Although bharata himself makes no direct reference to lasya in the natya shastra, the term lasya, in the context of Hindu mythology, describes an extremely feminine, graceful and fluid type of dance, generally with shringara as the dominant rasa, that the goddess Parvati performed. It was as a response to the male energy of the cosmic dance of Tandava performed by Shiva, and was performed concurrently while tandava was in progression.

In Shiva is said to have been revealed both faces of dance – ‘lasya’ and ‘tandava’, of which all subsequent dance forms were offshoots. Lasya, the dance of aesthetic delight revealed beauty, grace, love and all tender aspects of existence. Lasya is the mode that defined many of Shiva’s iconographic forms – Kalyana-Sundara, Vrashavahana, Yogeshvara, Katyavalambita, Sukhasanamurti, Vyakhyanamurti, Chinamudra, Anugrahamurti, and Chandrashekhara.