Today is Arudra Darisanam, or Thiruvaathirai Thirunal!

It is the day of the star Ardra, or as she is known in Tamil, Thiru Athirai.

Here's Ardra as part of Orion!

The Ardra/ Thiruvathirai star occurring the month of Margazhi is celebrated as Arudra Darisnam or Thiruvathirai!

Siva performed his Ananda Tandava on this day in Chidambaram, the golden Sabha of the Pancha Sabhas.

Nataraja, the king of dance, the Cosmic dancer, holds the damroo in his left upper hand, from whose sound Srishti happens.

The Nataraja murti at CERN!

He holds the Agni in his upper left hand, for Samhara. In between the two, his lower right hand in Abhaya mudra, promises Sthiti to the devotees.

But why Arudra DARISANAM?

Because on this day when performed the Ananda Tandava, the sages Vyaghrapada and Patanjali were blessed to bear witness to it.

It is interesting that the blessing of the supreme dance was bestowed upon two devotees, neither of whom had anthropomorphic (human-like) legs.

Wait, what?

Patanjali, was the avatara of Adi Sesha, and therefore his lower boy was serpentine. Vyaghrapada, as the name suggests, had the limbs of a tiger.

See Patanjali on Nataraja's right and Vyaghrapada on his left!

We’ll perhaps discuss the why of it in another thread on another day.

Today, we’ll look at an aspect of Thiru Athirayaan, Siva who is worshipped on Thiru Athirai.

Thirai/ Athirai in Tamil means “wave”, or a “great wave”.
So, Thiru Athirayaan is the one of the great wave!

How was Siva associated with the waves, you ask?

For this we need to go to the episode of Bhagiratha and Ganga!

Here’s Ravi Varma’s portrayal of Siva waiting to receive the mighty Ganga and channel her flow to the earth.

That Ravi Varma painting is called Descent of Ganges or Ganga Avataranam.

Ganga Avataranam is also the name of the last of the 108 Karanas, or dance movement phrases.

The Natya Shastra describes Ganga Avataranam thus:

ūrdhvāṅgulitalaḥ pādastripatākāvadhomukhau |

hastau śirassannataṃ ca gaṅgāvataraṇaṃ tviti ||

That is feet with the toes and the sole turned upwards, hands showing Tripataka with the fingers pointing downwards and the head being Sannata.

Translation of the Natya Shastra by Manmohan Ghosh.

Feet with toes and sole turned up.. hands with fingers pointing downwards... is the image difficult to conjure?

Let me help!

Siva, in this form, is supposed to have let the Ganga to be partially stymied by his feet, before letting her flow down to the earth.

Hence the feet are turned up to receive the descending Ganga!

Sometimes I wonder how difficult it must have been to carve the Ganga Avataranam and then bring it out in bronze.

Then, I think about how difficult it would to be perform it as part of a dance recital!

So I thought, why not try it as a tribute to the Cosmic dancer, Nataraja Himself!

A moment later, reality descended stronger than the Ganga!

Since I can't dance, here's the Ganga Avataranam pose, as hand-stand pushups with parts of Sri Rudram in the background.

Thank you for reading!

A big thanks to @MadhuKcvn for guiding me on various points in the thread!