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Jataka depicting a temptation scene. It shows women musicians with tapering flutes and a dancer in rhythmic movement. The dancer's chin is slightly tilted, her head is bent graciously: her right arm is curved and the wrist is twisted; the left arm is also curved and the two arms form a movement of entwining tendrils, indicating enticement. The wrists are turned back, with the position of the fingers in the gesture of holding a flower. This is Lasya dance, slow and sensuous.
On the ceiling of the Kailāśa temple at Ellora is depicted Siva's tāndava dance. Siva dances with his upraised foot; in his hands he holds the trident, the drum, the skull, and the bowl of renunciation. In this fresco painting, line and balance of figure are perfectly obtained with the additional beauty of colour.
Again, in the 11th century BỊhadīśvara temple at Tanjore, there is a fresco of dancing Apsarās and musicians. Half hidden behind the clouds, the dancers shower lotus petals on the spectators at they dance. Their arms are bent and raised in statuesque poses, their figures show exotic movements of heavenly beings. As another example of Lasya dance, the dancers here alluringly hold lotus blossoms in their hands. In this temple there are two panels which describe in rich and pure colour tones two of Siva's dances: one shows the whirling figure of Nataraja with the sacred fire in his upraised hand; Siva here is the source of all movement, rhythm and harmony in the universe. The second panel shows Siva's Bhairava nrtya'; according to the myth, Siva performed this dance when asuras attacked the city of Tripura and were finally destroyed by the gods. It is one of the finest achievements in the art of fresco painting.
A painted danseuse in a Jain cave temple at Sittanvaal, A.D. 670 (After Sivaramamurti).
