Dance Images in Temples of Mainland Southeast Asia ... - Repository

many of these symbols and iconographical details were transformed or faded away when the
dancing Shiva found its way to Southeast Asia, the fi gure, however, is always easily recognisable,
for instance on the tympana of some of the Cham and Khmer temples. However, they were not
based on Chola iconography, but on earlier prototypes, to be discussed later. Several versions
of the Nataraja were illustrated in the manuals of Brahmanic iconography made in Thailand as
late as during the fi rst half of the 19 th century (Boisselier 1976, 231–233).
Shiva is not the only dancing Shivaistic god. As mentioned earlier, one of his sons, the
elephant-headed Ganesha, Lord of the dwarfi sh ganas, also expresses himself by dancing. With
his bulky body and short limbs, he often imitates his father’s heroic dance in a humorous way.
The female energy of the Shivaistic pantheon, personifi ed as Devi, also dances [2/16]. She can
manifest herself as an independent divinity, such as Kali and Durga, or she can take the role of
Shiva’s consort, Parvati.
If Shiva’s dance epitomises the masculine tandava style of dance, it is Parvati who embodies
the feminine lasya style. In a well-known type of Parvati statue of the Chola period she is
portrayed walking gracefully and holding her left hand uplifted near her chin. This pose may
not be immediately recognised as a dance pose, but all its elements, the relaxed hand in mudra
indicating “walking about freely” and the uplifted hand indicating “holding a fl ower”, can be
traced back to the tradition of the Natyashastra.
However popular Ganesha otherwise is in Southeast Asia, a dancing Ganesha is rarely
portrayed there. Dancing female divinities, on the other hand, can be found in the region, if
not with a direct connection with the Shivaistic pantheon but rather belonging to the Tantric
Buddhist iconography, which will be mentioned below.
In Vishnuism dance does not play such a central role as in Shivaistic imagery. Of the ten
avataras of Vishnu only Krishna is depicted as a dancer. He dances as a cowherd playing the
fl ute, as a boy subduing the naga Kaliya, and when revealing his divine character during a full
moon night in the mystic raas dance. His dance aims to evoke the srngara rasa, the sentiment of
love. In India Krishna’s dance is often depicted in statues held on the altars at home or in the
temples, in temple hangings, and in miniature paintings. In Southeast Asia a dancing Krishna
never gained popularity, since the mythology and bhakti poetry praising Krishna’s pastoral
youth did not fi nd its way to the region. Krishna is, however, sometimes depicted, especially
in the Central Javanese and Khmer bas-reliefs, but very seldom dancing 12 . It was the heroic
Krishna of cosmic battles based on the Harivamsa, a later appendix to the Mahabharata, who
gained more popularity in Southeast Asia.
A specifi c group of dancing gods belongs to the Tantric tradition. They are seldom included
in the studies of Indian dance images. They have, however, served rather directly as prototypes
for dance images in Southeast Asia: in Peninsular Southeast Asia, in Java, and in the Khmerinfl
uenced regions of mainland Southeast Asia. The Tantric dance images seem to be strongly
infl uenced by the dancing deities of Shivaism (Pal 1997, 127, 132)
A common feature of most of the nrttamurtis or dancing gods is that they are usually shown
in a frontal posture probably because the deities are supposed to give darshan or ritual viewing
for their worshippers and meet them face to face. Another important characteristic of the
nrttamurtis is that, according to Kapila Vatsyayan (1977a, 270), they can often be analysed in
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