|     |
|
| |
 2025 |
| * Purandara Dasa was the most prolific of all South Indian composers. It is said that he had wanted to compose 5,00,000 songs in his lifetime. The bard says in one of his own compositions that he had composed 475,000! His devotional songs are known as Devaranamas (names of the Lord). These songs contain the very essence of the Upanishads and the Puranas. Though the language is simple, his ideas are lofty, his thoughts sublime. The mudra he used in his songs was Purandara Vittala. His invaluable contribution to music earned him the title of Karnataka Sangeeta Pitamaha (the grandfather of Carnatic music). ('Classical Music of India: A Practical Guide,' by L Subramaniam and Viji Subramaniam) * Padams predate javalis, and the names most commonly associated with them are two Telugu bhakti composers, Annamacharya and Kshetrayya. In a sense, they enjoy a firmer reputation for classicism than the sprightly javalis that teeter precariously into the "light" music field. The origins of the javali and its meaning remain shrouded in mystery, say scholars. In his essay for the music journal Sruti titled Javalis: Jewels of the Dance Repertoire, musicologist Arudra says they were "born in Travancore" in the early 19th-century court of Swati Thirunal, "brought up in Mysore" and "attained their fullness in Madras" before travelling elsewhere in the south. Others believe that its first home was the Mysore court. ('Long shunned as too explicit, an Indian music genre is rising from the margins' by Malini Nair, Scroll.in, May 31, 2025) * Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam's study on Nritta Karnas was an uphill task as she had no secondary sources to refer to. To understand a karana, she had to understand the chari (leg movement) prescribed for it, to understand the chari she had to go to padabheda (foot position) and so forth. She would spend hours with a Sanskrit shloka from the Natyashastra, then the Sanskrit commentary in Abhinavabharati, reading deeply between the lines to understand the concept. She would try every movement physically till she was satisfied with it, corresponding and corelating with the shlokas and sculpture, freezing herself where the sculptor had frozen his model till she was convinced that it could not be otherwise. Every karana thus reviewed and reconstructed was like having done a yagna. In the process of reconstructing the karanas, she discovered the methodology to reach the level of the karanas. She set all the relevant shlokas to particular tunes and rhythm, so that learning and retaining becomes easy. Thus, even as she was completing her doctorate, she had taught us the 108 karanas set in 11 ragas. In this way she had created a pedagogical system for teaching the karanas. This methodology is being followed in all the institutions started by her disciples. ('The determined doyenne' by Dr. Jayashree Rajagopalan, NCPA's ON Stage, Aug 2025) * In his book about the hereditary art clan of T Balasaraswati, Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life, musician and scholar Douglas Knight Jr documents the close ties between singers and dancers. He records how Mylapore Gowri, also from the devadasi tradition, would visit Balasaraswati's grandmother Dhanammal, and the women would share padams. These interactions included Balasaraswati's mother, as well as her daughters, the highly skilled vocalist Jayammal and her sister Lakshmiratnam. Dhanammal herself is said to have performed for dance, and Balasaraswati would often sing at her own dance recitals, though her mother was the main vocalist. ('How Sudha Raghuraman is challenging the old hierarchies of Bharatanatyam' by Malini Nair, Scroll.in, Aug 20, 2025) * Ratan Thiyam founded the Chorus Repertory Theatre in 1976. Built by the repertory members, with some help from experts, the 2-acre campus houses, among other things, an auditorium with a huge 54x55ft stage (The Shrine, created by Thiyam and incorporating design elements from Manipur, Myanmar and Thailand): a leafy campus where Thiyam could "indulge in solitude and see the birds come in", and where they could conduct rehearsals and organize festivals. This is the place from where Thiyam launched plays like Chakravyuha, Uttar Priyadarshi, Nine Hills One Valley and Andha Yug - all of which have left their imprint on theatre history in India. ('Around the world with Ratan Thiyam' by Shamik Bag, Mint, 14 August 2015) * Though padams and javalis are often spoken of together as one, they do have subtle variations. Padams tend to be slower and more reflective with more devotional underpinnings. Javalis, on the other hand, are more lively and lilting and their lyrics could border on the risque. The dramatis personae in both narratives are one or all of these three - the nayika, nayaka, and sakhi, that critical go-between and sounding board. ('Long shunned as too explicit, an Indian music genre is rising from the margins' by Malini Nair, Scroll.in, May 31, 2025) * Before structuring the Perini dance format, Nataraja Ramakrishna undertook research on a wider scale to ascertain how the dance form traversed its cultural path. He observed that during the time of Srikrishnadevarayalu of Vijayanagara and Nayaka kings of Thanjavur, this dance form which was initially practiced and performed by male artistes, gradually accommodated female performers as well. He wrote this in his famous text 'History of dances in South India: Perini Shiva Tandava.' He also visualized how the Shaivite tradition based Perini gradually transformed into a Vaishnavite tradition based dance. He felt there are multiple reasons for such transformation as well as accommodating women performers. Some of the reasons he thought of were gradual neglect by successive rulers, failing to rouse much interest and support from public, etc. It is a general observation that both the rulers and the public evinced much interest in lasya than tandava. That is because it is closely linked and related to sexual desires and feelings of human beings. The Perini performers might have worked as tutors to the court dancers according to him. Thus, he came to the conclusion, that these might be the probable reasons for women becoming Perini performers. ('Perini Panchangas: Reconstructions by Nataraja Ramakrishna' by Kala Krishna, Nartanam, Oct- Dec 2016) * Annamacharya was prolific and versatile and is believed to have written thirty thousand songs. He started composing at the age of sixteen. He wrote in Sanskrit and Telugu. His songs, which sprang forth from his great devotion, were beautiful both in musical and lyrical content. He was the earliest composer of the kirtana and shringara padams in Telugu. It is believed that his shringara padams were the inspiration for Kshetragna's padams. Annamacharya was given the title of Padakavita Pitamaha (the grandfather of padam poetry). ('Classical Music of India: A Practical Guide,' by L Subramaniam and Viji Subramaniam) * The entire text of the Abhinaya Darpanam has been written by Nandikeshvara but he often uses the word Bharata in different ways. The question arises then, who is Bharata or what does Bharata refer to? Is he Bharata the writer of the Natya Shastra? Is he Shakuntala's Bharat? Rama's brother Bharata? Or does Bharata refer to an actor? Or the Bharata, the caste of a person? Moreover, in Bharata's Natya Shastra, Bharata himself defines the word Bharata in Chapter 35, shlokas 66-69 as a theatrical party, an actor, an act, a jester, a musician, a director, a playwright, a crown maker, a dyer, a painter, craftsman and expert. In the light of this, Acharya Parvatikumar has taken the word Bharata to mean a sage or a learned man, an expert and an actor. ('Abhinaya Darpanam' by Sandhya Purecha, Nartanam, Oct - Dec 2019) * "Very often dancers entered films to help their families deal with some kind of financial crisis - Minu Mumtaz, Saroj Khan and Bela Bose, for instance," said researcher Siddhi Goel. Some of these dancers also stepped in to assist their gurus. For instance, Rani, who lit up the screen with her dancing - Dekho bijli dole with Asha Parekh (Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon) and Ja mein tose nahin bolun with Jeevankala (Sautela Bhai) are superb examples of her talent - was known to help her guru Gopi Krishna in rehearsals and film shoots. ('One woman's search for the kathak dancers who were relegated to the background by Bollywood' by Malini Nair, Scroll.in, Jan 14, 2023) * There is a wrong belief among dancers and other people that there is only one family, the Tanjore Quartet family. Actually, there were seven families, very popular families. There might have been many natyacharyas but the seven families were very famous. And after the murder of Vijaya Raghava Nayaka, one of the families moved to Thirunelveli, and from Thirunelveli they went to Mysore and Thiruvananthapuram (then, Travancore) and other such places, and then they came back and stayed in Thirunelveli. When Thulaja, the Maratha ruler ascended the throne, he wanted all the natyacharyas of Thanjavur who had moved out of Thanjavur to come back. So he invited them; at that time there were Mahadeva Annavi, Gangaimuthu Annavi, and such other great natyacharyas who belonged to Thanjavur but lived in Thirunelveli. Thulaja invited them back to Thanjavur. So Mahadeva nattuvanaar and Subbaraya nattuvanaar came back to Thanjavur. Mahadeva nattuvanaar was appointed to do service in Thiruvarur's Thyagaraja temple, Subbaraya was appointed in the Brihadisvara temple. ('In Conversation: Dr B.M. Sundaram,' Sahapedia, June 7, 2016) * Several Kaḷaris or training centres for Dasiyattam training were established in the Vijayanagara Kingdom in the present Andhra Pradesh, Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala during Swathi Thirunal's reign. Artists from these Kaḷaris interacted with each other constantly and the female dancers and the Naṭṭuvans (accompanying percussionist in Bharatanatyam or any classical dance art form) often used to go to other Kaḷaris for training as well as for performance. The political rule often changed hands, and the styles of dancing also got variously influenced due to this. Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi and Malayalam works were commonly used in the Dasiyattam compositions. Even though the styles were different, due to the constant and abundant cultural exchange that occurred during this period, certain similarities started evolving in traditional Devadasi dance forms, more specifically in Mohiniyattam and Bharatanatyam. ('The Occult Origins of Mohiniyattam: Part 20' by Nirmala Paniker, India Art Review, Nov 10, 2021) * By the time the Simha Nandana talam is completed, the picture of a simham (lion) was completely drawn by the dancer's feet (foot painting). Using Mallikamoda talam and appropriate jathis and a kirtana on Kumaraswamy, Guru CR Acharyulu also experimented and was successful in drawing Mayura or peacock just like Simha. Similarly, a lotus was drawn while dancing to the Lakshmi talam. ('Retracing steps: CR Acharyulu (1919-1998)' by Voleti Rangamani, Nartanam, Vol XX, No: 1, Jan-March 2020) |
