PAPER 6 DANCE IN INDIA TODAY, DANCE-DRAMAS, CREATIVITY WITHIN THE CLASSICAL FORMS, IN DIASPORA (USA, UK, EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, ETC.) MODULE 19 THE EARLY FEMALE GURUS AND DANCERS OF

From early 1900 A D, some brave girls and their families started a journey, going where earlier it was a great taboo to go. The courage, conviction and love for dance prompted them to venture on a path which at that point had no direction and was beyond worldly gains. Also in such a tumultuous time, to be born to that tradition was really tough. We need to know, understand and get inspired by these women, due to whom millions are not only learning Bharatanatyam, but it has given dignity and purpose to the art. Here we study a few of them.

SMT. Balasaraswati was born in 1918 and died at 1984. She rose on the solo Bharatanatyam horizon through her sheer genius. She belonged to the tradition and was extremely proud of it, though she was never initiated into any temple service. The only dancer to be conferred the prestigious Sangitha Kalanidhi title; she reacted sharply to compartmentalizing the dance into sacred and profane water-tight divisions. For Bala, Shringara / �रĂगार was an all-

1 encompassing mood which included all the other moods. In 1975, speaking at the Annual Conference of Tamil Sangam, Bala made the famous statement, "In Bharatanatyam, the shringara we experience is never carnal, never, never!" Bala came from a home where musicians like Dharmapuri Subbarayar / धरमऩुरी, Tiruvottiyur Tyagier, Hayagrivachari / हयाग्रिवाचारी (from Dharwad / धारवाड़), Govindaswamy Pillai, Ariyakkudi Ramanuja lyengar were frequent visitors, who came to meet and listen to Bala's grandmother, the inimitable Dhanammal, the veena player. Apart from her Guru Kandappa Pillai's strict technique and training, Bala's greatness came from an innate ability for interpretative dance of rare artistry, where the shringara evoked was in a class by itself. Rhythm in her dance, while strong, was unobtrusive. Flashy teermanams / तिममनाम and overt virtuosity were forbidden. A Jatiswaram like the one Bala often performed in Poorvikalyani / ऩुवीक쥍याणर set to tala sankeerna nadai, would pose a challenge for any dancer. Bala’s enormous repertoire with and a host of purely interpretative compositions was well-known. As has said, "As the nayika yearning for Subramania, Bala made one weep. Her shringara/bhakti cannot be touched by the non-traditional dancers of the day." She could charm audiences with just a slant of the head, a glance of the eye, a gait of a few steps and gestures with "the most articulate forefinger in the world". Many western critics felt that Bala's interpretative dance was too subtle and rarified for any but Indian connoisseurs to understand and appreciate. Very

2 proud about her upbringing in a strict devadasi family, Bala till the end refused to accommodate changes either in costume or in the prescribed concert format of the margam, which according to her was structured like the great temple where one enters the Gopuram in Alarippu and stage by stage reaches the sanctum sanctorum in the to merge with the deity in the finale. She steadfastly refused to fool around with songs in languages she did not thoroughly know, and held on to her faith in the being the ideal custodians of the dance. Bala never reconciled to the sophistication brought into modern Bharatanatyam. Her kind of genius can rarely pass on to the next generation, and not surprisingly, her artistic subtlety was not replicated even though her style was diligently taught by her student Nandini Ramani who maintains that Bala was a very creative teacher. However, there are others who believe that Bala was a reluctant teacher, even when it came to her own daughter whose formal teaching began late. Disillusioned by the fate of the devadasi in India, Bala chose to do a lot of her teaching in the USA. It began with the Asia Society in New York sponsoring her as artist-in- residence at the Wesleyan University in 1962. Her brothers Viswa, the flautist secured a teaching appointment there, and Ranganathanran / रĂगनाथन, the mridangam / मदृ Ăगम player also migrated to the USA. Now, Bala’s grandson, Aniruddha/अतन셁द्ध, her daughter Lakshmi Knight's son performs Bala's repertoire. Bala received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1955 and the in 1957. When she was presented in Japan for an East/West Conference, thanks to Dr.-'s insistence, despite

3 impresario Nicolas Nabokov's grave reservations about her being too old, the entire audience erupted into non-stop clapping at the end.

SMT. ARUNDALE RUKMINI DEVI was a disciple of Meenakshisundaram Pillai. Raised in a modern Indian family of the early 20th century, she grew up to become a highly sensitive and intelligent person, who was drawn to the professionalism of the west. She was exposed to Western ideas by her educationist husband Dr. Arundale, though she continued to remain anchored to Indian traditional values. Her mentor and strong influence was theosophist who wanted Indian culture to become central to education in India, desisting strongly the possible westernization of the country. She was born in 1904 and died in 1986. Rukmini Devi was interested in both education and classical dance, in fact, in actually integrating dance with education. By ‘dance’ she also meant inculcating in young minds an appreciation for and an understanding of Indian art and culture. So in 1936 she established the International Academy of Arts, which later became Kalakshetra. She conceptualised Bharatanatyam teaching in a contemporary setting which also integrated the benefits of the guru/shishya tradition. In many ways, therefore, the post-1940s Indian dance story ushering in new trends begins with Rukmini Devi.

Earlier, her interactions with ballerina had opened her eyes to a new world of dance in the global context. However, her

4 abiding respect for traditional arts and admiration for the dance of the devadasis did not lessen her zeal to try out new ideas. So she made sure that Kalakshetra became home to the best of traditional gurus -- Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Muttukumar Pillai, Chokkalingam Pillai, Gowri Ammal, Saradambal, Ambu Panikkar. With her exposure to classical ballet, Rukmini Devi preferred the well-centered, open bodily stance, with full arm and leg stretches, emphasizing the linear dimensions of the Bharatanatyam technique with the body geometry and the lines it wove in space. Her chief contribution to Bharatanatyam is this conscious attention to movement profile and its extension in group presentations that helped adapt the dance form to presentation on the modern stage.

Rukmini Devi understood that music was the crucial component in dance. So she procured the best names in to compose music for her dance dramas -- Tiger Varadachariar, , Veena Krishnamachari, Budaloor Krishnamurti Sastrigal, , Kalidasa Neelakantha . This was at a time when top concert musicians were not generally known for associating themselves with dance. Ariyakkudi Ramanujam was not young when he came to Kalakshetra and Mysore Vasudevachar was in his late eighties when Rukmini Devi approached him, and he was made Principal of Kalakshetra in his nineties! Rukmini Devi's greatest contribution to Bharatanatyam was the amazing dance-drama compositions. She examined the Kuravanji, a post 18th century creation in literature, a part of the performance genre of . The Sambhoji Bhupala Kuravanji / स륍भोजर

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भुऩऱा कु वजं र presented in Tanjore's Brihadeesvara temple, did not impress her as it was dedicated to the king rather than deity. But when she read Thirukuda Rajappa Kavirayar’s Timkutmla Kuravanji /

ति륍कु 配मऱा कु वजं र, she got Veena Krishnamachari to set the selected verses to music, designed the costumes herself and made a thunderous impact. This was followed up with Kumara Sambhavam /

कु मार सĂभवĂ in 1947, for the Besant Centenary Celebrations. Tiger K. Varadachariar's music was its take-off point, and it won plaudits from all over. Her magnum opus, however, was the in six episodes, leaving the dance world wonderstruck at the sheer brilliance of narrating this epic through the undiluted technique of two forms — Bharatanatyam and Kathakali.

Valmiki's poetry, the music of Vasudevachar and the dance visualization came together for K. Chandrasekharan, a scholar to remark, "I have been reading the Ramayana diligently for the last so many years of my life, always certain that the different world the poetry takes one to, cannot be equaled by any other form of expression— till I saw Rukmini Devi's dance version. Only she could have created this feeling of poetry and dance being a match for each other."

The six Ramayana episodes were Swayamvaram / सरिा वयĂवर, Vanagamanam / राम वनगमन , Paduka Pattabhishekam /

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ऩादकु ा ऩ配िाभभशेक , Sabari Moksham / सबरी मोऺĂ , Choodamani Pmdanam / चूड़ामणण प्म륍दĂम , Mahapattabhishekam / महाऩ配िाभभशेकम, and were presented over 15 years. Mysore Vasudevachar composed the music for the first episode but when he passed away in 196, his apprentice and grandson Rajaram, (later Director of Kalakshetra), took over the musical responsibility in an almost seamless fashion. Vasudevachar created musical history with melodies composed for the moment in the narrative, with mood build-up taking precedence. In this quest for evoking mood, what was spontaneously composed, if not within strict grammatical adherence to known classical , was given a new name adding melodic modes to the Carnatic repertoire. Thus the Chiitabhammari, used to highlight Dasaratha's sense of despair at Kaikeyi's behaviour, and Gangalahiri, used when Rama and Sita were crossing the Ganga, and other new creations were added by the composer. Over the years, through innumerable presentations, Kalakshetra's finest artistes -- Kunhiraman, Janardhanan, Dhananjayan, Balagopal, Krishnaveni Lakshmanan, Shanta Dhananjayan and later, Narendra and Ganga and many others – danced the main Ramayana characters. The project was characterized by Vasudevachar's close and tireless working with Rukmini Devi, even changing tunes composed after many hours of inspired effort at her gentle interventions that the way she had imagined the setting demanded something else, showing not just the humility of the greatest of musicians, but also the kind of rapport Rukmini Devi had established with these masters, translating sensitive poetry into dance.

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Just as with the Kuruvanji, Rukmini Devi turned her attention to the Bhagvatamela tradition in Melattur and Nallur in Thanjavur district too, working with veteran guru Balu Bhagavatar and his sister Kalyani Ammal, and re-fashioning traditional plays, with original script in Telugu. Rukmangada Charitam and Usha Parinayam were highly successful performances, drawing public awareness to the parent tradition, badly in need of support. The erotic poetry of Jayadeva’s Gita Govindam found complete transformation at her hands. With music composed by Papanasam Sivan, she beautifully immersed the immortal love poem into a meditative, devotional yearning, a metaphor for the individual identity seeking oneness with its cosmic identity. This emphasis on pure spirit without overt physicality in the treatment of shringara, with imaginative, subtle lighting creating a mystic aura around the forest setting where the action takes place, was far from the general literal understanding of the text. It illustrated how Rukmini Devi regarded the female body in dance. The dancer’s physique, long associated in male perception with carnal love, had to be trained through meticulous technique as a vehicle of expression separate from the dancer’s persona. She was so convinced that dance was directed to a higher purpose, that along with musician Kalidasa Nilakantha Iyer, she changed varnams addressed to human kings to godly figures.

Rukmini Devi faced criticism for 'appropriating' the dance form of the devadasi and diluting its essentially erotic nature. Her response was logical and to the point. She maintained that a dance form practised

8 in the temple as an offering to the deity could never have been devoid of devotion or bhakti. Gowriamma believed that dance which was not worship had no right to exist, refusing to perform on the stage considering it vulgar. The devadasi's dance epitomised sensuality, because for generations, as professional entertainers, she had been brought up in a certain lifestyle. Dance invariably projects varying degrees of spirituality and sensuality and Rukmini Devi's shringara in bhakti stemmed from her background, as much as the devadasi's bhakti in shringara came from a lifestyle of unconventional sexuality, sanctioned by society. Rukmini Devi’s approach was also supported by her gurus. Once, Meenakshisundaram Pillai, asking her to improvise while interpreting a musical line remarked that it was "an interpretation not for you, though right for the devadasi. You should have a different approach." And his approach to the teaching of students from non- traditional backgrounds was quite different from his method of instructing the devadasis. This was an important breakthrough for Bharatanatyam. If gurus of this caliber would not have co-operated in teaching girls from non- devadasi backgrounds, Sadirnrutya’s manifestation as Bharatanatyam would have been impossible. Meenakshisundaram Pillai composed Ananda Nadana Prakasham, that was outside the prescribed genres of the Margam concert format, more open to introducing new ideas than Ponniah Pillai who believed that such items would encourage a trend spelling danger for the tradition. Rukmini Devi's wariness in dealing with Javali was governed as much by the derogatory association these love songs had in public

9 imagination as by her own inclination for less earthy portrayal of erotic lyrics.

Rukmini Devi encouraged persons like Kamala Rani to learn Nattuvangam thus breaking the hold male Nattuvanars had in conducting a recital. This had far-reaching consequences by diminishing the dependence of dancers on the guru/nattuvanars. But she also introduced the male dancer in his own right in the female-dominated Bharatanatyam tradition. There were exceptional gurus like Muthukumara Pillai who danced with his sister Kannamba and Tiruvarur Gyanam, or Guru Kuppiah Pillai who performed in female disguise like E. Iyer did. Guru Meenakshisundaram himself was a fine performer till he lost an eye in an accident and gave up performing. With its accent on dance dramas, Kalakshetra needed male dancers. Kathakali training for male dancers was introduced to give them an upright stance and manly bearing. Kathakali gurus Ambu Panikkar, Chandu Panikkar and Krishnan Nair were invited to Kalakshetra to train boys carefully chosen by Rukmini Devi. Ambu Panikkar and his son Janardhanan served Kalakshetra for years, teaching and assisting in the dance drama productions. Today, some of the best teachers of Bharatanatyam are male gurus trained at Kalakshetra, some of them very active in the performance scenario as well.

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SMT. SHANTA RAO (1925-2007)

Shanta Rao studied at Santiniketan and then went to Kerala in search of Kathakali and Vallathol. She became the first female pupil at Kerala Kalamandalam even though it took some time for the patriarch guru Ravunni Menon to accept her. She learnt Mohiniattam under Krishnan Panikkar and later Bharatanatyam under Meenakshisundaram Pillai and became one of his cherished students. Her Bharatanatyam had an assertive athleticism, with strong movements, immense leaps and a style layered with strength and delicacy, coupled with quicksilver, delicate and evocative footwork. In 1955, her recital reviewed by Arnold Haskell called her dance "a mixture of silk and steel, rippling water and sledge hammer blows." There was great majesty about her dance and that sense of amplitude she brought by her very presence and ability to sweepingly cover stage space earned her many admirers. In 1957, her tour to America and Israel with Kathakali became an eye opener to many witnessing the form for the first time. She presented over forty recitals in the Middle East and at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, New York, her dance was watched from a nearby hill by over 2,000 persons who could not get tickets! Her Bhama Sutram study of the secret ceremonies of Tantric priesthood in Andhra Pradesh with Venkatachalapathi Sastry led to her later creation of Bhama Nrityam, which was a combination of inspiration from many forms of dance and presented for the first time in 1965. She considered this dance, which she had to work hard on for creating the rhythm, movements and music, not as a break

11 from tradition but as votive offering which comprised shared routes of dance practice. Wearing a 14-yard sari, Shanta danced for the Gods she believed in. Since she had no disciples to carry on what she knew, her contribution has become ‘historical’ with no impressions left behind in terms of students. Her performances were divided into two distinct parts, the first half Bharatanatyam and the second half Mohiniattam.

SMT. KALANIDHI NARAYANAN (1928-) Kalanidhi Narayanan, from a conservative Brahmin family, became well-known in the field of abhinaya in Bharatanatyam. She had trained under Balasaraswati’s gurus, Kundappa Pillai and Chinayya Naidu between 1935-43 in , the latter being a great teacher of abhinaya. Kalanidhi often regretted the fact that the 'Conjeevaram Bani' she was trained in went out of vogue soon. Showing exceptional abhinaya skills even as a child, her last performance in 1943. who happened to see her wanted her to perform in his film Kalpana. But her family refused and after marriage, this promising dancer gave up dance, until in 1972, art activist Y.G. Doraiswamy sought her out, persuading her to return as an abhinaya / अभभनय teacher. Her first disciple was a young Alarmel Valli, disciple of Chokkalingam Pillai and later of his son, Subbaraya Pillai. This was the time when interpretative dance seemed to have few takers and Kalanidhi revived a sagging scene by restoring to the Padam / ऩदम ् and Javali / जावऱी their dwindling space. Today any

12 dancer aspiring for a better understanding of interpretative dance, goes for training to Abhinaya Sudha, Kalanidhi's institution in Chennai. Kalanidhi's senior disciple Braga Bassel, conducts classes at Kalakshetra.

SMT. (1918-) It was in the 1940s that Mrinalini Sarabhai, after studying at Santiniketan, came to Kalakshetra to study under Guru Muttukumar Pillai. She also trained with Pandanallur 'Thatha', Meenakshi sundaram Pillai and later under Chokkalingam Pillai also. While she developed a deep respect for the clarity of vision and defined adavus of traditional Pandanallur Bharatanatyam, she also believed that classical art had to retain relevance with the changing times just as tradition had to be preserved while taking on new colouring. "Movement may be the same but not design," she maintained. Raudra is still a relevant emotion, though yesterday's raudra from Ramayana and had now to be directed against the destruction of values in the world.

After marriage, Mrinalini settled in Ahmedabad where she started Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in 1948/49. Also drawn to Kathakali, she invited Chatunni Panikkar to join Darpana. Mrinalini used Kathakali in her work, divested of the aharya / आहायम aspect, along with other art forms like puppetry, theatre and, of course, Bharatanatyam.

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Along with compositions like Meghadutam / मेघदिू Ă, Pallaki Seva Prabandham / ऩाऱखर सेवा प्रबन्धĂ , Malavikagnimitram / माऱववकाग्ननभमत्रम, Usha Parinayam / उषा ऩररनयम and Silappadikam / भस쥍प्मऩददकम, highly innovative productions like Manushya, Matsya Kanya, Shakuntala and Chandalika were all part of her very individualised approach. Inspired by classical poetry and being a poet herself, Mrinalini felt that dance had to reflect current societal issues like untouchability, wife burning, suicides, environmental abuse and the rejection and isolation each person feels in different ways. Janavak, the folk dance wing of her institution, also does interesting presentations. To quote Mrinalini on her work, "We are classical, contemporary, traditional, controversial and pioneering at once."

INDRANI RAHMAN (1930-1999) Rehman, almost single-handedly, made Bharatanatyam known all over the world. She was also trained in Kuchipudi and Odissi. Her Russian mother, Ragini Devi was one of the earliest foreigners to learn and perform classical Indian dance. Staying with her mother as Vallathol's guest, young Indrani’s eyes opened to the majesty and power of Kathakali. Her training in Bharatanatyam was under several gurus -- U.S. Krishna Rao, Gauri Amma and Chokkalingam Pillai. Indrani's repertoire was not very large, though whatever she danced in Bharatanatyam (which formed the main thrust of her concerts with Kuchipudi and Odissi presented in the latter part) never lacked classical weight and neat aesthetics. With a

14 fine eye for spotting talent, Indrani presented many young dance hopefuls in her concerts who rose to be stars like Lal (Kathak), Raja/ Reddy (Kuchipudi) and Ramli Ibrahim, the Odissi/Bharatanatyam dancer running Sutra in Kuala Lumpur. Settling down in New York in later years, Indrani devoted herself to training dancers in Bharatanatyam.

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