I was curious about this, so I searched the net for an answer...and true to its promise (the internet today can give you answers to almost every qn of ours!), found some great explanation...those who want to read the full article, click here. I'm just putting an excerpt here --
Shiva is believed to assume two states - the superconscious state (samadhi) and the tandav or lasya dance....Shiva showed the uddhat dance, which He had performed earlier, to Sage Bharat through the chief of His attendants (Tandu). He also made Parvati perform the lasya dance, with great enthusiasm in front of Sage Bharat. Lasya is a dance form performed by women wherein the hands remain free. Sage Bharat and others later taught this dance, performed by Tandu known as the tandav dance, to man...
...This dance is of seven types - 1. Anandtandav, 2. Sandhyatandav (Pradosh dance), 3. Kalikatandav, 4. Tripurtandav, 5. Gouritandav, 6. Sanhartandav and 7. Umatandav...
...Of these seven types the verse (stotra) Shivapradosh (alias Pradosh) describes the sandhyatandav as - Shiva performs this dance in the evening with Gouri the creator of the three worlds seated on a throne studded with precious stones...Of the above seven types the Gouritandav and Umatandav are both fearsome in nature. In this dance Shiva assumes the form of Bhairav or Virabhadra and is accompanied by Uma or Gouri. He performs this frightful dance in the crematorium...during such a destructive, fearsome dance Shiva not only destroys the world but also frees embodied souls from bondage. The crematorium is chosen for the dance to depict that the ego of the embodied soul is reduced to ashes. Deities as well as demons are enthusiastic to accompany Lord Shiva during the tandav dance...
I like and believe in the explanation given below...I also understand the fallacy in my question above -the Taandav is not an "angry" dance only- but still my question remains -- why a dance form to explain/exhibit the Truths that He wanted to convey?
Is it possibly because even God was getting bored of teaching the "Truths and Lessons of Life and Living Life" in the same rudimentary way -- by word of mouth of gurus and the written word?
We all are His children and like it or not, need His Teachings (and His thappads and shabashees) once in a while...Is it His way of symbolically telling us that Change is something even He has to follow...so Man, you'd better embrace it willfully...
Or is there actually no reason behind it? Is this one of those cases of Origin, where a thing/stage/position just comes into existence for the world to follow, without any particular rationale which one can pin-point?
(P.S.: I am not satisfied my reasoning of the above, so please contribute with all your comments and knowledge...)
