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Damaru: Meaning
डमरूThe damaru is the small hourglass-shaped drum of Shiva, held in Nataraja's upper right hand. Its sound stands for the rhythm of creation, and tradition holds that its fourteen beats gave rise to the Maheshvara Sutras, the basis of Sanskrit grammar.
Borne byशिShiva
What does it symbolise?
Tradition holds
The two drum heads joined at a narrow waist are read as the meeting of two worlds, the manifest and the unmanifest, or Shiva and Shakti. Its beat is nada, the primal sound from which creation unfolds, and its pairing with fire in Nataraja images shows creation and dissolution held in a single dance.
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