Why does Shiva do the tandav?

You’ve obviously seen Lord Shiva dancing in movies or serials - what’s the real meaning?

Here’s the tea!

For followers of Shaivism, Shiva is top boss responsible for creation, preservation & destruction, all of which happens in a cycle.

That’s why the Nataraj form of Shiva’s idol has a Damru in the left, which stands for the sound of the Big Bang, agni in the right hand, for destruction & dissolution. With both male & female earrings on either side of the face, showing the union of male & female energy, Shiva & Shakti, to make this happen - with the demon Apasmara being killed below standing for our ignorance of this knowledge.

So our man wanted to pass down this knowledge of the cyclical nature of the universe & time & combined the essence of our vedas into nata i.e. dance, one of the oldest knowledge transfer systems before written or spoken text … and it can be understood by all people.

In his dance, he has 108 Karanas i.e. dance steps of poses with very crazy combinations of hand & leg gestures.

Shiv passed this knowledge to Tandava Muni, which is where Tandav comes from. Tandava Muni taught this to Bharata Muni, who then developed it into Bharata Natyam … and many dance forms originated from this point, such as Katthak & others.

Shiv doesn’t just do tandav when he’s angry or mad - that’s rudra tandav. He also does ananda tandav when he’s celebrating or happy.

So tandav is just an easily understood form of God’s communication that shows his role in the universe & also teaches us how things work.