A pure brass composition with strategic infusions of a dark, mossy green. Lord Nataraja dances with abandon, the right foot set deep against the body of Apasmara, who is but personified avidya. The left leg is raised high in the air, indicative of the vigorous, destructive nature of Shivatandavam. The damroo and the flame in His posterior hands are indicative of the twin projective-annihilative nature of Lord Shiva (without one, the other would not happen). The highly characteristic mudra of the anterior hands; the body of a snake flaying to the right, a strip of the Lord’s angavastram to the right. Finally, a handsome face framed crowned with the multiple hoods of a deadly serpent and framed by thick locks flaying across the shoulders.
The aureole surrounding the central figure is a rind of flower-studded vine, from which emerge discrete flames of a destructive fire. There are hints of the head of a mythical trunked creature at the base of the aureole, on either side of the vanquished Apasmara.