Then came the eighth...

Sattriya dance of Assam is now recognised as the eight form of classical dance. Sunil Kothari writes about the origin and growth of this enchanting dance form...

Strange though it may sound, the dance tradition prevalent in the monasteries of Majuli Island on the banks of River Brahmaputra in Assam was not known as classical dance till the year 2000.

 It was during the tenure of the great musician Bhupen Hazarika (known as ‘Bard of Assam’) as the Chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi that it received recognition as the eighth classical dance form of India.

Nurtured for more than 600 years in the monasteries known as Sattra, the dance form Sattriya drew serious attention of the connoisseurs and scholars of dance during the historic All Indian Dance Seminar, convened by Sangeet Natak Akademi in New Delhi, in April 1958.
 Maheswar Neog, the renowned scholar and an authority on Assamese culture and history, brought along with him senior gurus like Maniram Dutta Muktiyar and few other artistes — monks from Kamalabari Sattra from Majuli Island — to demonstrate the salient features of this dance form before a galaxy of dancers, gurus, scholars and critics.

It was for the first time that Sattriya dances came to be known as a dance form outside Assam.

As a young dance scholar, I was lucky to witness this dance form in the seminar.
 Mulk Raj Anand encouraged me to visit Majuli Island and document the dance form for a special issue of Marg quarterly that he was editing. In those years, to travel so far was not easy.
 However, with the help and guidance of Neog, I visited Kamalabari Sattra, and I was ushered into an entirely new world of monastic life with its serene atmosphere of bhakti, devotion. Rigorous routine Following the monks’ routine and rituals, observing them and watching their physical exercises known as mati akhara, ground exercises, I realised that this dance form had several elements to qualify it to be recognised as classical.
 Besides 64 ground exercises, the young monks had to master from childhood the basic dance position known as Purush Ora for male characters and Prakriti Ora for female ones, pak or turns, including bhramari (whirls) and chakkar (pirouettes), jap (jumps), lon (exercises in which a dancer leans back), exercises that use yoga positions, some acrobatic and some in imitation of birds or animals.

Legendary gurus like Maniram Dutta Muktiyar and Maniram Gayan Muktiyar taught dance as well as drumming and music.
 They explained the mnemonic syllables of music and drums, movement and hand gestures, some unique to Sattriya dance, some used in depicting incarnations such as Chaturvimshati avatara (24 incarnations of Vishnu), and those from the Sanskrit text of Kavi Shubhankar’s Sri Hasta Muktavali.

The head of the Sattra, Chandrahas Goswami, specially arranged for me to see rehearsals of the dance-dramas of the plays written by Sankardeva, such as Ramavijaya, ­and drum-dances known as Dhemali, Sutradhari Nach, Jhumura, Chali Nach etc.

The female roles were taken by young monks who had to practice feminine movements as well as voice for the dance-dramas.
 I remember having seen a three-story-high wooden Bakasura, the stork demon with open beak, and being told that a file of children dancers would enter the huge beak to be swallowed by Bakasura!
 There was also a large, nearly 23-metre-long tail of a serpent with several hoods representing Kaliya. This dance form was invented by the religious saint Sankaradeva (1449-1568), who was born in Naogaon.

He was educated in Sanskrit and was proficient in dance, music, drama and painting.

At the age of 33, he toured northern and central India and studied the social and cultural life of the people.
 When he returned after 12 years, he settled on Majuli Island and started a religious movement for universal, social brotherhood through congregational prayers in which the primacy of bhakti is considered more desirable than mukti, liberation.

Forms of prayer include music, dance and dance-dramas based on the theme of Lord Krishna. Sankaradeva composed Bargeets, Ojapali songs and dances and incorporated them in the dance-drama form called Ankiya Nat or Ankiya Bhaona.

From Majuli he went to Barpeta in the Koch territory, and in due course gained a mass following throughout Assam. Sankaradeva emphasised the worship of Vishnu, represented by a copy of the Bhagavatapurana or other sacred texts placed in a tray or on a simhasana (lion throne).
 An Assamese rendering by Sankaradeva of the tenth book (Dasham Skanda) of the Bhagavatapurana is held in high regard.

Sattra, an institution unique to Assamese Vaishnavism, played a major role in the success of Sankaradeva’s movement.
 At the heart of the Sattra is Namghar, where music, dance and dance-drama performances take place.

Sakaradevaa’s chief disciple Madhavadeva established Sattras in various parts of Assam to preserve and propagate the teachings of the guru. 

The Kamalabari Sattra was established as the first seat of Sankaradeva by Badula Ata, a disciple of Madhavadeva.
 There are more than 500 Sattras all over Assam.
 After my first visit, I followed up my research work, visiting other centres and Sattras.

Also, along with dancer Indira P P Bora, her daughter Menaka and Guru Ghanakant Bora, gave several lecture demonstrations in many cities to create an awareness about Sattriya dances.  Guru Raseshwar Saikia, who left Kamalabari Sattra and settled in Guwahati post marriage, took a bold step of training young girls in Sattriya dances, thereby spreading the dance form in metropolitan centres.

Besides Indira P P Bora, others like Sharodi Saikia, Gorima Hazarika, Mallika Kandali, to name a few, took to Sattriya dances, even though they had begun with learning Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak and Manipuri.
 Other gurus who returned to Guwahati from different Sattras also began to teach Sattriya. It then became popular among the educated middle class young exponents.
 However, in comparison with more dominant forms like Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi, Sattriya did not receive recognition that was due to it.

When Bhupen Hazarika, under the aegis of Sangeet Natak Akademi, with the help of Assamese gurus and Sattriya dance exponents held a four-day historic conference in Guwahati in 2000, the deliberations on part of all concerned were unanimous that Sattriya dance form had all the essential features of a classical dance.
 That was the turning point in the history of the dance form. Some artistes like Indira P P Bora, gurus like Ghanakant Bora, Jatin Goswami and Manik Barbayan also received Sangeet Natak Akademi awards, establishing Sattriya’s claim as the eighth classical dance form of India. Sangeet Natak Akademi established Sattriya Kendra in Guwahati for its further development. Seminars and lec-dems with traditional gurus were held regularly in Guwahati, Delhi and Chennai.

It brought the dance form to the notice of the public.

With dancers like Gorima Hazarika, Sharodi Saikia, Anita Sharma, Mallika Kandali and Anwesa Mahant regularly performing in major cities along with Guru Ghanakant Bora and troupes from Uttar Kamalabari Sattra, Natun Kamalabari Sattra, Sattriya dances have drawn attention of public all over India and abroad.

With the advent of female dancers, the form got metamorphosed in terms of aharya — costumes.
 The colourful Assamese silk is now used by female dancers. The male dancers, playing drums, dressed in spotless white dhotis, upper garments, pugrees and head gears create an impressive visual.
 Their playing on drums, Gayan Bayan, involves complex rhythms and time cycles. The choreographic patterns are eye-catching. In dance-drama form Ankiya Nat and Ankiya Bhaona, several characters, including sutradhar (narrator of the story), enter the stage dancing. Sutradhar’s dance is known as Sutradhari Nach.

With the passage of time, solo dance numbers have been evolved for presentation.
 The female dancers, also at times dressed in monk’s costumes, perform Sutradhari dance. Sattriya dances, too, have distinct aspects of nritta (pure dance), nritya (expressional dance) and natya (dramatic presentation as in Ankiya Nat and Ankiya Bhaona.) Procedural steps In its solo format, dancers first present vandana, a prayer, in praise of Lord Krishna or Rama, followed by pure dance numbers — Ramdani, Chali Nach, Rajghoria Chali; for nritya, the sahitya is taken from Bargeets of Sanakaradeva and Madhavadeva.
 Some of them deal with shishulila, childhood events of Krishna from Kirtanaghosha. There are also other interesting pure dance performances like Jhumura and Mela nach.
 The essential element of bhakti permeates the dance. Though, of late, senior gurus also explore the other rasas, like shringara, vira and karuna. Both male and female dancers perform Sattriya in solo, duet and group format.
 During Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth year, Guru Jatin Goswami and his disciples, including Anita Sharma, choreographed Chandalika in Sattriya style.
 Later on, Anita Sharma choreographed Ritu Rang based on Tagore’s compositions and Kalidasa’s Ritusamhara.
 Meernanda Barthakur explored contemporary overtones with metaphor through a Sanskrit composition of Assam as ‘Devaki’ and the insurgents as counter forces that pose danger.

Sattriya dances have acquired their own strength not just in India, but abroad too.

Young monk guru Bhabananda Barbayan (who regularly presents Sattriya in Paris and other cities in France), Menaka P P Bora and Shatarupa Chatterjee in London and Madhusmita Bhuyan and Prerana Bhuyan in Philadelphia have been propagating Sattriya dances abroad, winning laurels for its glory.