Diya enacts an archer, holding the bow in the left hand and showing the sharp tip of the arrow with the shukatunda in the right hand. Photo: V. Sudershan
Odissi dancer Rahul Varshney uses Arala to show the tongue of Goddess Kali. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Odissi dancer Rahul Varshney shows the seventh hand-gesture Arla. Start with the palm open, fingers held close together and thumb alongside the index finger. Then fold the index finger from the second digit so that it forms an upside-down ‘L’ shape. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Another way of holding arala hasta is to allow the tip of the thumb to touch the underside of the folded index finger. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Odissi dancer Rahul Varshney uses Arala to enact Lord Shiva drinking the poison that threatened to engulf the world. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Odissi dancer Diya Sen demonstrates the eighth hand gesture, Shukatunda. Start with the palm open, all fingers straight and held close together. Then bend the thumb from the first digit, and the index and ring finger from the second digit. Photo: V. Sudershan
Diya uses Shukatunda to show a damsel murmuring softly. Photo: V. Sudershan
Bharatanatyam dancer Aarthi Subramanian demonstrates the ninth single-hand gesture in Nandikeswara’s list, Mushti. Make the hand into a fist. The thumb closes around the folded fingers. Photo: V. V. Krishnan
Aarthi Subramanian uses mushti to enact gathering up long tresses into a knot. Mushti is often used in showing a person tying long hair into a knot, as in the case of a hermit, or as Lord Shiva does in the story of imprisoning Ganga in his tresses. Photo: V. V. Krishnan
Aarthi uses mushti in representing someone blithely hanging on to the branch of a tree. Held near the heart, with appropriate expression, the gesture represents haughtiness. Among its other uses is gripping or holding an object. It could be a mace, as Bhima and the gods often hold. Or it could be the serpent Vasuki which the gods and demons used as a rope to churn the ocean of milk in the myth about the search for nectar. Photo: V. V. Krishnan