In the final quatrain of the poem, after tiring of rampaging across the earth, Ravana asks, 'When will I be happy?' Because of the intensity of his prayers and ascetic meditation, of which this hymn was an example, Ravana received great power from Shiva, as well as a celestial sword called Chandrahasa. Alliteration and onomatopoeia create rolling waves of resounding beauty in this example of Hindu devotional poetry. īoth the ninth and tenth quatrains of this hymn conclude with lists of Shiva's epithets as destroyer, even the destroyer of death itself.
The stotra has 16 syllables per line of the quatrain, with laghu (short syllable) and guru (long syllable) characters alternating the poetic meter is iambic octameter by definition. Shiva refers to the name of the destroyer deity, Tandava or Tandavam refers to a frantic dance, and Stotra or Stotram refers to a panegyric, a hymn of praise. Its authorship is traditionally attributed to Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, considered a devotee of Shiva. The Shiva Tandava Stotra(m) ( Sanskrit: शिवताण्डवस्तोत्र, romanized: śiva-tāṇḍava-stotra) is a Sanskrit religious hymn ( stotra) dedicated to the Hindu deity, Shiva, one of the principal gods in Hinduism and the supreme god in Shaivism.
