Hasta Mudra

Via MetaFilter: a beautiful site, Hasta Mudra, about the history and significance of hand gestures in the Bharata Naytam style of dance. When you click on each of the sections, you hear its name pronounced in Sanskrit. There are video clips of dances dedicated to the gods Shiva and Krishna.

I studied Bharata Natyam here for two years at a famous school, Kalakshetra. I've always wanted to be able to write about it, but I couldn't see how to do it. This site give a very good idea of what it's about.

And here are the names, and photographs, and meanings of the one-hand and two-hand gestures.

Bhramara, the bee, from Bharata Natyam Mudras

(Part of the slokas from the ancient text Abhinayadarpana, which name the one and two-hand gestures, can be heard in the background of the Shiva video, at Hasta Mudra. Chanting the slokas while showing the appropriate gestures was one of the first things we had to do in our Dance Theory classes.)