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Sculpted by both Yoga and Tapas

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A delightful blend of carving and colouring, a characteristic feature of South Indian wood carving, excellent in finish and brilliantly coloured, this wood-masterpiece represents an eight-armed form of Lord Shiva performing an energetic dance.

The artist here has fully exploited the potential of the colour blue to represent the immaterial and the vastness of space. Indeed it has been said that the colour blue ‘has no dimensions, it is beyond dimensions.’ The artist has preferred a skyish blue to represent here Shiva’s infinite nature.

The sculpture manifests Shiva in His ‘tripurantaka' (annihilation of Tripura) dance posture. Tripura, a confederation of demons, is considered as one of a very few exploits of Lord Shiva. As the scriptural tradition has it, Maya, a demon, built with Brahma's grace and boon three grand cities which could rival Indraloka. After the cities had been completed Tarakasura, their master, let them into the charge of his three sons, Taraksha, Kamalaksha and Vidyunmali. They were conjointly called Tripura.

Maya, before handing over to them the charge of the three cities had instructed them not to stray from the path of righteousness or create acrimony with gods. But the conceited and arrogant Tripura forgot it and began indulging into things which were contrary to righteousness. Ultimately Lord Shiva resorted to 'tandava', killed Tripura with His arrows, rocked all three cities with the beats of His dance moves and burnt them with the fire emitting from His third eye. This form of 'tandava', which accomplished 'tripurasamhara' or the annihilation of Tripura, is known as 'tripurantaka', the dance that brought Tripura to an end.

In both, 'tripurantaka' and 'tandava', Shiva is known to have lifted one leg, nearly parallel to his body, reaching up to his forehead. It is indeed a marvellous body sculpted by both yoga and tapas. Shiva's body is extremely fluid, but the strictly structured set of movements point to an effortless grace on his part.

In iconographic representations of 'tripurantaka' Lord Shiva crushes under His feet a dwarf demon identified as Apasmara, representative of all evil. On the two sides of the dominating figure of Bhagawan Shiva can be seen here the images of a fluting Krishna and Brahma ji playing cymbals, both in veneration of Lord Shiva.

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