the usual Indian instrument for beating time in dancing. The little figure of the Ganges goddess upon the wavy braided locks which form a halo round his head shows that the latter symbolises the sacred rivers which flow from Siva's paradise on Mount Kailāsa. The flame held in the left upper hand is a symbol of the Vedic sacrifice and of the Fire-spirit, Agni. The cobra is the natural symbol of the Lord of Death and of the theory of reincarnation which was one of the maxims of Brahman philosophy; its deadly poison suggested the one idea, and its habit of shedding its skin and reappearing with an apparently new body the other. The twofold nature of the divinity, Spirit and Matter, another philosophical doctrine, is suggested by the difference in the ear ornaments—on the right side a man's and on the left a woman's.
The mystical interpretations of this very natural primitive imagery, rendered by the Indian sculptor with consummate artistic power, were probably read into it later, as Brahmanical metaphysics developed partly under the influence of Buddhism. Then the demon of darkness was explained as the threefold snare of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The tiger-skin was the fury of human passion, which Siva subdues and wears as a garment: his necklet was man's deceit and evil-thinking transmuted into pure gold by the alembic of the Divine Spirit. And the dance was the cosmic rhythm made visible as He touched the earth with His lotus-foot, the energy creating and destroying all the worlds, the principle of life and death.
This later phase of Brahmanical thought is beautifully expressed in the Sanskrit Slokas still chanted in the temple service of Nātārāja in South Indian temples:
