Nataraja to grace G20 summit.

[Vinayaka]

A 28 foot bronze Nataraja has been installed outside Delhi's new convention center. As some of you know, Nataraja is close to my heart, as he is the One who called me home. May the Dancer dance His eternal dance, and provide wisdom for the political leaders in attendance. G20 Summit: 28-foot-tall Nataraja statue installed at Summit venue in Delhi; see pictures

 

[JustGeorge]

Beautiful.

 

[Vinayaka]

Beautiful.

I'd like to see the abhishekham to Him, or the flower malas. Not that that will likely happen. He gets used as a symbol, or work of art, too often, in my view. His counterpart, the Puranic humanoid version gets far more attention than He does, which is to me, sad. He gladly sits as the central figure on my shrine. Summer is great as He is so easy to decorate. I place about 20 flowers, one between each 2 flames on the circle, every morning. The various colors we have make it so He draws Boss's attention as she goes past the open door on the way to coffee.

 

[Vinayaka]

This is even more impressive once you know how it was made, which was by the ancient lost wax method. This method has been around South India for at least 1000 years, perhaps much longer. First the statue or object is carved in wax (imagine 20 feet of that) Then the wax is covered firmly in plaster of Paris or a clay, and strong enough to hold the weight of the potential object. After that is all hardened, it is heated just enough to melt all the wax, which is drained, making a hollow mold. The entire thing is turned upside down, and molten metal is poured through the one hole at the top (bottom of the statue). After a few days of cooling, the clay is chipped off, revealing the beautiful statue. For this one, I imagine they built strong scaffolding, or used machinery.

I witnessed a pour of a much smaller custom statue at Swamimalai. That consisted of two strong men with steel bars, and the cauldron of molten metal in a pot out between them. In unison, they turned the cauldron to make the pour. But that was only about a foot in size.

Boss and I were in Swamimalai on our arapadaveedu pilgrimage, and looked up the sthapathi who did the pour for Iraivan temple's lingam (Kauai) base, which was 5 tons. This Nataraja was 8 tons. The base for Kauai's lingam was panchaloka, which is traditional, but this Nataraja had 8 metals instead of 5. The town of Swamimalai is renowned for it's metal sculpturing, and they do custom work.