Lord Shiva is known as the destructor and is usually depicted in an angry mode but very people know that he was also the patron of song and dance, and was known as King of dance or Nataraja. His Nataraja avatar is a message that ignorance can only be overcome by knowledge, music and dance. The most commonly accepted story of origin of Nataraja is as follows: There was a demon named 'Apasmara', who was a dwarf and who represented ignorance. The world is a balance of knowledge and ignorance and destroying ignorance would disturb the balance. Since Apasmara was aware of this, he grew extremely arrogant of his powers and went on to challenge Lord Shiva. It was then that Lord Shiva took the form of Nataraja and performed the famous Tandava or the dance of destruction, eventually crushing Apasmara under his right foot. Since Apasmara should not die to preserve balance, it is believed that Lord Shiva forever remains in his Nataraja form suppressing Apasmara for all eternity.