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INTRODUCTION hand, was that here the dance of Śiva became the symbol of a deep spiritual experience, and was invested with a new meaning, based on the idea that 'Cidambaram is everywhere, and everywhere is His dance'.1 As Coomaraswamy says, the deepest significance of the dance 'is felt when it is realised that it takes place within the heart and the self. Everywhere is the heart."
Of the verses in praise of Vişņu, the first is a thoughtful representation of the deity in the abstract. He is lofty without being heightened, extensive without being broadened, deep without subsiding, minute yet vast, manifest yet inscrutable (1.1). The reference to what may be called apparent contradictions in the nature of Vişņu appears in greater detail in Kalidasa's Raghuvaņģa 10.16 ff; and he, like Pravarasena, concludes that no one knows the truth about the deity. 3 These ideas can be traced to the Vişnupurāņa to which both Kalidasa and Pravarasena seem to be indebted for their conception of the character of Vişnu. The Purāna, for instance, describes Vişņu as single and rnanifold, corporal and subtile, perceptible and imperceptible etc.4. He is the support of all things, yet the smallest of the small. In his perceptible form he is the world, but he is also primary matter (mūlapraksti), known as pradhāna, or the avyakta (imperceptible cause). His shape is all visible things, but he is without shape or form? He assumes all forms, but is not a substances. The mysticism
1 See Tirumular cited in Coomaraswamy, The Dance of Shiva, p. 88. Bombay, 1948. 2 Ibid., p. 89. 3 avijñātaḥ 10.20 ; yäthärthyam veda kastava 10.24. Pravarasena says aņāa-para
mattha 1.1. 4 I. 2.3. 5 I, 2.5. 6 II. 7.42 ; I. 2.19.
7 I, 22.80. .8 II. 12.38.
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