NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 17, 2003: It was Fritjof Capra’s “Tao of Physics” that launched Lord Nataraja as a global icon. In his book Mr. Capra wrote the dance of Siva was “the dance of subatomic particles.” He was not the first in portraying Nataraja as a universal metaphor for the interface between science, spirituality, dance and art, but he definitely helped the idea to catch on. In the 1920’s the late art historian, Ananda Coomarasway, coined the now famous adage “The Cosmic Dance of Siva” to describe the Nataraja imagery, hailing the Nataraja icon as “poetry but nonetheless science.” Lord Nataraja has made it to the cover of Time Magazine and more recently been appropriated as the logo of a London-based global environmental movement.
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