Beyond Bollywood Audio Exhibition
The Lords of the Cremation Ground Dancing, circa 1400–1500, Tibet, pigments and gold on cotton, Rubin Museum of Art, F1996.16.
Hello, my name is Trudy Gaba. I am the curatorial assistant for South Asian Art, Islamic Art, and Antiquities at the Cincinnati Art Museum. I will be reading the Destruction and Creation section of Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art.
The extraordinary power of dance to affect the cosmos, the universe and earthly order, has often been envisioned in Hindu and Buddhist contexts. Through the vigorous dance of Shiva—the Hindu god associated with creating, sustaining, and destroying the universe—dance is transformative. In his form of Nataraja (King or Lord of Dance), Shiva dances the world into and out of existence through endless rhythmic cycles. Today, the depiction of Shiva Nataraja has become symbolic of Hindu civilizations, where strength and perseverance can be witnessed through the force of the god’s form—a form echoed through rhythm and endless motion.
In Hindu and Buddhist realms, the universe’s life moves in cycles, with cosmic destruction and creation recurring eternally. Beyond Shiva Nataraja, other deities also embody creative and destructive tendencies. The Buddhist goddess Vajravarahi empowers creative and destructive forces through meditative practices while adorned with the severed heads of enemies. Shmashana Adhipati, an otherworldly pair of skeletal deities, are the “glorious lords of the cremation grounds” who transform fear through dance. And the god Bhairava, who also wanders the cremation grounds, dances through the darkness with his dog companion. Each of these deities harnesses power through awe, energy, and stasis to demonstrate that anything concrete can be dissolved. They embody wisdom that transcends human limitations and continually transform the universe through dance.