Down the corridors of time

Pappu Venugopala Rao

Dance is the earliest language of the human race. In the primitive ages, when there were no languages, ancient man used gestures to communicate. Even after the languages came into existence, man still uses gestures along with language to express himself effectively. Dance is nothing but expression of the mind through body movements. Gestures coupled with rhythmical movements and expression can be defined as dance. Dancing is not the exclusive domain of man. Many birds and animals appear to feel the same compulsion; the peacock is an apt example. The history of dance is thus as old as humanity itself. In some ancient cultures, it has developed into a beautiful form of art combining in itself, music, drama, literature and religion, whereas in some modern societies, dance is a source of pure entertainment.

In India, there have been two parallel streams of dance from time immemorial, the folk and the classical. Scholars of both schools claim independent origin and evolution. However, an objective look reveals that the classical forms of dance have their roo ts in the folk tradition and have in course of time sophisticated and refined themselves with the support of classical music and classical literature.

Shantanu Mitra/Fotomedia

Dance in India has permeated into various other fields, such as poetry, literature, architecture, sculpture, music and theatre. We find many hymns in the Vedas associating different gods with dance, apart from some beautiful descriptions of dance. The ea rliest archeological evidence is available in the Mohenjo Daro and Harappan civilisation, dated at about 6000 B.C., where we find a beautiful statuette of a dancing girl. Bharatha's Natya Sastra believed to be a work written between Second Century B.C. a nd Second Century A.D. is the earliest available treatise on dramaturgy.

Panini, the celebrated grammarian of Sixth Century B.C. mentions two writers on dance, Silalin and Krusasva, both prior to Bharatha, but their works are not available. Natya Sastra is the most important work to which all forms of Indian classical dances attribute their technique and movements. It is regarded as the fifth Veda, as it primarily endeavours to establish the Divine origin of dance and its sacredness. Brahma the creator, created this art called Natya, taking literature from the Rig Veda, song from the Sama Veda, abhinaya or histrionics from the Yajur Veda and Rasa or aesthetic experience from the Atharvana Veda. Natya Sastra is a comprehensive treatise almost encompassing every aspect of dance and related subjects like, production, stage and accoustics, poetics, prosody, diction, intonation, types of characters, the language fit to be used by different characters, costumes, makeup, sentiments, emotions, types of heroines, heroes, styles of acting, movements of limbs, time and place limitati ons, and criticism. Natya Sastra basically divides expression or abhinaya into four major categories, the physical or angika abhinaya, vachika or the literary aspect of expression, aharya or the costume, makeup and jewellry and satvika or expression of e motions. There are many sub-divisions under each of the four varieties of abhinayas.

It is baffling to see how the Natya Sastra deals with the categorisation of different body movements. It enlists 13 gestures for the head, 36 glances, seven movements of the pupil, nine for the eyelids and seven for the eyebrows. There are six gestures e ach for the nose, cheeks, lower lip, the chin has seven. There are nine movements for the neck. The hand gestures are 67 in number, subdivided into single hand gestures, double hand gestures and hand gestures used in pure dance. Three movements are presc ribed for the belly, five each for the chest, waist, sides, thighs, calf muscles and feet. There are four postures prescribed for the body depending on the bend from the central plumb line. Slightly bent or not bent is known as abhanga, equally bent as s amabhanga, mostly bent as atibhanga and bent in three parts as thribhanga. One of the most important movements in dance is a Karana, which is a combination of hand and foot movements,which are 108 in number.

A perfect balance in the four varieties of abhinaya constitutes an integral part of the communication methodologies. As time passed on dramatists and dancers from different regions felt differently about the proportion in which these four abhinayas shoul d be employed in their techniques and choreography. While some felt the need for more dominant song and music, others felt the need for more vibrant emotional approach. This has led to different kinds of dramas and different styles of dances over a perio d of time. Indian classical dance is a combination of three components, Nritta, Natya and Nritya. Nritta is the rhythmic movement of body in dance, otherwise known as pure dance. It does not convey any theme or express any emotion. Natya is the dramatic element of a stage performance. Nritya constitutes the abhinaya or the histrionic expression, depicting rasa (sentiment) and bhava (mood). Similarly an aggressive dance is known as Tandava, while delicate and graceful movements in dance constitute lasya.

The influence of Natya Sastra on sculpture can be seen on the temples built during the early century. In the South the Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur, Sarangapani temple at Kumbakonam, the Chidambaram temple and the Tiruvannamalai temple are ample evidences of conscious efforts to portray some technical aspects described in the Natya Sastra. In the North, the Kirti stambha of Chittoor, and many temples in Orissa depict the same trend. It is probably some time during this period th at the temples employed dancers and made dance a part of the rituals. This has given rise to two distinct types of dances and dancers, the temple dance and the devadasis, the court dance and the raja nartakis. The beginning of the emergence of the contem porary styles of classical dances can be traced to this period, roughly corresponding to 1300-1800 A.D.. Since gurus all over the country more or less followed the same text, the Natya Sastra, and because of the strong influence of religion on dance, ini tially the style of dancing all over the country must have been the same. It could have undergone changes due to transmission from the gurus to their disciples, regional variations of language, habits and customs and to suit the aesthetic sensibilities o f each society.

Avinash Pasricha
Kshemavati in a Mohiniattam performance.

While the Muslim invasions and rule have influenced every field of art in the North, the South was relatively free from this impact. While in the South, girls who were dedicated to gods preserved a dance tradition that is basically feminine in nature and delicate, the warriors of the South West took to more masculine and aggressive dance. The North promoted and patronised a kind of a court dance that is graceful and elegant and influenced by the Muslims, while the North East subscribed to a form of danc e which reflects their restraint and delicate traits. As Indian society evolved with many influences foreign and native, so did the dance forms. Today among the major classical dance forms of India, we find, Bharatanatyam, Bhagavata Mela, Andhra Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Mohiniattam and Yakshagana, in the South, Kathak in the North, Odissi in Orissa and Manipuri, and Chau in the North East. There are many other tributaries to some of these classical forms of dance, prevalent in their respective reg ions. Enthusiastic protagonists of each style claim superiority and antiquity over the other forms confusing the already complex situation of lack of proper historical evidences one way or the other.

What we call Bharatanatyam today is a relatively recent name. It was earlier known as Sadir, Dasi attam, and Thanjavur Natyam. Ponnayya, Chinnayya, Vadivelu and Sivanadam, the four brothers, popularly known as the Thanjavur Quartet set a pattern and syll abus and gave a chiselled structure to the Sadir dance. They adorned the court of Serfoji who ruled Tanjore during 1798-1832. The contemporary repertoire of Bharatanatyam evolved thus sometime during the late 18th or early 19th Centuries. Sadir, which wa s till then the domain of the devadasis, received a series of serious blows during 1910-1930 with the degeneration of social values. But with the single-handed and relentless efforts of E. Krishna Iyer, during 1926-35 it regained its pristine glory and c ame to be known as Bharatanatyam. The social stigma attached to it gradually disappeared with more and more women from respectable families like Rukmini Devi and others taking interest in it. Bharata Natyam is basically a solo dance in which, of late, we see a trend towards more dance dramas.

Present day Kathakali is a dance drama tradition, which is the result of the culmination of evolution over centuries of highly stylised theatrical traditions of Kerala, particularly Kudiyattam. Ritual traditions, such as Theyyams and Mudiyattam and the m artial arts of Kerala, influenced the evolution of Kathakali. As in the case of Bharatanatyam, Kathakali also needed a resurrection in the Thirties. Poet Vallathol refined and rediscovered Kathakali. He founded the Kerala Kalamandalam in 1932 through whi ch a new dimension has been given to this form.

Kuchipudi is a male oriented dance drama tradition prevalent in Andhra Pradesh. It acquired its name from the village it originated from. At a time when dance degenerated due to the feudalistic abuse of female dancers, an ascetic, Siddhendra Yogi refined and redefined this form of art known as Kuchipudi today. He made it a dance drama tradition, where only male brahmins could play the roles. They even played the female roles are played by men. The male Kuchipudi artists are known as bhagavatulu. The fam ous role of Satyabhama, in the dance drama Bhamakalapam, played by Vedantam Satyanarayana has left an indelible mark in the minds of the connoisseurs. Fifteen Brahmin families belonging to the village Kuchipudi have been following this tradition for over 500 years. The Machupalli Kaifiayat of 1502, and the historical records show the grant of Kuchipudi village to the artists by Abul Hasan Kutub Shah in 1675. Great gurus like Vedantam Lakshminarayana, Chinta Krishna Murthy, Tadepalli Perayya enriched the repertoire by bringing women into this form of dance. Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam added many dance dramas and choreographed several solo items, widening the scope and nature of Kuchipudi. The transformation has completed a full circle, from the days when men played the female roles to women playing even male roles.

After the fall of the Vijayanagar empire some of the families of the Kuchipudi Bhagavatulu migrated to Melattur near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. Achyutappa Nayaka (1561-1614) granted a village, initially known as Achyutapuram (now known as Melattur) to 501 Brahmin refugee families according to historical records. Bhagavatamela is considered an offshoot of the Kuchipudi dance tradition. Melatturu Venkatarama Sastry, a senior contemporary of Tyagaraja authored about twelve dance dramas of which about six are in vogue today.

The Odissi dance of Orissa is considered one of the oldest based on archeological evidence. Present day Odissi is however a culmination of a process of reconstruction from various dance traditions of Orissa, like the Maharis, the Gotipuas and the Bhandan ritya traditions. Maharis are equivalent to the Devadasis of the South. Gotipuas are basically men who dressed themselves like female dancers and danced like the Maharis. Gotipuas are not allowed to dance in temples after they reach the age of 18. Keluch aran Mohapatro, once a Gotipua is the greatest living guru of the Odissi dance. Jayadeva's Gitagovinda has enriched the content and style of this form of dance.

The word Kathak derived from Katha literally means a storyteller. In olden days, story tellers used song and dance to narrate stories effectively. While it took the shape of Kathakalakshepam and Harikatha in the South, it took a beautiful dance form in t he North known as Kathak. By about the 15th Century the form underwent a tremendous change with the influence of Muslim dance and music. By the 16th Century the tight chudidar pyjama became the standard dress of a Kathak dancer. The initial Ganesh vandan has been replaced by salaami and many Urdu words have crept into its terminology. The movement of the foot and rotation have become more dominant in this style of dance. Guru Birju Maharaj has expanded the repertoire of the Kathak and introduced group d ances.

Manipuri is the classical dance from the North East. Delicate in nature and soft in presentation of its music, Manipuri is different in many ways from the other forms of dance in India. It involves an unusual treatment of the body where the straight line is never broken with basic movements like chali and parengs creating an aesthetic atmosphere of pure dance. It has attained more popularity with the advent of the Chaitanya cult. Themes from the Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, and compositions from the Gitagovinda are dominant.

V.K.Rajamani/Wilderfile
Tanjore painting by Jaya Chandrashekhar, inspired by the panels of Chidambaram.

There are many other forms of dance prevalent in different regions, all scrupulously adhering to the path laid down by Bharata in the Natya Sastra. Bharata defines dance as "that which reflects the pains and pleasures of the people in society". There are other treatises which define dance as the art of imitation. Aristotle uses the same term to define art when he says "Epic poetry and tragedy, as also comedy Dithyrambic poetry, and most flute playing and lyre playing, are all, viewed as a whole, modes o f 'imitation' (Aristotle's Art of Poetry, ed by Fyfe p. 3).

Art whether it is occidental or oriental is considered basically as imitation of nature. Aristotle considers the art of imitation as creative art. Dance thus plays a predominant role in world culture. It goes beyond linguistic barriers and geographical b oundaries to convey and communicate the inner urge of the human soul. The basic difference is that all forms of art are considered sources of liberation and religious offering to the Ultimate Reality, in the West it is mostly cultural and social in natur e. The individual dancer transforms into a character in the Indian dance and submerges himself or herself in the religious offering, whereas the individual remains as he or she is in the western dance. It is a great tribute to humanity that people of dif ferent nations understand, appreciate and enjoy one another's dance, irrespective of the language and race, theme and expression. Dance, the most ancient language of the human race still has the power to keep humanity united.

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