PAPER 5 DANCE, POETS AND POETRY, RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY AND INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE MODULE 24 KATHAK-TULSIDAS AND REETIKAL POETRY It is said that when Krishna danced his divine dance on the hood of the defeated serpent Kaliya, various mnemonic sounds emanated from Krishna's feet like Ta, Thai, Tat, etc. which formed the building blocks of Kathak. Krishna is also known as "Natwar"; hence these sounds came to be known as Natwari. What is more, the Kathak dance mnemonics are intertwined into the text of the poetry of the ashtachhap kavis. That these poets were deeply entrenched in the allied arts of music and dance is suggested by the fact that Surdas employed as many as 36 different Ragas and Raginis and one of Surdas’ padas mentions “Nritya karat ughatata sangeet pada / नत्ृ म कयत उघटत संगीत ऩद”. The great glory of this age of Bhakti poetry, which incidentally coincided with the Elizabethan age of English literature, is Tulsidas. He and Surdas between them are held to have exhausted the possibilities of the poetic art. There was a time when the common man could not understand the Ramayana as it was in Sanskrit. It was Tulsidas who simplified it, by translating it into the language of the common people, and made the divine epic accessible to all. Tulsidas is considered to be one of the greatest of the Hindu saints of India. He is considered to be one of the most famous 1 representatives of the Bhakti school of Hinduism. His literary work was most impressive. He was a Sanskrit scholar, but he is known for his works in Awadhi (A dialect of Hindi). He was particularly known for his "Tulsi-Krita Ramayan / तुरसी-कृ त याभामण ", this is also known as "Ramacharitamanasa / याभचरयतभानस". The popular legend has it that he was helped in this process by none other than Hanuman, who not only advised him to write it, but to do so in Chitrakoot. It is also believed in popular lore that Hanuman himself came to his aid each time Tulasidas faltered because he wanted the tale of his master to be known even in this age, and so he supported its retelling in the language of the people. In 1976, the Kathak Kendra presented a ballet called “Katha Raghunath Ki / कथा यघुनाथ की”, choreographed by Pt. Birju Maharaj, that was based on excerpts from the “Ramacharitamanas” and other writings of Tulsidas. The song “Thumak Chalat Ramchandra / ठु भक चरत याभचंद्र” is one of the best known poems of Tulsidas. The Kathak queen Sitara Devi was well known for her rendering of the song, that she continued even when she was in her eighties, and it was believed by many that none could do it better than her. Devi’s style of unabashed dancing gelled well with the thumak oriented dance of little Ramachandra. It remains as one of the most popular songs in the repertoire for young children. But there was more to Tulsidas than a close association with the Ramayan. In all, he composed twenty two major literary works in his lifetime. He is also well known for his “Hanuman Chalisa / हनुभान चारीसा”. Even the Hanuman Chalisa has become a subject for enactment by Kathak dancers as was choreographed on the students of the Shobhaniya Kala Kendra, drawing inspiration from Chandigarh 2 based Jaipur Gharana dancer, Shobha Koser. Even “Gaiye ganpati jag vandan / गाइए गणऩतत जग वंदन” is a Tulsidas composition. Many dancers like the Benaras gharan duo, Nalini and Kamalini use it as the refrain that they then enrich with the elaborate Ganesh Parans that are the highlight of the Benares and Jaipur gharanas. Tulsidas wrote in a very poetic, lucid and expressive style while remaining scholarly; with subtle and enriching ‘bhava’ infusing the ‘padas’. Devotion and Reverence are the over-riding rasas permeating his writings. Pune based Kathak dancer Sonali Chakraverti did an entire performance called “Discovering Tulsidas through Kathak” that took you though the highlights of the story- starting with the Ganesh Vandana and concluding with “Ram Charan Sukhdai / याभ चयण सुखदाइ” in Bhairavi. Pune based senior Kathak dancer, Roshan Datye used tulsidas’s composition known as the Ardhanari Natesshwar Pad / अधधनायी नटेश्वय ऩद in her work based on the condition of the environment, to show that traditionally we had a far more sensitive and respectful view of the environment, linking it to the gods and their aspirations and powers. The words of the pada are “Dekho dekho banyo, aaj umakant, maano dekhan aaye reet basant.” Tulsidas died in about 1623 in Asighat in Varanasi. It may be noted that the period of middle Hindi, begins with the reign of the emperor Akbar (1556-1605) and it is not improbable that his sympathy with his Hindu subjects, and the peace which his organization of the empire secured had an important effect on the great development of Hindi poetry which now set in. Akbar's court was itself a centre of poetical composition, and Sanskrit works were translated into Persian. The court musician Tansen is still renowned, and many verses composed by him in the emperor's name survive to this day. Akbar's favourite minister and companion, Raja Birbal, was 3 a musician and a poet, and held the title of Kabi-Ray, or poet laureate. His verses and witty sayings are still popular in northern India. Other nobles of the court were also poets, among them the Khan-khanan, Abdur-Rahim, whose dohas and kavitts are still esteemed, and Faizi, brother of the annalist Abul-Fazl. By this time the worship of Krishna as the lover of Radha (Radha- Vallabh) had been systematized, with its chief habitation at Gokul, near Mathura. It was here that Vallabhacharya had lived and where lived his son Vitthalnath who succeeded him in the Pushti marg, in 1530.it is believed that Swami Haridas went to Vithalnath to seek permission for the enactment of the Raslila. Swami Haridas himself wrote poetry that seemed to be describing Kathak-“Adbhut gati upajat, ati nrittat, doyu mandal kunwar kishori, sakal sugandh ang bhari bhori piya nrittat muskan mukh mori, pari rambhan ras rori / अतु गतत उऩजत , अतत नत्ृ तत , दोमु भण्डर कु वय ककशोयी , सकर सुगंध अंग बयी बोयी पऩमा न्रुत्तत भुस्कान भुख भोयी, ऩयी य륍बण यस योयी.” Despite popular perception, the Raslila is not just the enactment of the Rasa, but an enactment of all the lilas- ‘Janamlila’, ‘Kamsabadh lila’ ‘Udhavalila’ and others, culminating in the ‘Rasalila’. For many years now, Uma Sharma presents a Maharaslila at the Birla Mandir in Delhi on the occasion of Sharad purnima. Uma Sharmas’ interest in the Rasalila grew when she began visiting Braj and met the renowned Rasadharai Ladlisharan ji and Devaki Nandan ji. Inspired by them she made a study of the poetry that is employed by them and the nritta pieces. These she incorporates in her dance separately. From collections of beautiful poetry found in the Raslila tradition and the writings of other Braj poets, she has created special thematic presentations like “Shree Radhe”. She also presents the art of the Rasadahris as part of the larger Maharaslila. 4 Scholar Rekha Trigunayat wrote her doctoral thesis for Bhatkhande sangeet vidyalaya on “Vrajbhasha ke krishan bhakti sahitya mein kathak nritya ki taakniki shabdavali ka vivechan / व्रजबाषा के किष्ण बक्तत साहहत्म भᴂ कथक नत्ृ म कक तकतनकी श녍दावरी का पववेचन ”. The character of “Hindi” literature, during this period, grew and flourished through its own original forces. Founded by a popular and religious impulse comparable to that which, nearly 1,600 years before, had produced the doctrine and vernacular literature of Jainism and Buddhism, and cultivated largely by non-Brahman authors, it was the legitimate descendant in spirit, as Hindi is in speech, of Prakrit literature. Entirely in verse, it adopted and elaborated Prakrit metrical forms, and carried them to a high pitch of perfection. It employed a variety of languages, including an indefinable mixture of languages that was called ‘Sadhukadi / साधुकड़ी’, reflecting the bowl of the mendicant that contained whatever he was offered in the day, all mixed up. It was a period of giving and taking, not just of new ideas, but lingual impulses, musical genres and dance forms. Most of the poetry that was used for dance was ‘saguna / सगुण’ poetry, and though Kabir and Nanak were popular, their poetry was not used then for dance. Subsequently, the inclusive nature of kathak is such that in the twentieth century, even ‘nirgun bhakti / तनगुणध बक्तत’ poetry found use in Kathak. Kolkata based Ashim Bandhu Bhattacharya has used the poetry of Nanak as an invocation or abhinaya piece. Several dancers do use nirgun poets for the invocation, and to set the mood, with the grandeur of abstract movements. Anurekha Ghosh, based in the United Kingdom, and disciple first of Pratap Pawar and then Nahid Siddiqui is one of them. In their choreography called “Colours of 5 Fire”, Anirudh and Vidhi Lal used the following doha by Kabir to suggest the red colour-“Laali mere laal kee, jit dekhun tit laal laali dekhan mein gayee, mein bhee ho gayi laal / रारी भेये रार कक, क्जत देख ं ततत रार , रारी देखन भै गमी , भै बी हो गमी रार ”. Rajendra Gangani’s disciple, Bharati Dang, trained in Kathak of the Jaipur Gharana and folk dance has created a ballet called “Kabir” for her Subha Dance Company, using both classical Kathak and folk dance elements. Kathak dancer Dr.