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 2022 |
| * The early dance orchestra, known as the chinna melam in Tamil, consisted of the mukhavina, the mridangam and a bagpipe drone known as the tutti. The tutti was an interesting instrument that fell out of vogue as the tambura became prominent, and explains the mystery of the bagpipe in the piece of rare footage from the court of Baroda (filmed between 1930-1935, published by British Pathe). The tutti was so prominent, it is said that legendary dancer Balasaraswati’s arangetram was conducted with one in her orchestra in 1925. (‘Bharatanatyam with a bagpipe?’ by Gayathri Iyer, The Hindu Friday Review, Aug 5, 2022) * A lesser-known story narrated by historian Sriram Venkatakrishnan is that of the clarinet coming to India, courtesy King Sarabhoji II of Thanjavur. His training in western music and his vision of Thanjavur as a seat of culture inspired him to include the instrument in his court music. Mahadeva Nattuvanar, an ancestor of the Thanjavur Quartet, was the first to use the clarinet in performance as a part of the chinna melam. While the violin gained mainstream prominence, the clarinet was not accepted as easily, but remained a feature of the dance tradition for several years. (‘Bharatanatyam with a bagpipe?’ by Gayathri Iyer, The Hindu Friday Review, Aug 5, 2022) * Lord Nataraja’s damaru (a small double-sided drum), particularly, is a fascinating symbol. Shiva is said to have played the damaru twice; the first time nine sounds emerged while the second time five emerged, making a total of fourteen. Each one of these sounds was developed into a sutra upon which Sanskrit grammar is based, leading to the whole magnificent edifice of Sanskrit language and literature. (‘The dancing lord: Nataraja, lord of the cosmic dance’ by Karan Singh, The New Indian Express, July 3, 2022) * The Natyashastra categorised the mala (garland) in the following order: Veshtimam is a garland that is wrapped around the body; vitatam is made out of twisting two or more garlands together. Snghatyam is a fascicle or a cluster of flowers strung together, whereas granthimam is a knotted garland and pralambitam is a kind of garland which hangs till the navel. (‘Strength of character’ by Piyal Bhattacharya and Shreetama Chowdhury, NCPA’s Onstage, Feb 2022) * "A prostitute had composed the book and another prostitute has edited it." This was what the Telugu literary magazine Sasilekha had to say about Bangalore Nagaratnamma's edition of Muddupalani's Radhika Santwanam. A sringara prabhandam or erotic epic written in 584 verses, a sanitised version of this literary gem, was first published in 1887 and re-issued in 1907. But it was Nagaratnamma's edition of the text based on the original palm leaf manuscript and reprinted in its entirety in 1911 that attracted censure, leading to its eventual banning. ('Radical Radhas' by K Srilata, The Hindu Sunday Magazine, July 10, 2022) * When Kandukuri Veeresalingam, a social reformer and a novelist, dismissed Muddupalani's work Radhika Santwanam as being shameless, obscene and lacking in modesty, Nagaratnamma asked him if propriety and embarrassment applied only in the case of women, not men. After all, many great men had written even more "crudely" about sex. ('Radical Radhas' by K Srilata, The Hindu Sunday Magazine, July 10, 2022) * The story goes that two great Shiva devotees-Patanjali, author of the Yogasutra who is depicted as half man and half serpent; and Vyaghrapada, who was granted huge feet like those of a tiger so that he could more effectively gather flowers to offer Shiva-together prayed to Shiva saying that they missed his original dance in Kailasha, so would he kindly come and dance again in the 1,000 pillared hall in Chidambaram, which is covered entirely with solid gold. Shiva agreed to their request and performed the dance. There is a beautiful Bharatanatyam dance connected with this legend called Natanam Adinar. ('The dancing lord: Nataraja, lord of the cosmic dance' by Karan Singh, The New Indian Express, July 3, 2022) * There are numerous interpretations of Nataraja. My favourite is from a Tamil text, Unmai Vilakkam: 'Creation arises from the sound of the drum [damaru]; protection proceeds from the [upraised] hand of hope; from the fire proceeds destruction; the foot held aloft gives release.' The dance is interpreted in terms of five activities, viz., creation, preservation, destruction, giving an appearance of illusion, and salvation or grace (sristhi, sthiti, samhara, tirobhava and anugraha). It is also interpreted in terms of Yoga. The image is said to embody the inner processes by which the coiled kundalini or serpent-power is realised or straightened. ('The dancing lord: Nataraja, lord of the cosmic dance' by Karan Singh, The New Indian Express, July 3, 2022) * Back then (in the 1980s), Kathakali actors performed at two venues on one night. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kavungal Chathunni Panicker (1922-2007), dance partner of Mrinalini Sarabhai in Ahmedabad, used to perform even at three venues in a night during his annual vacation in Kerala. That was an era in Kerala culture where slapstick mimicries and cinematic dances were unheard-of as entertainment; whole-night Kathakali performances were a common choice for festivals, especially at temples. Panicker asan, familiar with the professionalism and etiquette of demanding artists in big cities in India and abroad, was the first Kathakali artist to ask for taxi to travel between venues. Until then, no one cared about how artists arrived and returned. ('Peregrinations of Kathakali legends' by K.K. Gopalakrishnan, The Hindu Open Page, June 19, 2022) * Kalamandalam Gopi asan narrated what once happened with the senior thespian Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair asan (1914-1990), another legend of the art. Krishnan Nair was travelling at midnight with full face paint on for his second program. When the car stopped for fuel, he preferred a smoke. The man filling petrol saw the rarest of the rare sight in the car's back seat. A white-bordered green face with bulging and formidably reddened eyes with a cigar. He collapsed in no time, sprinkling some petrol all around. Fortunately, no casualties happened. ('Peregrinations of Kathakali legends' by K.K. Gopalakrishnan, The Hindu Open Page, June 19, 2022) * Five Shiva temples, among many, are referred to as the five sabhas where Shiva is said to have danced to please various devotees. Chidambaram is known as the kanaka (golden) sabha, Thiruvilankadu as the ratna (diamond) sabha, Tirunelveli as the tamira (copper) sabha, Kutralam as the chithira (murals) sabha and Madurai as the rajatha (silver) sabha. ('Aesthetics in the compositions of Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi' by Sundar PK, India Art Review, May 13, 2022) * The heroine of Sukasandesam, a famous poem of the 14th century AD, is a famous dancer of Trikkanamatilakam (a temple near Kodungallur) named Rangalakshmy. It is also mentioned in the same poem that while she dances on the chitraranga (ornamented stage), she also dances at the same time in the chitharanga (minds) of the young men. ('The Occult Origins of Mohiniyattam - Part 13' by Nirmala Paniker, India Art Review, Sept 15, 2021) * During the early Sangam era, when Kerala and Tamil Nadu were a single entity, there are references to at least 160 anushthana kala (ritual arts) practised exclusively by certain communities, says literary scholar Manoj Kuroor. It was in the later Sangam period, and specifically in the Tamil epic work Silapadikaram, that the first references emerge of Koodiyattam....There is also evidence that the Koodiyattam repertoire includes performances that could not possibly have been done in temples - for example, parrakankoothu that needs aerial props and chudalakoothu, a funereal practice. ('Temple theatres in Kerala have been an upper caste preserve for ages. Now there are calls for change' by Malini Nair, Scroll.in, April 16, 2022) * The Kalyani Pallavi Odissi composition choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra was performed by Minati Mishra in the 1963 Bengali film 'Nirjan Saikate.' * Technology did not allow Kamalini Dutt (producer who took charge of TV broadcaster Doordarshan's archives in 2002 as its founder-director) to edit out a cat running across the studio as Radha and Raja Reddy performed Kuchipudi (the cat lives on for posterity in the recording) or when pigeons fluttered around. There was the time when a tipsy Bhimsen Joshi walked into the foyer and declared that he would sing Puriya Dhanashree, only to then sing Puriya Kalyan. ('If not for Kamalini Dutt, Doordarshan would have lost some of its most valuable treasures for good' by Malini Nair, Scroll.in, March 5, 2022) * During the Gandhi-led non-cooperation movement from 1920 to 1922, a group of courtesans in Varanasi formed the Tawaif Sabha to support the independence struggle. According to Lata Singh, Husna Bai, who chaired the sabha, urged members of the group to wear iron shackles instead of ornaments as a symbol of protest and to boycott foreign goods. ('Tawaifs: The unsung heroes of India's freedom struggle' by Sowmya Rao, Scroll.in, May 14, 2019) * At a concert several years ago, some school children were sent to welcome a Kathak legend with flowers. He bent down smiling, and asked gently, "Do you know anything about Kathak?" An eight-year-old girl replied, "Yes, it is the dance that Pt. Birju Maharaj does!" Meeting him for the first time, she hadn't realised it was the stalwart himself standing in front of her. Laughing, he said, "Yes, but he doesn't do the dance, he lives the dance." ('Maharaj ruled the realm of Kathak' by Shrinkhla Sahai, The Hindu Friday Review, Jan 21, 2022) * Rajendra Gangani taught at Kathak Kendra in Delhi and often his classes were just next door to Pt Birju Maharaj-ji's. "His sense of humour was amazing. I had a lot of male students and for one of his ballets he needed more boys for certain roles. He asked me if my students could participate. Then, laughing, he said, 'Tum ladke wale ho, main ladki wala hoon'." (You are the groom's party, I am the bride's.) ('Maharaj ruled the realm of Kathak' by Shrinkhla Sahai, The Hindu Friday Review, Jan 21, 2022) * According to scholar KG Paulose, Sanskrit scholar and the first Vice-Chancellor of Kalamandalam University, it was the Sanskrit scholar K Kunjunni Raja who had observed that but for the knowledge of Natya Shastra, the celebrity Painkulam Rama Chakyar could never have ventured to edit the play Bhagvadajjukam of Bodhayana to be staged in five hours, a ground-breaking event in the history of Koodiyattam. The play used to be completed in 35 days before this innovative attempt. ('Golden Jubilee of an epoch-making translation of Natya Shastra' by GS Paul, India Art Review, 3 Dec 2021) * Thangamani, wife of Guru Gopinath, was the first Mohiniattam student of Kerala Kalamandalam. * Writing for India International Centre Quarterly in 2017, V. Kalyan Shankar and Rohini Sahni note that under British colonization, the devadasis were labeled as "prostitutes" and held in low social regard. In fact, when a troupe of dancers from Pondicherry toured Britain and France in 1838, their mere presence incited a riot. On the opening night of their performance in London, Engelhardt reports on how a group of moralists initiated a "hissing campaign to express fears of the baneful effect of these 'temple prostitutes' on 'the morals of the spectators.'" ('Examining the real-life temple dancers who inspired La Bayadère' by Sarah McKenna Barry, Dance Magazine, Feb 26, 2021) * In ancient poetic compositions of Kerala like Sukasandesam and Chandrotsavam, there are references to Devadasi dancers. The latter poem makes it clear that Devadasis had a highly respected place in society. It is a well-known fact that Kulasekhara Perumal, the ruler of Kerala in the ninth century CE, dedicated his own daughter to the Srirangam temple. ('Devadasi tradition: The Occult Origins of Mohiniyattam - Part 12' by Nirmala Paniker, India Art Review, Sept 8, 2021) * Koodiyattam guru G.Venu's notation system won international appreciation at 'Four Hundred Years of Dance Notations', an exhibition held in New York in 1986. It had on display 55 original notation systems from the 16th century to the present. Venu's was the only one from Asia. ('How Venu devised a visual language for dance' by GS Paul, The Hindu Friday Review, Oct 22, 2021) * Swathi Thirunal was born into the royal family of Kulasekhara dynasty of Tiruvitamcore on April 16, 1813. His royal title was 'Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Swathi Tirunaḷ Rama Varma Kulasekhara Perumal'. The Kulasekhara in the title indicates the lineage of the Kulasekhara dynasty. He was enthroned as the Maharaja of Tiruvitamcore in 1829 when he was hardly 16 years old. He was adept in 18 languages and he wrote Sanskrit poems at a very early age. Unfortunately, Swathi Thirunal passed away in the year 1847 at the young age of 34. (The Occult Origins of Mohiniyattam - Part 19' by Nirmala Paniker, India Art Review, Nov 3, 2021) |
