Devotional Hindu Dance

Devotional Hindu Dance “Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is a rare combination of academically based religious studies, education, and philosophy scholar who is an accomplished practitioner of Kuchipudi Hindu dance with a faith-based approach to Hinduism. She brings these qualities to bear on the topic of restoring Hindu dance from a corruption by colonialism to a postcolonial religious and devotional experience that more closely relates to the origins of Hindu dance. Through historical recounting and self- study, Dr. MisirHiralall makes a case for restoring the sacred in Hindu dance. All who read this text will beneft from understanding the need for a postcolonial awareness that comprehends the complexities of religion and culture.” —Michael D. Waggoner, Professor of Postsecondary Education, University of Northern Iowa, and Editor of Religion & Education “Through a postcolonial self-study, Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall challenges con- ceptions of Hindu dance as “culture” as she reclaims Hindu dance as a form of sacred devotional practice, with ontological rather than just epistemological impli- cations. In this book, Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return to the Sacred, Dr. MisirHiralall also challenges Cartesian assumptions of the split between mental and physical realms. She illustrates how embodied knowledge and movement can illuminate important distinctions between religion and culture.” —Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change, The University of British Columbia, Canada “Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return to the Sacred stands at the cutting-edge of numerous directions in the study of religion and with our work as public intellec- tuals to cultivate the common good. Within her creative matrix, Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is part of the energy of de-colonialism which deepens and unveils the ocean of wisdom from the study of Hinduism. Indeed, she is doing something urgent and necessary: providing a pathway for all of us to follow into the work of constructive and regenerative engagement with and within the traditions of Hinduism. As a Hindu scholar/practitioner, Dr. MisirHiralall grounds this trail- blazing work within her ancestral rooting as a scholar and practitioner of Hindu sacred dance. Drawing upon the theopoetics of sacred embodiment and the devotional rhythms of dancing for the Divine, in combination with a dynamic decolo- nial approach, Dr. MisirHiralall provides us with a text which allows the reader to encounter Hinduism in an unexpected and original fashion.” —Christopher Fici, Instructor, Religious Studies Department, Iona College, and Co-Director of Sacred Ecology Forum, USA Sabrina D. MisirHiralall Devotional Hindu Dance A Return to the Sacred Sabrina D. MisirHiralall Montclair State University Montclair, NJ, USA ISBN 978-3-030-70618-0 ISBN 978-3-030-70619-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70619-7 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Om Satchitananda Rupaaya I dedicate this text to the feet of Satchitanand (Supreme Being). My accomplishments are only through the blessings of Satchitanand. Matridevo Bhava I offer salutations to the feet of my mother. Pitridevo Bhava I offer salutations to the feet of my father. Acharyadevo Bhava I offer salutations to the feet of my Guru. Atithidevo Bhava I offer salutations to the feet of Guests, who are the readers of this text. —Taittiriya Upanishad I especially dedicate this text to my mother, Choondai “Sonadai” Misir Hoobraj. Mommy, may your soul always have the blessings of Satchitanand. Thank you for all of the sacrifces you made for me throughout my entire life. Please forgive me for my faws and bless me always. I love you, mommy. PREFACE Every morning when my mother awakens, she prays to the Supreme Being. I remember being a little girl and sitting on my mother’s lap as she prayed in the morning. My mother took me to mandir (temple) every Sunday morning during my childhood. Furthermore, my mother drove from New Jersey to New York weekly to take me to and from dance classes when I began my formal Hindu dance education as a young girl. I am beyond grateful for all of the sacrifces my mother made to ensure that I know and love the Supreme Being. Overall, I grew up in a devotional home with an atmosphere of love. I remember a plaque that hung in my mother’s kitchen in my childhood home. The plaque stated, “A house is made of brick and stone but a home is made of love alone.” This best describes my home. I have always lived in a place sanctifed with love for family who unite to worship the Supreme Being. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 caused many mandirs (temples) to close their doors to the public for the safety of devotees. Several mandirs began to hold satsanghs (religious gatherings) through a virtual platform. My brother, Pt.1 Bhisham Malcolm “Jito” Misir, held a weekly Sunday morning satsangh on YouTube. I decided to create a Facebook account, which granted me access to attend many virtual satsanghs. I soon began to attend the Dharma Vani satsanghs of the Radha Krishna Mandir in 1 This term is diffcult to translate. Essentially, a pandit is a religious leader who offciates pujas (religious worship) and provides spiritual counsel to devotees. Pandits are similar to priests, ministers, and pastors, but yet these terms do not adequately defne the term “pandit.” vii viii PREFACE Georgetown, Guyana, where Pt. Rudranauth Sharma, my Raksha Bandhan2 brother, serves as the pandit. Also, I started to witness the live virtual satsanghs of the Hindu Dharmic Sabha Mandir, Inc. of the United States, where my mamoo3 Seetaram “Sonny” Ganesh along with my Raksha Bandhan brother Shakey Deo Sukhai sing bhajans. On Tuesday evenings, I would sing the Shri Hanuman Chalisa virtually with members of the Shaanti Bhavan Mandir, where Pt. Manoj Deokarran Jadubans, Pt. Dipak Rambharose, and Pt. Ravi Rattan serve as pandits. Pt. Hardat Ashwar shared 150 Days of Shanti Satsangh virtually from the Bhavani Shankar Mandir of Brampton, Ontario in Canada. I always had a desire to dance at satsanghs when I hear devotional music, particularly when the pandits chant mantras and sing with hearts of devotion. However, dance no longer occurs regularly at satsanghs, even though dance once had a crucial role. Being a virtual attendee at the satsanghs granted me the chance to dance to my heart’s content in the privacy of my own home. During the virtual satsanghs, I would dance and dance and dance. I soon began to think about the problems with dance that I encoun- tered throughout my lifetime within a Hindu community. I danced at several religious and cultural events, where I often felt reduced to a cultural object of entertainment. It is evident to me that viewers of the dance need to develop a basic understanding of the origin and purpose of Hindu dance. Viewers ought to view Hindu dances with a sacred gaze (Morgan, 2005). Moreover, Hindu dancers must develop a framework of Hindu dance based on Hindu scriptures. I frequently see Hindu dances by dancers that habitually betray the sacredness of Hinduism, which disturbs me signifcantly. I acknowledge that my role as an educator is to shed light on the sacredness of Hindu dance and help individuals develop religious lit- eracy of Hinduism. I focus primarily on teaching non-Hindus in my frst text Confronting Orientalism: A Self-Study of Educating Through Hindu Dance (MisirHiralall, 2017), which develops directly from my larger dissertation research. In this current text, Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return to the Sacred, I place attention on teaching primarily Hindus about Hinduism 2 Hindus frequently celebrate a special day called Raksha Bandhan. On this day, a sister may adopt a brother by tying a symbolic thread known as a rakhi around the brother’s wrist. A rakhi is similar to a friendship bracelet. The sister honors the brother in many ways. The brother promises to protect the sister always. 3 “Mamoo” is the term used to describe an individual’s mother’s brother. This term essentially means uncle. PREFACE ix through Hindu dance. I do not mean to create a dichotomy between non- Hindus and Hindus. In fact, I urge non-Hindus to read this text because they will learn about Hinduism. Hindus ought to read my abovemen- tioned text, since it provides foundational insight on Hinduism.

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