Shiva Nataraja, Chola style of the 12th century, 19th/20th century, bronze.

This iconic image of Shiva may well be the best-known image in all of Indian art. It is called Shiva Nataraja Lord of the Dance. Variations of this basic composition were first made during the Chola Dynasty in southern India during the 11th and 12th centuries. Shiva dances with dynamic grace standing on a personification of egotistical ignorance. Around him is the universe as a whole, a flaming circle that represents the glowing globe of the material world. In his right hand is a rattle drum. Its sound activates each moment at the end of time. The core concept is that Shiva is doing an end less dance of creation and destruction and re-creation again and again and again. This particular bronze was cast in the 19th or early 20th century but was very well done in the 12th century Chola style. (FLG)
See 2014.1.103.