Religions of South Asia 8.2 (2014) 197-216 ISSN (print) 1751-2689 doi:10.1558/rosa.v8i2.197 ISSN (online) 1751-2697 © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014, Oice 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheield S1 2BX. Pañcanṛtyasabhās: Dancing Halls Five R. K. K. RAJARAJAN 1 Gandhigram Rural University Gandhigram – 624 302 Dindigul District Tamil Nadu India rkkrajarajan@yahoo.com ABSTRACT: The convention among art historians is to begin Naṭarāja studies with Citamparam. Historically and mythologically, this is a misconception. The earliest mention of Kūttaṉ/Naṭarāja appears in a ifth- or sixth-century ce literary work, the Ālaṅkāṭṭumuttatiruppatikam of [Kāraikkāl]-Ammaiyār, and the theme contin- ued to persist through the ages, being particularly exalted in the hymns of the Tēvāram, the irst seven compilations of the Śaiva canon. The Cidambaramāhātmya is a work of the fourteenth century ce or later. Scholarly research has depended more on Sanskritic sources (e.g. Sivaramamurti 1974; Smith 1998) than on the ear- lier Tamil material. This article says why studies pertaining to Naṭarāja should begin with Ālaṅkāṭu, the earliest sthala extolled in the Tamil hymns, considered the original base of the Naṭarāja tradition. It cursorily relects on the available epigraphical sources. The other dancing venues of the Lord, Tillai/Citamparam, Ālavāy/Maturai, Nelvēli and Kuṟṟālam, were added in due course, making with Ālaṅkāttu a list of ive dancing halls (pañcanṛtyasabhā). The article examines a group of ive stucco images that appear in the frontal projection of the maṇḍapa to the Ālaṅkāṭu temple. KEYWORDS: Ālaṅkāṭu; Ālavāy/Maturai; ānandatāṇḍavam; Cidambaramāhātmya; Kālī; Kuṟṟālam; Kūttaṉ/Naṭarāja; Nelvēli; nṛtyasabhā; Tēvāram; Tillai/Citamparam; ūrdhva tāṇḍavam. 1. R. K. K. Rajarajan is Assistant Professor in Fine Arts, Gandhigram Rural University. He was Assistant Professor of History in the Eritrean Institute of Technology, Asmara, Eritrea, and Alexander von Humboldt Post-doctoral Fellow, in the Institut für Indische Philolo- gie und Kunstgeschichte, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany. His publications include Art of the Vijayanagara Nāyakas (New Delhi: Sharada, 2006), and (with Jeyapriya Rajarajan) MīnākṣīSundareśvara: Tiruviḷaiyāṭaṟ Purāṇam in Letters, Design and Art (New Delhi: Sharada, 2013).