Image title: Figure 47. Sakatasya Karana

This is an amazing sculpture of people (male dancers) engaged in a cartwheel like posture. The two figures have got connected and entangled where one person’s right hand is holding the other’s right leg which is stretched. The two left legs are entangled with each other and are held by each other’s left hand. The two are performing Sakatasya Karana according to whose description–“Beginning with the body at rest, advancing with Talasancara foot and making the chest Udvahita.^” This Karana is performed by doing the Sakatasya Cari in which, “The body is held upright and an Agratalasancara foot is put forward and the Urah is held in Udvahita.” Truly an acrobatic feat.

Gallery information:

Kumbakonam is considered as one of the holiest places in Tamil Nadu and is known for its temples and Mathas (monasteries which were centres of Brahmanical learning). These photographs depict the connection between the sculptures in the temples and Natya Shastra and related texts dealing with iconography.