[Leica] The Cosmic Dance

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Jim,Ric,Montie,Luis,Marc

Thanks for looking.

If any of the LUG members come down here, I will take you to the great Siva
Temple at Chidambaram, which is dedicated to this dance, just a few hours
drive away from here.

I was also surprised to find this entry in Wikipedia, which I did not know
about:

"In 2004, a 2m statue of the dancing Shiva was unveiled at
CERN<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN>,
the European Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva. A special
plaque next to the Shiva statue explains the significance of the metaphor
of Shiva's cosmic dance with quotations from Fritjof
Capra<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritjof_Capra>:
"Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing
Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used
the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance.
The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious
art and modern physics."

Maybe religion and science should come together in such felicitous ways
more often.

Cheers
Jayanand

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 12:53 AM, Marc Dufour <foto at marcdufour.net> wrote:

> Thanks for share this beautiful image and these words, Jayanand.
> At our home, Nataraja is peacefully coexisting together with gods and
> goddesses from different times and parts of the earth.
> Maybe we enjoy the protection of all of them...
> Best regards from Spain,
> Marc
>
> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: lug-bounces+foto=marcdufour.net at leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+foto=marcdufour.net at leica-users.org] En nombre de
> Jayanand Govindaraj
> Enviado el: s?bado, 17 de diciembre de 2011 6:41
> Para: Leica Users Group
> Asunto: [Leica] The Cosmic Dance
>
> In October I had gone to the Government Museum here in Chennai, which
> arguably has one of the best collection of South Indian Bronzes in the
> world. One of my favourite subjects for these bronzes is Siva dancing the
> cosmic dance in his avatar as Nataraja or Natesa - this depiction is IMHO
> one the most dynamic subjects in Art - the Museum has dozens of these, and
> this particular piece is the featured one. It is believed that when Siva
> (The Destroyer) finishes the dance it signifies the end of the weary
> universe, and setting the stage for Brahma (The Creator) to create the next
> one. This sculpture is from the Pallava period around the 7th Century AD,
> which is when this depiction originated. They are all made by the lost wax
> method, and that has not changed even to this day. We generally do not keep
> a large bronze of this subject at home, believing that mere humans cannot
> stand the cosmic energy released on an ongoing basis. I remember my
> grandfather getting one as a gift, which he promptly gave to a nearby
> temple, where it is still standing. Anyway, here is the photograph - the
> equipment used was the Nikon D700 with the AFS Nikkor 16-35 f4G lens,
> without flash:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/album254/20111008_017MuseumC.jpg.h
> tml
>
>
> There are a lot of allusions in these bronzes, and those who are interested
> can have a quick look:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nataraja
>
> Comments and Criticism, as ever, welcome.
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
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