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This very prayer became well known as the 'Shiva Mahimna Stotra'. Lord Shiva, was pleased with his prayers, absolved him and returned his divine powers.
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In order to seek forgiveness and please Lord Shiva, Pushpadant composed a stotra (song of praise) in which he elaborated at length upon Shiva's greatness as a prayer. He was shocked, but being a blessed devotee, he realized why that happened. This infuriated Lord Shiva and he punished Pushpadanta by taking away his divine powers. Pushpadanta was unaware of this and unknowingly stepped on the bilva leaves. Left with no ideas to solve this problem, the king spread bilva leaves or bilipatra (बिलीपत्र - AEGLE MARMELOS tree leaves, which are considered to be sacred offerings to Lord Shiva) in his garden. But Pushpadanta had divine powers to be invisible and hence, the king could not find the culprit.
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The King did all he could to address the issue. As a result, King Chitraratha was left with no flowers to complete his prayers to Lord Shiva. Every day he tried to stop himself, but failed and picked up the flowers. Pushpadanta was so awestruck by the beauty of the garden, that he could not control his emotions and picked up the flowers from the garden. The King used to offer flowers from his palatial garden as a symbol of his devotion to Lord Shiva. It was King Chitraratha's royal garden, who was also a devotee of Lord Shiva. Once he happened to see a beautiful garden adorned with charming flowers. Pushpadanta was also a devotee of Lord Shiva and a lover of flowers. Pushpadanta (literally, Flower-Teethed) was a divine musician of such standing, in the court of Lord Indra(King of the Gods). They are not necessarily spiritually realised, but are superior to humans. Along with the kinnar (nymphs), yaksha (archangels), apsara (celestial dancers) etc., gandharva are beings which are said to live in the skies and in the atmosphere, in contact with the higher plane: that of the Gods. Pushpadanta was a Gandharva(गांधर्व), a celestial musician. The famous and oft-repeated Sanskrit shloka Asiti girisamam., which means ‘ if an ocean is made the inkpot, the branch of the mythical Parijata tree made the pen and Goddess Saraswati (The Goddess of Knowledge) embarks to write the glory of Lord ( Shiva), it still will be impossible to comprehend the greatness of the Lord fully’ – is among the verses of this stotra. In the verses of the Stotram lie stories about various great acts of the Mahadeva. The thought behind the composition is ‘Enumerating the greatness of Shiva’, being a typical frame of devotion and dedication.
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2 The Composition (Story of Pushpadanta).He was even gifted with the weapon named “ Chandrahas” by Lord Shiva after the recitation of this stotram. The legend is that Ravana, who had lifted Kailasa (the abode of Lord Shiva) with arrogance was suppressed by its weight and he had recited ‘ Shankar ji ka Tandav Stotram‘ to come out of the burden. Shivji Ka Tandav Stotram is authored and recited by Ravana, the Demon King and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. The Stotram offers salutations to Lord Shiva on his Tandav. Each line has 16 syllables with short syllable ( Laghu) and long syllable ( Guru) alternating. Mahadev Tandav Stotram is a rhythmic poem having 16 quatrains in total. Gauri Tandav – Dance with Gauri, the creator of three worlds.Uma Tandav – Dance with Uma ( Parvathi Devi).Sandhya Tandav – Evening Dance (Pradosha Kala).Tripura Tandav – Dance as Anthaka (destroyer) of three cities.According to Hindu texts, at least 8 types of Tandavas are present as mentioned below: