Ananda- Tandava of Siva - Sadanrttamurti

About the Book In this book Dr. Kamil V. Zvelebil establishes, compellingly, the individuality and originality of the Dravidian mythological tradition in general, and the Tamil tradition in particular. Marked as it is by rigorous and impressive uses of the tools of comparison and analysis, as also by freshness and immediacy of oppeal, Ananda - tandava, presents a critically rewarding inquiry.

Prof. Zvelebil examines the Nadaraja concept from various angles: mythological, historical, literary, anthropological, sociological and cultural. Apart from finding the Ananda - tandava myth a source of inexhaustible artistic creativity and an archetypal pattern of great cultural significance, the author sees it as a deep-rooted, pervasive 'image in the collective consciousness of the Indian mind. Again, not only does Dr. Zvelebil place Ananda tandava in the central tradition of Tamil aesthetic creativity, but he finds it an evolutionary product of the art of dancing in Tamil Nadu.

About the Author Dr. Kamil V. Zvelebil, Professor, Department of Dravidology, University of Utrecht is an eminent Dravidologist, and one of the devoted non-native scholars in Tamil. His contributions to Dravidian studies include History of Tamil Literature, The Smile of Murugan, Tiru Murugan and a large number of articles on Dravidian languages and literatures. Besides, he has translated into English a number of poems from the Cankam classics including Tolkappiyam, and the devotional poems of Basavanna. Presently he is working on a comprehensive, critical and definitive history of Tamil Literature.

Foreword Dr. Kamil V. Zvelebil is a great lover of Tamil language and literature as much as he is one of the devoted non-native scholars in Tamil. He has contributed in a great measure toward the increased awareness of the richness of Tamil literary and linguistic traditions among the Westerners. Mention should be made of his History of Tamil literature, The Smile of Murugan, a study of Tamil literature, his English rendering of U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer's En Carittiram and the numerous articles on Dravidian languages and literatures he has been contributing to journals and magazines. In the realm of myths in Tamil, his earlier book Tim Murugan has brought in a sense of authenticity and compulsiveness to the indigenous nature of the Murugan myth in Tamil. In this book, he established the individuality and originality of the Dravidian mythological tradition in general and the Tamil tradition in particular.

The present book Ananda-tandava of Siva-Sadanrttamarti is more comprehensive and methodologically more complete: Besides it is of more cultural and literary significance. While the mythological and literary nuances of Murugan and Murugan-worship are relatively less complex and less obscure, those connected with Siva, especially origin and development of the Nataraja cult present complex problems, cultural and religious on the one hand and literary and epigraphical on the other. The treatment in the present book is marked by more rigorous and impressive uses of the tools of comparison and analysis, a wider perspective and deeper insights. As such, it is more critically rewarding.

It must be stressed at the outset that Dr. Zvelebil's Ananda-tandava is neither a work on the totemic foundations of the Hindu religion, nor is it a theological treatise. Again, it is very little concerned with studying the puranic dimensions of the Siva myth vis-a-vis the sociology of the Hinduism. A work of consummate critical scholarship, it sets out to evaluate the human significance of a primordial religiocultural deviance on the one hand, and on the other to present a historically valid account of the origin and nature of a complex mythic tradition.

A felt assertiveness marks the thesis of the book that the concept of Siva as a Divine Dancer, and in particular, performing the ananda-tandava is an "Indo-Dravidian 'invention"'.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages