully the sculptor replicated the original idol in gold. However, when the sculpture was removed from the mold, it was bronze. The king, enraged that he was cheated by the sculptor, imprisoned him. Lord Siva appeared before the king and said that he preferred to be represented in bronze rather than gold and so had turned the golden idol into a bronze one. The king released the sculptor from prison and installed this second Nataraja idol in Chidambaram and the first one was taken South and installed at Chepparai.

I never knew this until I googled for information and was led to the Chepparai temple and its legend!

There are three more Nataraja idols, supposedly identical, all located in little villages around Tirunelveli.

[RSR]

A flood of very nice and informative posts on the topic. THANKS ALL.

Excuse me if I am totally wrong but as an informal student of Sangam literarture ( I exclude patthupaattu_nand consider only the 'ettuth thokai, as many scholars are of the opinion that they are earlier ) I found almost nil reference to Lord Siva, leave alone Nataraja. Kalidasa's works are devoted to all the Gods of Hindu pantheon. and that was in Guptha period ( 300-600 AD). it is said that Guptha empire extended upto Kanchipuram and Pallava rule followed shortly. It was during the period of Mahendra Pallavan, that the Saivite canaon was produced along with Alwars poems . Before that, it may be that only vediism, jaininsm and buddhism were the faiths of the people of Tamilnad. Even Silappathikaram does not mention any Siva temple. but references to Lord Krishna , Balaraman aare found in many poems in Ettuth thokai ( mullai). Perhaps there was wholesale adoption of saivaiusm by jains.
Pallava rule seems to have extended even upto parts of present day pandyan territory. Cave paintings in Puthukkottai district and the cave temple in Pillaiyarpatti near Karaikkudi and Thiruppatthur bear testimony to that.
Every hundred years are so, there is radical change in cultural values but Pillayarpatti and Kundrakkudi are ancient and still thronged by devotees.
And Ganapathi is an import from Maratha area during Mahendra rule.
And Sri.Govindan is right in his observation that in the period before Sankara, ( 600 AD) ( COINCIDING WITH THAT OF sAMBANDAR) vedic brahmins swore by Veda only. They were neither saivites, vaishnavites or sakthi / karthikeya worshippers. They were agni worshoppers. Sankara brought about the synthesis. and today, 'brahmins' hardly study vedas. Popular culture has made brahmins little different in faiths from other people. And then has come Aiyappa cult to which even Dikshithar composed a few krithis.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

What is the relevance to the topic ?

[RSR]

he relevance is counter-point for identifying Lord Shiva too closely with Tamil culture. Lord Siva is of North Indian origin. So is Parvathi. 'himagiri thanaye hemalathe'. All the puranic stories are attempts at fusion of North and South.
What is the significance of Dhakshinamoorthy?
Lord Siva is said to have given the Tamil language. Barathy says 'Adhi sivan petruvittAn''.
I am just mentioning some points. Very difficult to draw any conclusion.
Agama rules seem to be different from vedic rituals. Am I right in thinking that saivite rituals avoid animal sacrifice in any form? All the Murugan temples.
Sankaracharya's do not perform kumbabishekam rituals in tamil country. . I am told that they have no authority.
I soloicit information from scholars in the forum. That's all. No raising controversy.

[shankarank]

Saw this article posted recently:

https://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/201 ... rajas.html

[harimau]

Saw this article posted recently:

https://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/201 ... rajas.html

So I went to the Wikipedia article on Meenakshi Temple referenced therein.

It seems the European missionaries used to call themselves 'Roman Brahmins' and 'Northern Sannyasis'.

We all know Veera Mamunivar used to wear saffron clothes and the sacred thread around his torso to trick the Indian public into buying into Christianity.

Yet, Ranganayaki took offense at my suggesting that Father Jegath Gaspar and his ilk's sudden discovery of Carnatic Music may have some ulterior motives rather than its artistic merit.

[RasikasModerator2]

Please keep the discussion on the topic of Nataraja alone and help make this into a good resource down the road. Thank you.

[kvchellappa]

Ananda K Coomaraswamy has written a beautiful essay on Dancing Siva. Dr. V S Ramachandran refers to it in his book and also recalls how a foreigner was so impressed with the Nataraja in The Madras Museum and was dancing making the curator doubt his sanity. Nataraja as a symbol has been admired by Huxley and a statue of Nataraja is kept in Cern, Geneva: http://www.fritjofcapra.net/shivas-cosm ... e-at-cern/

[shankarank]

Lord Siva is of North Indian origin.

The argument does not need references to Siva as a God in tamizh literature. The astronomical connotation and the celebration must be old , due to the navigational significance. This later came into Saivism is my point. vEdic rudra became identified with Siva later!

Also see this - Page 15 of 44 <<Corrected>>: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitst ... er%203.pdf

mAyOn, sEYon - the later means son - which implies a father! as presiding deities of different lands. That Siva also has a form similar to a hunter lends credence to this.

Sankaracharya's do not perform kumbabishekam rituals in tamil country. . I am told that they have no authority.
I soloicit information from scholars in the forum. That's all. No raising controversy.

Well what I have heard is, they have some authority to perform abhisheka to the mUrtis in TN, that they settled with the union of India, during the princely state consolidation.

[vgovindan]

"நட்ட கல்லைத் தெய்வமென்று நாலுபுட்பம் சாத்தியே,
சுற்றி வந்து மொண மொணென்று சொல்லு மந்திரம் ஏதடா? 
நட்ட கல்லும் பேசுமோ நாதன் உள்ளிருக்கையில்? 
சுட்ட சட்டி சட்டுவம் கறிச்சுவை அறியுமோ?’’

The problem with us is, like dispensers in the medical shop, we all seem to know brand names - to the exclusion of generic. Siva, vishNu are not brand names - they are generic. There is nothing like North or South India. We are homogenous entity bonded with shared culture and values, which now lies fragmented because the artificial fissures created by colonialists who were indeed after soul harvesting - to redeem the aborigines - the White Man's burden. And we have fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.

Btw the simile சுட்ட சட்டி சட்டுவம் is used exactly by tyAgarAja - plagiarism? (dutta pAla ruci teliyu sAmyamE) (enta muddO).

[sankark]

The exception is the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai where Nataraja is shown with his right leg raised. There is a legend associated with it. The Pandya king of Madurai, saddened that Siva would be tired from standing on his right leg, begged him to change his stance and Lord Nataraja obliged his devotee.

Hasn't Smt. Andavan Picchai composed a kRti on this? kAl mARi ADiya kanaka sabhEsA un mEl kAdal konDEn ayyanE - IIRC, in one of the caraNams, the sAhityam goes 'pAdam varundum enRu pANDiyan vENDiDa, vEdan mAlum kANA vimala malar pAdam nI dayavuDan Endi nartanam ADiDa....' referring to this episode.

I am not familiar with the song.

Kal Mari Adiya Kanaka Sabhesa, while alliterative, is incorrect, for the Meenakshi Temple houses the Rajata Sabha!

It is in interpretataion actually, the whole fun in verses: kAl mAri Adiya kanakasabhEsan becomes/is rajathasabhEsan

[kvchellappa]

This is interesting:
https://musictales.club/article/malkaun ... ivas-dance

[RSR]

Lord Siva is of North Indian origin.

mAyOn, sEYon - the later means son - which implies a father! as presiding deities of different lands. That Siva also has a form similar to a hunter lends credence to this.

sEyon just means child ( of the Mother Goddesss...of pAlai land) ..suilambu.

Sankaracharya's do not perform kumbabishekam rituals in tamil country. . I am told that they have no authority.
I soloicit information from scholars in the forum. That's all. No raising controversy.

Well what I have heard is, they have some authority to perform abhisheka to the mUrtis in TN, that they settled with the union of India, during the princely state consolidation.

May be you re right.
Wht I mentioned is true only for tmilndu. It cnnot pply to sRUNGERI or other mutts and Uduppi etc.

[ajaysimha]

there is one more krithis on natarajar by Venkatakavi.
sundara natarajam in kharaharapriya ragam (he might have tuned in kharaharapriya as name it self says "hara-priya")
http://www.venkatakavi.org/ovk/compositions.html?id=433

[Ponbhairavi]

To sum up:-

-The cult of Nataraja in tamil nadu had been in vogue at least since 1600 years(Karaikkal Ammayar ( 6th century ) who reached the permanent abode under the feet of Nataraja at Tiruvalangadu.
-since then, saints and nayanmars have composed hymns in praise of lord nataraja.
-Sekkijar( reign of kulothunga chola 2 ( 13th century ) is the author of periapuranam for which the invocation song hails Nataraja (. Ulagelam …... ambalathu Aduvan, malar chilambadi vAzhthi vananguvAm.)
-The peria puranam which, along with the life history of 63 Nayanmars, recounts the life of Nandanar ( thirunalai povar ) who lived in the 8th century and yearns to go to to chidambaram.
-The composers like Muthu thandavar, Arunachala kavi,Marimutha pillai,Oothukaadu venkata kavi, !6th and 17th century several decades before Thyagaraja have inter alia ,sung in tamil in praise of Nataraja
- In the 18th century when there was an upsurge of telegu compositions , Not a single song has been composed in telegu on Nataraja neither by Thyagaraja or other telegu composers.. When Gopalakrishna bharathi sang sabhapathiku veru deivam samanamaguma , infront of Thyagaraja, it did not inspire the latter who replied with rama nee samanamevaru .

-Gopalakrishna bharathi has composed the opera nandanar charitham which contains many popular songs on Nataraja. Subsequently in the 20th century there have been plenty
Of compositions on Nataraja.
-The chidambaram temple which is reputed for its shrine of Nataraja dates back to the 13 th century(SEkkizhar and kulothunga cholan.has some peculiar characteristics .Today.It present structure looks different from other old siva temples.Some major alterations appear to have been carried out. None of the 4 Gopurams open ino any main shrine.. Of course Nataraja is facing south as in all siva temples. The shrine of perumal close to Nataraja is quite unique. Even in madurai where Perumal gave Meenakshi in wedding to Shiva .I do not think there is a perumal sannathi inside.
The old wall right in front of Govindaraja is breached to accommodate a smaller gopuram of recent structure. The proof if the breach is quite visible as on top of the old wall there are statues of bulls on either side of the Gopuram of Govindaraja whereas Garudan is the statue on the compound walls of perumal temples. Moreover, outside this newly erected gopuram there is an open courtyard which leads nowhere.
-The chidambaram temple is considered as a Divya desam, but the related compositions of alwars mention not chidambaram but a differenr name which vaishnava devotees call as equivalent to chidambaram.
No shrine for Nataraja seem to exist in any Siva temple in Andhra or karnataka or up north.
Apparently there is much scope for detailed research on Nataraja worship and the chidambaram temple,
The iconography of Nataraja with its intricate and sprawling artwork stands as a marvel of south india’sadvanced technical knowledge in metal alloy making (panchaloga) and castingas early as 10 centuries back when the knowledge of the west was rudimentary in this domain.
THIS is Not a research thesis but only a collection of random observations which struck me.
Corrections are welcome.

[MaheshS]

Chidambaram - An Inspiration | Ashwath Naryanan | Vignesh Ishwar | Bhakthi Sangeet Utsav 2016

Brilliant!

[RSR]

To sum up:-

-The cult of Nataraja in tamil nadu had been in vogue at least since 1600 years(Karaikkal Ammayar ( 6th century ) who reached the permanent abode under the feet of Nataraja at Tiruvalangadu.

......

Brilliant summing up, Prof. The rule of Imperil Cholas was followed by that of Imperial Pandyas and the most famous of them was the person who gave the Gold roof for the temple. The empire disintegrated due to infighting between the two sons of the pandyan king and one of them invited Khilji to help him! Malik Kafur then invaded and looted the wealth of Tamil country and carried it North. Soon Madurai was for five decades ruled by sultans. It was a general of Krishnadeva raya that restored Madurai to its ancient glory.
Naiker rule followed and there were three centers namely, Madurai, Tanjore and Vellore. Naturally, Tamil lost its leading role in literary output. I would venture to suggest that the situation continued even upto the first few decades of twentieth century.
However, MD composed songs on the deity of Sabarimalai . He could have sung atleast a few on Nataraja. Our musicians should come forward to sing more hymns from thevaram like MMD.

[vgovindan]

RSR.
At least there is one song of MD - Anands naTana prakASam - kEdAram
http://guru-guha.blogspot.com/2007/08/d ... atana.html

[MaheshS]

RSR.
At least there is one song of MD - Anands naTana prakASam - kEdAram
http://guru-guha.blogspot.com/2007/08/d ... atana.html

Also Chidambara Natarajam in Kedaram again.

[RSR]

RSR.
At least there is one song of MD - Anands naTana prakASam - kEdAram
http://guru-guha.blogspot.com/2007/08/d ... atana.html

Thank you Govindan Sir.

"Among the Pancha-bhuta kritis, this is on the lord of Chidambaram, where he is worshipped as Akasha (space). Patanjali and Vyaghrapada are the sages who performed penance for the lord to appear here and dance for them. Three thousand sages accompanied the lord from Kailasa, and are called the ‘Tillai MoovAyiravar’ or “Tillai vAzh andaNar” or the Podhu Dikshitars, and they have hereditary rights to worship the lord.

May I share a topical article on Thillai, Nataraja and the hereditary rights of Chithambaram Dikshithars?
Disclaimer...Not that I agree one way or another.
http://www.dinamani.com/sattamani/2018/ ... 06948.html

[Ponbhairavi]

To day morning in a an excellent program of madhuradwani live cast the speaker Smt Chitra murthy informed that sri Arunagirinathar(15 th century ) has composed 67 thirupugazh on the 11shrines of Murugan which are located at various places inside the Nataraja temple.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

.
Ananda naTam ADuvAr - Neelakaanta Shivan
Ananda naTamiDum pAdan – Papanasam Sivan

[HarishankarK]

Who composed first?
Tyagarajar Rama Nee samaanamevaru or
GKB Sabapathikku?
Here in one of the posts it's says Tyagarajar response to GKB was Rama Nee Samana
Is that even remotely correct?

[P. S.]

Sundara Natarajam - Kharaharapriya - Adi - Ootukadu

Sri Pulliyur Duraiswami Iyer was a great devotee of Nataraja and composed many songs in Telugu and Sanskrit. Of these songs, I have only been able to find Durjati and Adenamma
Thatta Dhimita - Todi - Rupakam
Parahamsa Nalona Palimpave - Ahiri - Jhampa
Parama Sadashiva - Bowli - Adi
Durjati - Gowri - Adi
Adenamma - Pharaju - Adi
Mandugai konare - Saveri - Adi
Pashupati I hrdaya - Yadukula Kambhoji - Khanda Chapu
Elagu Daya - Shankarabharanam - Misra Chapu
Adbhuta Natanam - Pantuvarali - Misra Chapu