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Although the male dancer Ram Gopal performed dances from
the traditional repertoire, he also adapted them and had dances
composed for him which reflected the thandava or masculine element of
Bharatanatyam. One of these dances was Natanam adinar based on the dance of Shiva. He accounted for the creation of this dance: “Natanam adinar
was composed specially by Meenakshisundaram Pillai. I was the
first to perform it. Now they don’t do it properly. It should be
danced by a man.” Others such as Shanta Rao also claimed that Natanam adinar was composed for them. There is no doubt that this dance was a new creation in the 1940s. (‘Bharatanatyam: from Temple to Theatre,’ Anne-Marie Gaston, 1996, chapter ‘The Structure and Repertoire of Bharatanatyam’) |
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The female dancers outnumbered the male dancers in the Hoysala period
(10th to 14th c). Learning dance, music and painting was the
pre-requisite of an accomplished lady in Hoysala society. The
inscriptions speak of royal dancers and praise gloriously their
histrionic talents. Queens of Hoysala time – Echaladevi Padmala,
Boppadevi, Shantala and Bommala - were accomplished dancers and
musicians. Inscriptions describe queen Shantala and Bommala as ‘Sangita
Nritya Sutradhare.’ This gives an impression that they had their own
team of artistes and choreographed the dance compositions in the
functions organized in the temple premises. (‘Classical dance heritage of Karnataka,’ Dr. Choodamani Nandagopal, 2012) |
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For the first time in the philatelic history of India, the Dept of Posts
issued a set of 11 stamps – one on Jayadeva and one each on the 10
incarnations of Vishnu (dasavatara) as described in the first ashtapadi
of his Geeta Govinda. Naveen Pattnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha,
released the stamps and a miniature sheet of the stamps on July 27, 2009
at Bhubaneswar. All the stamps are multi-colored and of Rs.5 each. The
first day cover depicts the picture of the poet in a writing posture; in
the background are pictures of various incidents in Krishna’s life.
Each dasavatara stamp carries the picture of one avatara and the lyrics
of the corresponding pada given in the first ashtapadi. Jayadeva lived
in Odisha circa 1200AD. (S. Sankaranarayanan, Art Stamps 51, Sruti issue 318, March 2011) |
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