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Dr. Filliozat talks of the resilience of Sanskrit and
points to how it not only borrowed words from other languages but
assimilated them, thereby enriching itself. The Vedic root - ‘nrt’ means
‘to dance.’ But in Middle Indian, the vowel ‘r’ is replaced by ‘a.’ So
in Middle Indian, ‘nrt’ becomes ‘nat.’ In his list of roots, Panini
gives both ‘nrt’ and ‘nat’ for dance. Panini extracted roots from other
languages and applied his rules to them. (‘Paninian from Paris’ by Suganthy Krishnamachari, The Hindu Fri review, Nov 28, 2014) |
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Ramaiah Pillai was one of the first dance masters to get credit as ‘choreographer.’ His first film where he composed dance was 'Adrishtam' (1930s). He composed the dance by accident because he happened to be on the movie set, where he was chaperoning his younger sister Radha who was also acting in the film at that time. The producer felt a Bharatanatyam sequence would be apt for that particular dance sequence they were shooting and locating a nattuvanar at such short notice was difficult and could affect the budget. So, Ramaiah Pillai (who was the only person who knew Bharatanatyam on the set) himself volunteered to compose the dance! This coincidence provided him with the confidence to seriously pursue the art of choreography and he ventured forth to become a serious, full fledged nattuvanar at that point. His first film ‘Adrishtam’ truly brought him adrishtam (luck)! The rest as they say is history. |
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The Brihadeeswara Temple in Tanjavur (Tamilnadu) built by Raja Raja
Chola popularly known as ‘Big Temple’ turned 1000 years in September
2010. To celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the temple's consecration,
on September 25, 2010 Brhanan-Natya Yagna was organised by the
Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India (ABHAI), Chennai, and
Brihan Natyanjali Foundation, Thanjavur. Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam
choreographed three items and led from the front as 1000 dancers from
all over the world performed. It has entered the Limca Book of Records
as National Record 2012. Both Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam and ABHAI received
citations. |
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