Dancing On Me, Not With Me

[Guest guest]

Some time ago, a list-member wrote of the Tibetan image of Maha-Kala

apparently dancing on the body of Ganapati. Such dancing is a common

iconographical motif in Hindu and Buddhist art.

 

Wrathful deities are often shown dancing on their defeated enemies. Lord

Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja) is probably best known for this.

He presses his right foot into the back of the dwarf Avidya (Ignorance)

when doing his dance of destruction (Tandava). I've also seen Shiva

sculpted as dancing on the head of Gajaasura (the elephant-demon), while

wrapping himself in the demon's flayed skin.

 

But other examples make it less clear that the victim underfoot is

definitely an ememy. The Wisdom Goiddess Chinnamasta usually dances on

the copulating bodies of Kama and Rati (the god of Desire and his

consort) -- this is often interpreted as meaning that the beheaded Wisdom

Goddess gains her power from the forces of life seeking bliss and

reproduction.

 

Mother Kali turns the tables on the Cosmic Dancer when, as DakshinaKali,

she dances on Shiva. The difference is, her foot is not on his back, but

on his chest, and Shiva gazes upward in bliss at his dominating consort.

Shiva (Change, Transformation) is not Kali's enemy, but the stage upon

which she performs her <leela> of Time and Impermanance.

 

I have two <murthis> beside each other on an altar: Nataraja and

DakshinaKali. I was meditating on the images, and realized that in one,

Shiva dances on a Dwarf, in the other, Kali dances on Shiva. To bring

the cycle to closure, there should be an image where a Dwarf dances on

Kali.

 

The image finally came to me (though I've never seen a <murthi>

illustrating the event!) -- Bala Gopala, the baby form of Krishna, was

nursed by the dakini Putana (who poisoned her milk). Krishna instead

sucked the life from Putana, and danced (okay, crawled) on her lifeless

body. Bala Gopala, an infant, resembles a dwarf. Putana as a dakini is

a servant of Kali, and much resembles her mistress.

 

I am much taken with this triad of dancers, which seem also to represent

the three main sects of Hinduism -- Shaiva, Shakta, and Vaishnava.

 

-- Len/ Kalipadma

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Interesting but Ganesha and Skanda are also two of the biggest sects of

Hinduism. Moreover you are stretching concepts using a male/female symbolism

where none exists. It is more likely that Krishna is analagous to Kali in the

Putana sketch as opposed to being like the dwarf avidya. Even so, if the dwarf

dances on the God/Goddess this is not a symbol of religion which is turning

back to the source, but the opposite, irreligion, which is turning away from

it. Nice try but full of holes. But if you like specious comparisons then

enjoy.