JOIN USIndia has a rich variety of dance forms. From bharatanatyam to manipuri, garba to bhangra, chhau to santhali, every community has a unique dance tradition of its own. Geeta Varma takes us through the incredible vibrancy of our diversity in dance.
It is said to have begun a very long time ago. When Shiva as Nataraja did the thandavam, it was a cosmic dance lacking rhythm. Parvathi joined him with lasyam, and thus created thalam (‘tha’ of thandavam and ‘la’ of lasyam). Krishna’s romantic raasaleela with his gopikas birthed innumerable dance forms. Devi Bhagavatham, the Puranic Sanskrit text, says that raasaleela of Radha and Krishna continues in a realm above the heavens, symbolising the unity of soul with god. Indian dance forms are thus spiritual, beginning and merging with god. Dancers often go into a trance, experiencing bliss.
What makes our traditional dances so unique? Is it the diversity, or the incredible vibrancy of our culture? Or the complexity of our people, the multiplicity of languages and belief systems, philosophy, religion, arts?
“Our country is Bharatham. We are Bharathiya,” says V P Dhananjayan, the internationally famous dance guru. “Our dances retain the Bharatiyatwam. Tradition flows without dilution, just like the river Ganga. It is based on sanaatana dharma, and natya has physical, mental and spiritual aspects. Indian culture — Bharatiya samskriti — is based on the four vedas. Dance forms, the panchama or fifth veda. All Indians are connected — the same thread runs through the entire country. For instance, Ramayana is commonly shared from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Natya brings arts together, and art brings hearts together! All forms of dance have traces of Natya Shastra hidden in them.”
V P Dhananjayan and his wife Shanta have been awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan. They’re just back from a holiday in Greece to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Meeting them is a pleasant, enlightening experience.
“The classical form of dances evolved from the folk tradition. Kathakali evolved from koodiyattam. It flourished in the 18th century. As tribals, we must have entertained ourselves with music and dance. Nature was our guru. Tribal dance gave birth to ritualistic folk dances and this, with more grammar, evolved into the classical form. Just like a language. For example, look at the hastha. (He demonstrates the mudras). There are 52 alphabets which combine to form words during a performance. (Shanta joins in, making it more elaborate. They beautifully bring alive the story of a pregnant deer, afraid of a hunter who, in the end, is struck by a lightning. His arrow hits a tiger and the deer is saved. She gives birth to a fawn. The story ends philosophically.) Folk art, on the other hand, has a more colloquial flavour. Traces of thiruvathirakali can be seen in mohiniattam and kathakali, especially in the feminine roles.”
“Theyyam, in Kerala, is performed by men. They worship women as heroines/ deities. Highly ritualistic, its story is from real life incidents about unusual people. After death, they become gods and are worshipped. The entire experience is spiritual. The performer, towards the end, is like an oracle with divine powers.”
“The purpose of natya was to discipline the senses and educate people. In the process, they got introduced to philosophy.”
“In olden days, when young girls danced in the temple, it was called the chinnamelam. When women danced in courts and feudal households, it was called the sadiyattam. Slowly, this became dasiattam and got degraded. The British passed a legislation to abolish it. Much later, it was revived. Now we have the refined mohiniattam.
Similarly, vilasini natyam, the dasiattam of Andhra, faded during the British time. Now the famous kuchipudi dancer Swapnasundari is trying to revive it.
Kuchipudi and bhagavathamela have their origins in yakshagana. Both are similar. The former is performed in Andhra Pradesh with music in Telugu, and the latter in Tamil Nadu, again with songs in Telugu.
Keralanatanam, created by Guru Gopinath, is an amalgamation of bharatanatyam, mohiniattam and kathakali. Rabindra nrithya is similarly a combination of manipuri and mohiniattam.
Tribal treasures
The tribes, such as Santhals, Bhils and Bauls, have beautiful dance forms of their own. Rich in variety, every community has a tradition of its own — from the classical, created by Bharatha Muni, who wrote the Natya Shastra in 400 BCE, to the folk and tribal.
Beginning with the hugely popular bharatanatyam, mother of them all, we have umpteen beautiful dance forms to be proud of — kuchipudi, kathakali, mohiniattam, manipuri of the North-East, odissi of Orissa, kathak of the northern region, sattriya of Assam and gaudiya nritya of West Bengal, all in the classical tradition.
We have the garba, gagari, ghodekhund and dandiya in Gujarat, bhangra and gidda in Punjab, yakshagana, bedara vesha and dollu kunitha in Karnataka, ghoomar, kalbelia and rasiya in Rajasthan, neyopa and bacha nagma in Jammu and Kashmir, chooliya in Uttarakhand, bihu and bagurumba in Assam, sambalpuri in West Odisha, chang, cheraw, chhau, ghumara, kachhi ghodi, karma, lavani, choliya or sword dance... among the long list of folk dances.
The tribals celebrate every event in their lives, from childbirth to death, with music and dance. Every state has tribes, therefore we have a range of tribal dances specific to every region. Santhali dance of West Bengal is famous. Others include dhimsa of Oriya tribes, Nagaland tribal dances, elakkodi, paniyarkali, kurumbakali, mudiyattam etc of Kerala, bihu of Assam, lava of Lakshadweep, banjara dance of Andhra Pradesh, crossed bamboo dance or chiraw, lezim of Maharashtra, karagattam of Tamil Nadu, kabul dance, bhavai, chavuttu natakam... The list is endless.
Bharata Muni is said to have used pathya (words) from Rigveda, abhinaya (gestures) from Yajurveda, geet (music) from Samaveda and rasa (emotions) from Atharvaveda when he created the Natya Veda.
Well-known bharatanatyam dancer Sreekala Bharath says, “We, classical dancers, bring out the cultural heritage of our country. We can be proud it started in the South and has now become popular globally. Classical dance is a divine art form that includes mind, body and spirit, and deals with stories from history and mythology. Traditional dancing is a learning experience — it is yoga. Every part of the body has movements, and also teaches discipline. It enriches both the dancer and the audience.”
She continues, “Bharatanatyam has many ‘banis’. The basic mudras may be same, but depending on the guru, the style may differ. Every dance form has its own traditional style and audience. Innovations happen everywhere, without disturbing the tradition.”
Sreekala has performed in 26 countries, and will soon perform in Norway. 2019 will be the 40th year of her dancing, the 20th year of her dance school.
Traditional folk dances reflect local traditions of the region. The style, the accompanying music, the rituals... everything differs according to the geographical location. Generally, folk dances are part of festival celebrations. Garba is very popular in Gujarat and parts of the North during the Navratri. Similarly, bhangra is performed during Baisakhi in Punjab, and bihu during the festival Bihu in Assam. In Kerala, during festive occasions and weddings, thiruvathirakali or kaikottikkali is performed in groups. The accompanying music will be a story of Shiva or Krishna. Kummi is another variety of group dance in the South. Rouff is performed in Jammu and Kashmir on set occasions and set locations. Raasleela is popular in Mathura and Brindavan on Janmashtami and Holi. The Yadavas of Chhattisgarh perform the raut nacha. Ghumara of Orissa is a tribal dance with folk music. Pulikkali is performed during the festival of Onam where dancers paint their bodies like a tiger. Karakatam of Tamil Nadu and mutki dance of Madhya Pradesh (performed during weddings) have dancers balancing pots on their heads. Veeranattam of Andhra is an ancient form of folk dance. So are vilasini natyam and lambadi. Chhau celebrates harvest in West Bengal. Ghoomar is performed by Bhil tribes along with Rajasthani communities. There are Indian tribal martial dances popular in Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Taking the lead
Well-known mohiniattam dancer Gopika Varma explains, “The actual form of mohiniattam got lost when the Devadasi system was abolished and the Dutch destroyed all written records. When the Tanjore quartet reinvented it by combining bharatanatyam with thiruvathirakali dance form under Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, the music was Tamil or Telugu, the dress was similar to bharatanatyam, and the performing women plaited their hair. Kerala Kalamandalam brought the current transformation after studying sculptures, paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, etc.”
Her words are based on conversations with the late Maharani Karthika Thirunal of Travancore, who had seen the dasiattam performed in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum.
Indian classical dances were performed in temple sanctums according to rituals called agama nartanam. Natya Shastra calls it margi or soul-liberating dance. Later, it moved to the royal courts and was called carnatakam. The Sangeet Natak Akademi introduced the term ‘classical/ shastriya’ to denote the performance style based on Natya Shastra.
Classical dance recreates stories from the puranas in a dramatic manner called nritta with facial expressions and hand gestures (mudras). It is also called natya which includes abhinaya (acting) and singing.
Natya Shastra mentions Dakshinathaya — from which evolved bharatanatyam, kuchipudi and mohiniattam; Audramagadhi — from which evolved odissi, sattriya and gaudiya nritya; Avanti, and Panchali, of which little is known. Bharatanatyam and odissi are the only two temple dance styles that have their origin in Natya Shastra as prescribed by the agamas.
Kathak has very few Natya Shastra techniques. It originated in the North as a court dance and was later influenced by Persian dance during the Mughal period. In ancient times, Brahmin priests in temples, called kathakars, narrated stories from the puranas accompanied by dance. That was kathak, which has three styles — Benaras, Jaipur and Lucknow.
Bharatanatyam originated in Tamil Nadu in 1000 BCE. In the 19th century, it was codified by four brothers, the Tanjavur Quartet, whose compositions form the bulk of its repertoire. They used Carnatic music.
Kuchipudi is a small village in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. The dance form that originated here combines natya, nritta and nritya. It is often identified with the dancer balancing on a brass plate, a water-filled brass vessel on her head, lamps in her hands. But that’s hardly kuchipudi. Tharangam, introduced by Narayana Theertha, is only a part of it, probably a stunt by male artistes to attract audiences.
Sailaja is a torch-bearer of the famous guru Padma Bhushan Dr Vempati Chinnasatyam’s tradition. She says, “Unlike bharatanatyam, kuchipudi belongs to the drama tradition of Andhra villages. It was performed by men travelling from village to village. The stories were mainly of Krishna, from the puranas. Pravesha dharuva or dramatic self-introduction is thus a characteristic feature. It doesn’t have a solo tradition though it imbibed a lot from the odissi form. It became female-oriented much later because of Laksmi Narayan Shastri. After him, Vempati created a Renaissance for which he is both credited and criticised. Bharatanatyam has many ‘banis’ or styles depending on the guru (Pandavalur, Vazhuvur, Kalakshetra etc). Kuchipudi does not. Instead, family name is important, following the Telugu custom (like Vedantham and Vempati). Kuchipudi is sensuous and romantic, with a lot of grace and tempo. It makes use of every part of the body, emoting beautifully. It had no format earlier.”
In her words, “Dance is the richest form of our culture. Every state has its identity. Unlike in the West, it’s not just about joy or ecstasy. It is emotive and connected to the divine. It’s not about social issues. It focusses on universal emotions such as love and makes you feel one with the divine.”
Odissi has its origin in the Devadasi tradition. It is characterised by tribhangi (three breaks) — the independent movement of the head, chest and pelvis, on a basic square stance called the chauka that symbolises Lord Jagannatha. The three breaks, called bhanga, abhanga and tribhanga, involve footwork and striking postures. According to archaeological evidence, odissi is one of the oldest surviving Indian dance forms.
Sanhita Basu Ghose, disciple of Kelucharan Mohapatra, says the dance form has a solo tradition. “When the Jagannatha temple was built, the king, who was a lover of art, called musicians to perform. Soon, women joined in, dancing in the mahari style. The tradition of Devadasis began. Music was based on Jayadeva’s compositions, popularised by Raghunath and Sanjukta Panigrahi. There are beautiful sculptures on temple walls that depict the various dance postures.”
For Sanhita, dance is a de-stressing activity.
Manipuri has poetic appeal, with lilting music, gentle footwork and abhinaya. (The dancers, called meiteis, don’t stamp their feet out of reverence. The earth must not be hurt!) The dance was influenced by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, so the music and stories are about Krishna and raasaleela. The dancers’ movements are restricted. They cannot bring their hands above their forehead. The dance is accompanied by narrative chanting and choral music, pleasing to the ears. The dhol players also need a lot of space. So manipuri is generally performed on an open ground. Lasya and tandava are both popular.
Sattriya nritya, that originated in Assam, started out as an accompaniment to the Ankia Naat, a one-act play. It was performed in sattras or monasteries. The founder of Vaishnavism in Assam, the great saint Srimanta Sankardeva, created this form in the 15th century.
Tribal dances may be simple — waving or clapping of hands, swaying body — or with complicated footwork, gestures etc accompanied by pipes and drums. The costumes, too, may be simple, or colourful with masks and headgear. Some dances are even ritualistic.
Brato is a tribal dance of Bengal, performed by barren women after their prayers are answered. Bihu dance celebrates the harvest festival. Tarpa is performed on moonlit nights by the tribals of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Tamil Nadu’s puliattam has dancers dressed like tigers. Puja kunitha is a ritualistic Karnataka dance where dancers balance a wooden structure on their heads, with the deity in it. Dollu kunitha has drums as accompaniments. The variety is endless.
Traditional dances in our country create a rich tapestry. Woven intricately with the same thread running through its variety, they are colourful and unique.