Christian Themes and the Role of the Nāyikā in Bharatanāṭyam

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Katherine C. Zubko University of North Carolina Asheville [email protected]

Abstract

Within the Indian classical dance style of bharatanāṭyam, performers traditionally embody the stories of Hindu gods and goddesses. This paper discusses selected examples of how Christian themes have been incorporated into the art form by both Hindu and non-Hindu participants, including the adaptation of the aesthetics of the nāyikā, a female heroine yearning for her absent beloved. In an extended case study, I examine the presentation of one such unique nāyikā, a Christian Indian woman who contracts hiv from her husband, in particular demonstrating how various gesture sequences draw upon the recognizable, empathetic foundation of the suffering heroine to depict the realities of the illness of hiv. The despair and pain of the nāyikā, and the role of a sakhī as sympathetic doctor, invite audiences into a familiar aesthetic framework that also creates receptivity towards a significant social critique.

Keywords bharatanāṭyam – nāyikā – śṛṅgāra rasa – Christian narratives – hiv – dance

One of the traditionally defining features of the Indian classical dance of bharatanāṭyam is the embodied storytelling of narratives related to the Hindu gods and goddesses in interaction with their devotees.1 While I had read or heard about dance programs that experimented with religious themes outside

1 Diacritical marks are provided for terms, except when not part of original title, quote or cita- tion, or serve as proper names. The plural of Sanskrit terms has been collapsed for readability, e.g. nāyikās instead nāyikā-s.

270 Zubko of Hinduism, it was in Chennai in 1999, when taking bharatanāṭyam classes with the late M.V. Narasimhachari in bharatanāṭyam, that I became aware of a much broader religiously pluralistic participation and thematic exploration within the art form. This realization was due to the presence in class of an unexpected fellow student, Father James, a Catholic priest affiliated with the dioceses of Madras. One day in the studio when James was rehearsing an item on the Hindu god Krishna, Narasimhachari noted that ‘the bhakti rasa [devotional mood] will be even more when I teach him a padam [short narrative dance] on Jesus’. Narasimhachari had previously composed a kriti, a genre of structured song in Carnatic music, on the Christian incarnated god, so this was not a completely new topic for the dance master. This interest in exploring narrative and emotional expression outside the Hindu corpus evoked an artistic resonance that I found was present among other Hindu and non-Hindu proponents of the dance form who explored Christian, as well as Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, and Jain themes. As bharatanāṭyam dancer Leela Samson stated in a keynote address at the Natyakala Conference in Chennai in 1997, ‘I do not subscribe to the opinion that is forced upon our thinking that Bharatanatyam is static…[t]oday, who is the practitioner? It could be anyone, actually everyone! There is no single religious or social, or financial group that dominates’.2 This observation, while optimistic in its inclusivity, points to the ongoing perception of an unchanged, ancient tradition, even though multiple social, religious, spatial and technical changes have occurred since its inception. Several dance historians have tracked how upper-caste proponents of the arts in the 1930s, within the framework of supporting a newly emergent nationalist sentiment, combined aspects of Sanskrit dance-drama manuals with kinesthetic knowledge of hereditary dancers to create bharatanāṭyam as an Indian classical dance form performed in concert venues by mostly Hindu upper-caste participants.3 While this history is well-rehearsed, the changes undertaken by contemporary practitioners, including those exploring various religious perspectives, are not as well known. And yet, these works are important to the historical record, in that, they demonstrate a wider spectrum of artistic license and purpose, as Leela Samson indicated in her speech, in contrast to any claimed mono- lithic, inert view of bharatanāṭyam. While throughout the twentieth century

2 Leela Samson, ‘Bharatanatyam Then & Now’, Śruti 162 (March 1998), pp. 31–34 at p. 33. 3 For example, see Uttara Coorlawala, ‘The Sanskritized Body’, Dance Research Journal 36:2 (Winter 2004), pp. 50–63; Matthew Harp Allen, ‘Rewriting the Script for South Indian Dance’, The Drama Review 41:3 (1997), pp. 63–100; Amrit Srinivasan, ‘Reform and Revival: The Devada- si and Her Dance’, Economic and Political Weekly 20:44 (2 November 1985), pp. 1869–76.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 271 and still today in contemporary bharatanāṭyam, the primary thematic focus continues to be Hindu narratives and concepts, as performed by mostly Hindu Brahmins, this paper provides a brief overview and select examples of how Christian themes in particular have been explored by Hindu and non-Hindu practitioners. To illustrate how a choreographer employs traditional techniques, the majority of this analysis focuses on a case study of a dance item that em- braces the aesthetic tropes of the nāyikā, or female heroine, but reconfigured within the narrative of a Christian woman who is infected by hiv. I suggest that the use of the typical relational dynamics, emotional nuances, and movement sequences expected of distinct nāyikās provides a familiarity that is both rooted in the tradition, but allows for effective exploration into new thematic contexts. In this case, the dancer offers a significant social critique of unwar- ranted, hurtful behaviors towards those who have experienced betrayal and illness, as refracted through the perspective of a nāyikā. In conclusion, I will point to a few of the performative, aesthetic and social queries that emerge within this work that illustrates one of the many diverse directions currently being engaged within the wider tradition of bharatanāṭyam.

Hindus Choreographing and Dancing Christian Themes

M.V. Narasimhachari’s desire to choreograph Christian themes falls in line with several other bharatanāṭyam exponents of Hindu background who also have found these themes compelling. While creating a potent scenario to increase the depth of bhakti-oriented religious experience for his Catholic student was M.V. Narasimhachari’s stated interest, other artists named a variety of other reasons. These motivations include opportunities for being challenged in new ways, stories seen as useful for addressing social issues, and the ability to explore themes that would deepen the aesthetic possibilities of rasa (flavor, sap, mood), a central theory connected to the dance form that ideally leads audiences into the experiential appreciation of various emotionally-nuanced moods. One such example is Udupi Laxminarayan (1926–2015), an artist who was born into a family of Sanskrit scholars, eventually trained in dance and worked in film, in addition to establishing his own dance company. As part of his repertoire from 1962–1972, he choreographed the production Dharma Moorti4 on the

4 No translation was provided for this production title, but I would suggest Divine Embodiment of Religion/Truth.

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272 Zubko life of Jesus, in which he performed the title role. It debuted in Mangalore to a mostly-Christian audience, ‘with the blessings of the local bishop’, but was also performed in Madras in conjunction with his company’s Rukmini Kalyanam,5 a more traditional production on the marriage of Rukmini to Krishna. Laxmi- narayan noted the specialness of the Mangalore debut, in part because of the presence of the renowned Tamil film actor, Sivaji Ganesan, as one of two chief guests, but also due to the audience response, as he reminisced,

During the presentation, there was pin drop silence in the auditorium and at the time of crucifixion of Christ, one could hear the whispers and see the tears. The Bishop, who was also the [other] chief guest, appre- ciated my performance as he felt it was realistic and natural, be it the crucifixion of the Lord or the depiction when he woke up on the 3rd day. This is just one of the many memorable incidents that I have experienced in my lifetime [sic].6

Laxminarayan was motivated to choreograph on Jesus in order ‘to prove that a true artist like him could handle any subject’ [sic].7 While the experience was a positive one for him, there was some criticism raised about how the work supported Christian evangelism. Laxminarayan’s response was to declare ‘that art transcended religion and that an artist should be able to cut across boundaries of religion’.8 With his well-established credentials, and prominent role in the film industry, Laxminarayan felt free to experiment in whatever direction suited his vision, informed through visits to the Catholic Centre in George Town and in communication with authoritative Christian leaders.9 Around the same time, a second film industry dance couple, Nataraj and Sakuntala, also choreographed Ulagin Uyir Yesupiran (Light of the World, Jesus) in 1963, and toured parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala with financial support from the church. Profits went towards the renovation of the Santhome Cathedral.10

5 Laxminarayan’s company, Natya Manjari, performed this same production under two different names: Rukmini Kalyanam and Rukmini Swayamvaram. 6 Lalitha Venkat, ‘Guru Udupi Laxminarayan,’ Narthaki (March 18, 2014), para. 1–11 at para. 10, < http://www.narthaki.com/info/profiles/profl159.html> [Accessed 15 October 2017]. 7 Mayakoothan ii and V. Karpagalakshmi, ‘Udupi Laxminarayan – Choreographer & Guru: His Credo: Innovation Within Tradition’, Śruti 167 (August 1998), pp. 21–9 at 27. 8 Ibid. 9 While Laxminarayan felt it was possible to work on Christian themes, he kept other boundaries, including eventually breaking collaborative ties with Candralekha due to disagreeing with the content of her work, Yantra. Ibid, p. 28. 10 P.C. Jayaraman, ‘Nataraj-Sakuntala & Their Golden Voyage’, Śruti 116 (May 1994), pp. 19–26 at p. 24.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 273

A second significant early example is renowned classical artists V.P. and Shanta Dhananjayans’ Magdalana Mariam, an evolving item in their repertoire performed on Madras Doordarsan in 1977–78 as part of the Malayalam poet Vallathol Narayana Menon centenary celebrations. Vallathol’s lyrics served as the basis for the televised production.11 While this earlier work was brief and focused on bringing this poetic work to life, it has no traceable performance artifacts, and served as the seed for a longer production, Stree (Woman) in Tamil, based on the poetry of Justice Nainar Sundaram. This production focused on the biblical story of the accused adulteress in John 8:1–11 who is saved from stoning due to Jesus admonishing those who had not sinned to be the first to cast rocks. The unnamed woman is sometimes interpreted as Mary Magda- lene, which is also the case in the descriptions of Stree. The unique portrayal of this story builds out this main female protagonist as a virtuous woman, in love with her husband, but when he leaves home in search of a fortune, she is seduced by a strange man and finds herself at the mercy of an accusatory community. While Jesus appears momentarily as part of the climactic scene, the primary, sustained focus is on the character of the woman, often borrow- ing aesthetic depictions connected to nāyikās in love and in separation. The Dhananjayans’ motivation for choreographing Stree was to depict the unjust treatment of women,12 rather than see it as a challenge or a way to align bhakti with Christian experience for dancers or audience.13 In addition to Laxminarayan, Nataraj and Shakuntala and the Dhananjay- ans, other noted figures in the dance field produced programs on Christian themes, including Mrinalini Sarabhai, with her work Snehna Shatadal (1981) on the life of Jesus, and Chitra Visweswaran with her own version of Stree, on Mary Magdalene, in 1994. These Hindu dancers found Christian themes

11 Dhananjayans, ‘Group Productions’, Bharata Kalanjali, [Accessed 15 October 2017]. 12 V.P. Dhananjayan, Interview with author, 10 May 2004. For extended analysis of Stree, see Katherine Zubko, Dancing Bodies of Devotion (Maryland: Lexington, 2014), pp. 137–46. 13 The focus of the reviews of Stree focused on a clash of performative expectations, rather than a criticism of utilizing a Christian theme. For example, A. Janakiraman noted, ‘Dhananjayan explained that although our dance forms have the depth and potential to interpret anything and everything, he didn’t use authentic period costumes of the biblical land since they didn’t seem appropriate. But instead of using costumes which were neither here nor there, he should have gone further and used our dance costumes, pre- sented the dance-drama in an entirely Indian setting, and represented all the characters including Christ as local ones. One then it would have been credible. In any event, the story didn’t afford much scope for an interesting presentation.’ Anjali Janakiraman, ‘From a Sruti Staffer’s Notebook on Dance Events’, Śruti 15 (February-March 1985), p. 17.

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evocative, alongside other separate productions that some of them choreographed on Buddha within the same time frame. There are two main patterns in these early works. The first is that Jesus is seen as a god to explore alongside other deities and religious figures. This is not due to the artists’ own personal devotion, but out of their interest in embody- ing some recognizable, shared features they resonate with in the narratives about his life or creating an avenue for universal social critiques about human behaviors as part of the teachings of Jesus. These productions are sometimes produced in interaction with Christian audiences and organizations, but not always. The second pattern is focused on the dancing of biblical women as viewed through the lens of rasa, a stylized, systematic cultivation of emotional moods to be experienced by the audience through a dancer’s mastery of somatic facial, gestural and postural combinations. The traditional dramaturgical formula for rasa production in its most ancient, extant form is found within the Nāṭyaśāstra (second century bce – second century ce), a Sanskrit compen- dium on dance-drama. The highly technical approach detailed in chapter six involves the combination of enacting three components: the environmental contexts (vibhāvas) that set the scene to enhance the emotional experience, the physical responses by humans (anubhāvas) that contribute to depicting the primary emotion, and any fleeting emotions (vyabhicārībhāvas) that serve to nuance the primary emotional expression, or bhāva, on stage by the dancer. Ideally if the bhāva is evocative, supported by these various components, the staged experience is savored as rasa by the audience.14 There are eight princi- pal rasas elaborated on in chapter six of the Nāṭyaśāstra, namely love, humor, anger, fear, disgust, wonder, compassion, and heroism, with a ninth rasa of peacefulness added in the medieval period.

14 Editors, commentators and translators of Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra have chosen different organizational schemes in their works and critical editions. The formula for rasa production from chapter six (in most editions) is located in verses 34–38 in more recent versions, but M. Ghosh has left the same lines in conversational prose in between verse 31 and 32. See Nāṭyaśāstra, a treatise on Hindu Dramaturgy and Histrionics Attributed to Bharata, translated by M. Ghosh (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society, 1950–67) and Nāṭyaśāstra: the original text, edited by M. Ghosh (Calcutta: Manisha Granthalaya, 1967). While dancers today are familiar with this formula, the learning and performance of bhāvas to create rasa is a more organic, kinesthetic process transmitted through teachers’ bodies and hours of practice and experience by students in studios and on stages. See Zubko, Danc- ing Bodies, pp. 82–85, for a discussion of the use of Sanskrit aesthetics in dance education and performance.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 275

In the staging of Mary Magdalene and/or the biblical adulteress by the Hin- du dance exponents, the women are intentionally danced as nāyikās yearning for god in absentee, as part of the bhāvas connected to evoking the dominant rasa of śṛṅgāra rasa, the mood of erotic love, but performed within the framework of a social message to predominantly Hindu audiences. The hallmark of śṛṅgāra rasa in particular is the witnessing of the dancer’s progress through a cascade of distinct, but dynamically interactive physical displays of emotional moments caused by separation of the nāyikā from her beloved: despondence, loneliness, reverie, desperation, and more. But in the case of Stree, it is this separation that leads to the heroine being taken advantage of, and thus invites an added awareness and call for accountability towards vulnerable community members. Whether it is Mary Magdalene, who remembers her beloved Jesus and yearns to be reunited with him after his death, or the adulteress in separation from her husband who becomes susceptible to predatory behaviors, the audience is primed to experience the familiar rasa transposed into both new religious and social contexts with different resulting messages intended for their audiences. This article traces only a few of the prominent examples in bharatanāṭyam that demonstrate these two patterns, although dancers in other classical styles also took up Christian figures and nāyikās, notably Sonal Mansingh’s Maria Magdalena (1975) in Odissi.

Indian Christians Dancing Bharatanāṭyam

In the late 1970s, a parallel trajectory of dancing Christian themes in bharatanāṭyam begins, but tied more directly to exploring performers’ own Christian faith through dance forms understood to be part of a shared cultural tradition of artistic expressions in India. As part of bharatanāṭyam’s emer- gence in the 1930s as a national, Indian classical art form, in conjunction with the effects of Vatican ii (1962) that embraced local cultural expressions as part of Christian identities, Indian Catholic practitioners, in particular, increased their commitment to developing a theological groundwork for devotion through Indian art forms. For example, S. Irudayam (1979), after explicating the main terminology of classical dance from Sanskrit sources, affirms in an ecumenical Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (cbci) publication, a relationship between incarnational theology of the flesh and dance:

Indian dance is too an embryonic glorification of human flesh and is an effort to break into infinity and eternity… It follows, therefore, that a happy and intimate blend of the experience and the expression, of the

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276 Zubko

Divine in the Natya, and of the Father through the Word made Flesh by the Spirit must become the basis for Christian life, liturgy and catechesis in India. The church as the continuation of the mystery of the Incarna- tion has a bounded duty not only to adapt but integrate all Indian arts, and, in particular, all Indian dances.15

What Irudayam describes is a part of ‘inculturation’ or ‘indigenization’ process- es that work to reclaim and harmonize Indian cultural expressions as central to living ‘authentically and fully as Christians’.16 Theologians reassessed music and dance, but also concepts such as bhakti reinterpreted through Christian practice.17 The most influential figure in expanding a Christian vocabulary within bharatanāṭyam is Francis Barboza, a former svd (Society of the Divine Word) priest, who trained in dance with C.V. Chandrasekhar, among other gurus, and wrote his dissertation at the University of Baroda eventually published as Chris- tianity in Indian Dance Forms (1990). Barboza’s lasting contributions include the creation of what have become standardized gestures for God the Father, Son of God, Holy Spirit, Risen Christ, and Word of God, as well as Mother Mary and the Madonna amongst those choreographing on Christian themes today.18 Recognizing that gestures for Hindu gods, such as Shiva and Vishnu, could not simply be transposed led Barboza to examine visual artworks and create a gesture vocabulary that would support his depiction of Christian narratives. Barboza’s first performance on Christian themes occurred in 1978, and included items built around biblical passages, such as John 1:1–5, a section which reflects on the relationship between the Word and God, and verses on creation and the fall of humanity in Genesis. A varnam from the Book of Psalms, ‘My soul thirsts for God’, evoked śṛṅgāra rasa in the yearning for God, interspersed with narratives on the annunciation, birth, visitation by three wise men, heal- ing of the blind, and the death and resurrection of Christ. Padams on Mother Mary and Jesus followed before a final maṅgalam, or closing blessing, on

15 S. Irudayam, ‘The Divine in the “Natya”’, Word and Worship 12 (1979), pp. 239–45 at p. 245. 16 D.S. Amalorpavadass, ‘Indian Culture: Integrating cultural elements into our spirituality’, Indian Christian Spirituality (Bangalore: nbclc, 1982), pp. 92–101 at p. 92. 17 Ignatius Hirudayam, ‘Spirituality of Bhakti Marga’, Indian Christian Spirituality (Ban- galore: nbclc, 1982), pp. 165–69; Sebastian Elavathingal, Inculturation & Christian Art (Rome: Urbaniana University Press, 1990), pp. 314–16. 18 Francis Barboza, Christianity in Indian Dance Forms (Delhi: Sat Guru Publications, 1990), pp. 197–210. Barboza’s gestures have served as the basis for choreography at Kalai Kaviri in Trichy (personal communication), and acknowledged for their usefulness by dancers such as Father Saju George (Interview with author, 18 November 2003).

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 277

Christ. Other productions developed themes on saints, such as St. Stephen and St. Paul, the thieves crucified next to Jesus, and utilized poems in many different regional languages and Sanskrit epics, such as Kristubhāgavatham by P.C. Devassia.19 Barboza inspired many Christian institutions and dancers that followed, including Kalai Kaviri’s dance school and troupe, Father Saju George, and Siriya Arokiyam, a Kalakshetra alumnus who performed on the nine rasas of Jesus Christ in August 1986 in connection with a now-defunct initiative on dance as part of Santhome Communication Centre in Madras.20 Kalai Ka- viri developed many dance themes based on social messages extracted from biblical passages that ‘promote human values’, such as helping the sick and poor, enacting kindness towards strangers, and showing mercy, but tended to downplay śṛṅgāra, as well as adaption of nāyikā aesthetics. The dance troupe of Kalai Kaviri is composed of both Hindu and Christian students, who perform a wide repertoire of content from both traditions, tailoring programs based on audience and context. In their United Kingdom tour in 2004, they split their time between Hindu temples and church liturgical programs, with a handful of items that were performed in both settings. Barboza and Kalai Kaviri perform Christian themes in mostly bharatanāṭyam style, but In- dian Christian dancers have also brought their own faith into other classical dance choreographies, such as Toronto-based kathak dancer Rina Singh’s Ye- shu Katha (1991), based on the story of Jesus through the perspective of Eve, Mary and Mary Magdalene.21 Much like the criticism levelled against Laxminarayan that he was ‘propa- gating Christianity’, the adoption of Christian themes by Christian dancers is found suspect at times by those who understand bharatanāṭyam to be an art form exclusive to Hindu traditions. Barboza noted that his early forays into learning dance while still a priest were also questioned by some within the Indian Catholic hierarchies and press, but that he eventually garnered approv- al.22 However, his invitation to perform on both Hindu and Christian themes at the American Academy of Religion in 2002 in Toronto, Ontario was met with some protest as part of a broader call to avoid ‘denigration’ of Indian spirituality with religious content that is seen by such critiques as part of a foreign,

19 Barboza, Christianity in Indian Dance, pp. 211–13. 20 N. Pattabhi Raman, ‘Dance Themes’, Śruti 26 (November 1986), p. 13. 21 Jaya Subramaniam, ‘Commonality Among Seekers of New Directions’, Śruti 103 (April 1993), pp. 14–17 at p. 16. 22 Francis Barboza, ‘Christian Religious Dance’, Śruti 139 (April 1996), pp. 22–26 at p. 26.

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278 Zubko colonizing history.23 While Barboza is no longer a priest, he has maintained a dance school teaching and performing both Hindu and Christian repertoire based in the United States. In sum, the choreography related to the life of Jesus is the most prominent focus of Christians choreographing on Christian themes within bharatanāṭyam, with the more extrapolated demonstration of human vir- tues associated with Christian values as a close secondary theme. The use of nāyikās as a choreographic model is more limited, emerging mostly in relation to lover-beloved metaphors from Psalms. Dances on Mary Magdalene are not as prevalent among Christian dancers, but do feature significantly in work by Hindu exponents that draw on Christian themes. The following case study of a Christian nāyikā depicting a social theme that builds off of previous works choreographed by Hindus and Christians deepens the engagement with nāyikās as part of social messages beyond explicit biblical passages.

A Christian Nāyikā

The premiere of M.V. Narasimhachari’s final production,24 Karuna Shakti: The Power of Compassion, occurred in October 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. I had an opportunity to view the program live on August 30, 2015 when it was taken on tour to Greensboro, North Carolina. The work was commissioned by one of Narasimhachari’s senior students, Monica Cooley, through a partnership with the Global Education Center and a grant from the Metro Nashville Arts Com- mission. The program is composed of six dance items demonstrating different dimensions of compassion, including issues related to warfare, the effects of bullying, and the importance of understanding human-animal-environmental relationships within ecosystems. The most striking of the dance items, titled Arumbay Thondri (Starting to Blossom), focuses on a woman by the name of Selvi who contracts hiv/aids.25 The dance item draws from a mix of several stories about people from various social and religious backgrounds in a literary anthology by South Asian authors titled aids Sutra.26 Narasimhachari choreographed this production for audiences in the United States, and it was never

23 Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan, Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines (Delhi: Amaryllis Publishers, 2011), pp. 113–20. 24 M.V. Narasimhachari passed away on August 19, 2015. 25 Selvi is a recognizably common name amongst Dalits and Christians. 26 Negar Akhavi, ed., aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India (New York: Anchor Books, 2008) Stories by Nikita Lalwani and Nalini Jones explore hiv in relation to marital relationships.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 279 performed in India. In the more conservative city of Chennai, this subject mat- ter may not have been received well, even with Narasimhachari’s reputable status in the top tier of senior dancers. No plans were made to include the work in the city’s prominent yearly dance and music festival held every mid- December to mid-January in the Tamil month of Margazhi.27 While social themes have increased significantly in the repertoire of many bharatanāṭyam dancers in the past 25 years, addressing environmental con- cerns, organ donation, and the treatment of women,28 many of these early works involved a multimodal approach, incorporating different techniques of classical dance forms in tandem with martial arts, folk styles, spoken word and other mediums of movement. In many ways, there was often a rejection of the classical tropes, especially of the nāyikā. Mallika Sarabhai notes that at an early point in her career, due to her own feminist commitments, she decided to never perform varṇams (lengthy storytelling showcase dance genre) in which a nāyikā was depicted as ‘pleading or begging at someone’s feet’.29 The historical representation and performative portrayal of nāyikās can be traced within dramaturgical and aesthetic textual traditions, bhakti-oriented works and ethno-historical assessments of repertoires from the nineteenth century and twentieth century. The earliest descriptions of nāyikās are found in chapter twenty-four in the Nāṭyaśāstra. According to this text, nāyikās experience eight mental-physical states of love that evoke rasa during their characters’ development onstage over their story arc; these eight states are listed as: vāsakasajjā (dressed to receive her lover), virahotkaṇṭhitā (distressed due to separation from her beloved), svadhīnabhartṛkā (having control over her lover), kalahāntaritā (temporarily estranged due to a quarrel), khaṇḍitā (offended by her lover), vipralabdhā (jilted by her lover), proṣitabhartṛkā (the beloved is away on a journey), and abhisārikā (approaches her lover on her own) (Nāṭyaśāstra 24: 207–210).30 As a convention shared by not just dance-drama, but also literature, music and painting,31 these eight classifications are elaborated on in more detail in

27 Vasanthalakshmi Narasimharchari, 18 December 2016, personal communication. 28 For example, Mallika Sarabhai’s production, Sita’s Daughters, explores the mistreatment of women as rooted in some of the restrictive delineations of the ideal modest heroine of the Ramayana. 29 Sonoo Singh, ‘Interview: I see myself as a communicator’, Tribune India (13 September 1998), http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98sep13/sunday/view.htm. [Accessed 15 Octo- ber 2015], para. 1–40 at para. 34. 30 Verses follow M. Ghosh’s numbering. 31 Anne-Marie Gaston, Bharata Natyam: From Temple to Theatre (Delhi: Manohar, 1996), p. 262; Kapila Vatsyayan, Indian Classical Dance (New Delhi: Sangeet Natak, 1968).

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280 Zubko the medieval period and later, as discussed comprehensively in Rakesagupta’s Studies of Nāyaka-Nāyikā Bheda (1967).32 Nāyikās in the Nāṭyaśāstra and other scientific texts delineating aesthetics, according to Rakesagupta, were focused on dramaturgical character observations and epistemological explorations in distinction to later bhakti, or devotional interpretations of nāyikās as represen- tative of the soul yearning for Krishna (and other gods).33 Artists have utilized nāyikās, known for their nuanced portrayal of śṛṅgāra rasa, in both secular courts and religious temple frameworks, with the latter becoming more prominent in association with arts such as bharatanāṭyam in tandem with the ongoing interpretive preference for refracting śṛṅgāra rasa through the lens of bhakti.34 The original eight classifications of nāyikās continue to be central in contemporary writings on dance by performers and choreographers, including Kalanidhi Narayanan’s (1994) Aspects of Abhinaya. As śṛṅgāra rasa is the central rasa performed in bharatanāṭyam, nāyikās are thought to create the widest spectrum of opportunities for nuanced vignettes of the female perspective experiencing separation from her beloved. In her practice-based guide, Narayanan gives examples of lyrics and corresponding abhinaya, or gesture sequences, for nāyikās such as khaṇḍitā, vāsakasajjā, and proṣitabhartṛkā in alignment with the Nāṭyaśāstra.35 Most of these dance items take the performance genre of padams and javalis, which ‘usually involve the portrayal of a young woman (nāyikā) in a variety of moods and amorous predicaments. While the erotic component dominates the repertoire, devotional and descrip- tive poems are also set to dance. All of the imagery, situations, and reactions to

32 Rakesagupta, Studies in Nāyaka-Nāyikā-Bheda (Aligarh: Granthayan, 1967). See also V. Raghavan, ‘Her Infinite Variety’, The Journal of the Music Academy 34 (1963), pp. 124–31; and Allen, ‘Rewriting the Script’, pp. 74–85. 33 Rakesagupta, Nayaka-Nāyikā, p. 37. One point that supports this organizational scheme into scientific, meaning philosophical/aesthetic, and bhakti interpretations of nāyikās, is the observation that the nāyikās are not listed within the chapters on rasa and bhava in the Nāṭyaṣāstra, but are found in chapter twenty-four on characters. Rakesagupta asserts that it is only in the medieval period that nāyikās are connected more explicitly to śṛṅgāra rasa (p. 38–39). This shift is in alignment with the turn towards more mystical interpretations of rasa as a transcendent tasting of Brahman, as seen in the work of Abhinavagupta (eleventh century), and other interpretations equating śṛṅgāra and bhakti rasa that reach an iconic level in Rupa Goswami (sixteenth century). 34 For an overview of the debates over the relationship between śṛṅgāra and bhakti rasa, see Janet O’Shea, ‘“Traditional” Indian Dance and the Making of Interpretive Communities’, Asian Theatre Journal 15 (Spring 1998), pp. 45–63. 35 Kalanidhi Narayanan, Aspects of Abhinaya, pp. 36–37, 50.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 281 them are highly codified and are usually highly predictable’.36 The performative changes in portrayals of nāyikās in padams, javalis,37 and aṣṭapadis within repertoires stemming to various lineages are discussed in depth elsewhere by Davesh Soneji, Frederique Marglin, and Anne-Marie Gaston38 among others. As I am focused on the performative aesthetics of contemporary choreography that still draws to a significant degree on items performed and being taught in the early 1900s by hereditary performers or devadāsīs, it is important to note that śṛṅgāra prabandhams, or compositions focused on erotic love, were prevalent in the repertoire at that time. Through archival work and interviews, Matthew Harp Allen asserts that these items, which focus on the lover-beloved relationship between nāyikā and nāyaka, utilize not only the twelfth century Gita Govinda (Song of the Dark Lord) of Jayadeva, but also Telugu and Tamil compositions from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries focused mostly on Krishna or Murugan.39 The item discussed below relies on these traditional compositions, as well as the earlier, more secularized love lyrics in which nāyikās expressed themselves separate from the later devotional framework.

Case Study: Arumbay Thondri

The following sections analyze a few select moments within the dance item choreographed by M.V. Narasimhachari titled Arumbay Thondri (Starting to Blossom), in order to demonstrate how gesture sequences associated with nāyikās operate within a newly delineated social context while maintaining older, well-established references. The following analysis includes not only a description of attributes and actions of the characters being danced, but also includes key gestures provided in square brackets.40 Much like the use of terms

36 Gaston, From Temple to Theater, p. 266. 37 For a history of the javali, see Y. Satyanarayana Rao, ‘Jhavali’, Journal of the Music Academy 35 (1964), pp. 224–27. 38 See Davesh Soneji, Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory and Modernity in South India (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2011); Frederique Apffel-Marglin, Wives of the God King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985); Anne Marie Gaston, From Temple to Theater. Gaston notes the eschewing of the erotic at Kalakshetra, but with the demand for authenticity towards the devadāsī tradition, more javalis are being performed (pp. 104–5). 39 Allen, ‘Rewriting the Script,’ p. 75. 40 Most of the gestures may be found in the online illustrated glossary of hastas at Anjali Nandan, ‘Asamyukta Hasta or Single Hand Gestures’, Online Bharatanāṭyam

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282 Zubko in their original languages, such as Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, are included in academic analyses, the inclusion of traditional gesture terminology adds a layer of embodied knowledge that reminds the reader of the performative original context for this choreographic interpretation of the nāyikā.

Nāyikā as Young Woman in Love

In Arumbay Thondri, the ability to evoke traditional tropes before building new possibilities for interpretation relies heavily on the initial depiction of the nāyikā as a young woman in love. The dance item begins with a vignette of the nāyikā plucking flowers [haṃsāsya] from tree limbs until she has a bowl of them [alapadmas], and then sitting and making a garland strand [kāṅgulas] and looking at her reflection in a mirror [patāka]. Notably, the nāyikā performs this mirror-gazing sequence without the typical Hindu-signifying gesture of adorning her forehead with a dot of red vermillion, or bindi. Her parents match this young woman with a man and bless the marriage, as they exchange gar- lands41 [kaṭakāmukhas], and begin to fall in love as they walk hand-in-hand. The nāyikā shyly slips out of his reach when he goes to embrace his beloved. Her blossoming and contentment in love is the focus of the early abhinaya, including a first kiss [R- śikhara tracing the bottom of the lips, L- haṃsāsya by side of the mouth]. The framework of marriage intentionally adds to the mo- rality of the nāyikā, making her character unassailable. As one dancer of the role of Selvi notes, ‘Selvi is happy and the audience is invested in her continued happiness’.42 Setting the stage with a blissful couple, when the beloved takes temporary leave, the proṣitabhartṛkā nāyikā returns to her initial activities of plucking flowers [haṃsāsya] for making a garland in preparation for the expectant return of her beloved. This is the turning point in the narrative signaled through a change in the interpretative possibilities of the gestures, although still grounded within expectations of the emotional bhāva of viraha, a state of being separated from one’s beloved.

onlinebharatanāṭyam.com/2007/09/02/hand-gestures-nritta-hastas-or-hasta-bhedas/> [Accessed 1 January 2018]. 41 Garland exchange is a more universal practice found in India across varying religious cer- emonial wedding contexts, and denotes marriage in general within bharatanāṭyam. 42 Malini Srinivasan, personal communication.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 283

Nāyikā in Separation from her Beloved – Physical Symptoms and Despair

As the nāyikā goes about plucking flowers again, signs of weariness begin to appear. At first these are recognizable within the range of gestures for lovesickness at missing one’s beloved. For example, the nāyikā shows her body [candrakalās], slowly [haṃsāsya in points down a central vertical line], becoming thinner [sūcī in squiggle line], becoming weary [both hands close to mukulas], and then questioning why [candrakalā]. The use of ‘why’ is usually a plea to ask when the beloved will return to cure the symptoms, but in this case the use of the gesture becomes a questioning of why she is not well. Oth- er lokadharmi, or everyday gestures get woven in, indicating a headache and coughing. Going to the doctor, there is a pause in the lyrics as the diagnosis is revealed by a disembodied voice as ‘hiv’. A sequence building on tropes of despair and anger emerge, based in part on responses of nāyikās, such as khaṇḍitā, who know their beloved is embracing other women. One such sequence notes the beloved [śikhara], the one I married [haṃsāsyas to indicate a necklace], in that time [sūcī on diagonal], many people [haṃsapakṣas] he embraced [śikharas crossed in front]. She responds in agitation [alapadmas], and crying [patākas by ears]. Nān seythu thavaren enna? What mistake did I do? [patāka to chest, haṃsapakṣas roll out and back, śikhara – questioning] Am I the cause? [patāka to chest and sūcī pointing upward]. My heart is suffering [patāka to chest, patāka horizontal trembling]. While this sequence is typically a way to build on the despair of the beloved’s absence with a self-questioning of what the nāyikā may have done to drive him away, here it is part of her response to finding out her husband passed the virus to her because of his previous sexual relations. As a final shift, instead of the sequence ending with yearning to know when the beloved will return to her [śikhara or candrakalā], typical for nāyikās, the inquiry to know [haṃsāsya at heart stirring] is redirected towards ‘yāro’ [candrakalā], or who will help her make sense of this turn of events, who will help, who will al- leviate her suffering and show her a new response to her situation. Yāro is also directed towards the audience and up to God to implicate a connection with those watching the dance and the particular God that she prays to, not through the traditional gestures of Hindu nāyikās who would make pūjā offer- ings, but through a more Christian upward-facing petitionary style prayer. The overall performed message is that there is no expected hope of reconciliation with the beloved in this case.

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New Roles for Sakhīs

The entrance of sakhīs, or friends, provides opportunities for two significant developments for this standardized character. Typically female companions and messengers have particular responsibilities, such as to make humor, adorn, advise, complain with sarcasm, pacify, unite the hero and heroine, and console at times of separation.43 The two sakhīs that enter are in the process of gossip- ing with each other, but once they encounter Selvi after she learns of contract- ing hiv, they serve in a new capacity as anti-sakhīs who are not responsive to the suffering of Selvi by shunning her and not touching or looking at her for fear of the disease being passed to them. In some ways, to use the sakhī role in this way heightens the pathos, because it is friends who are misunderstanding Selvi’s plight, as well as are the cause of more suffering through social stigma. The ‘yāro’ will not be these former friends, but will come in the unique form of the doctor-sakhī in charge of Selvi’s continuing care. A female doctor con- veys the compassionate, informed response, taking on messenger and friend status. While doctors are not typically ‘friends’, in this case, the doctor takes the hand of Selvi to counteract the notion that touch is contagious, and tells Selvi to find support amongst others who have hiv [kīlaka], and seek purpose in educating people. Selvi responds to the doctor’s advice through an empowering reconfigura- tion of two gestures recognizable in lovesick nāyikās. The first is the symp- tom of ‘listlessness’ [intertwining fingers and then pushing palms down and away], which Selvi reframes in the form of a question as ‘Why be listless?’ to show her decisive choice. The second set of gestures that are transferred to the new context are the arrows of the Hindu god of desire, Kama, [haṃsāsyas striking from afar to the heart], or moonbeams, striking her heart and skin.44 These gestures are typically employed to demonstrate the pain of separation from one’s beloved, at times through experiencing vibhāvas, or aspects of the physical context, that support śṛṅgāra rasa, such as moonlight, bird sounds, and cool breezes, as abrasive.45 In this case, these arrows shift into the hurtful

43 Rakesagupta, Nāyaka-Nāyikā, pp. 70–75, 367. 44 For comparison, see the lyrics from a commonly danced aṣṭapadi, Sa Virahe, from the Gita Govinda (4:2–3): ‘She slanders sandalbalm and moonbeams – weariness confuses her. She feels venom from nests of deadly snakes in sandal mountain winds. Lying dejected by your desertion, fearing Love’s arrows, she clings to you in fantasy, Madhava.…Trying to protect you from the endless fall of Love’s arrows, she shields her heart’s soft mortal core with moist lotus petals’. 45 Narayan expounds on the padam, ‘Valaputhala Vasama Na Samyki, Chalamu Seya Nyaya- ma’ (Can I bare the pains of separation, is it proper for him to delay?): ‘This is a nāyikā

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 285 words of gossip that should be ignored. It is not a pain caused by absence, but because of social ills. It is a pain that builds off the earlier betrayal of the husband, her lover who has caused disappointment (khaṇḍitā). As one of the dancers of the role of Selvi noted, there is a mix of the situational and emotional states of the eight nāyikās in this piece, instead of a steady focus on one, leading to a complexity in the depiction of the nāyikā.46

Concluding Observations and Queries

Rather than providing a comprehensive set of conclusions about the applica- tion of the nāyikā in Arumbay Thondri, I offer a few observations and directions for further inquiry. On a cultural level, the ownership of bharatanāṭyam in terms of who may participate, for what reasons, and on what themes, is an ever-shifting issue. As far back as the 1960s, Hindu dancers experimented with Christian, and many other interreligious themes, with minimal criticism. In the 1970s, Indian Chris- tians explored what they understood as cultural art forms as ways to express their own devotional narratives and experiences, but with much more sub- stantial and vocal disapproval as to motivations and use.47 Part of this rests on irreconcilable perspectives about the relative openness of an art form that has been reconstructed with a variety of intentional, embedded identities, including ancient and Hindu alongside national and cultural, even though each of these identities become more or less important as primary frameworks depending on the context and the personal identities of those dancing. The historical record of what dancers choreograph and perform is more diverse than typically understood, and needs to continue to be traced to understand the full spectrum of the art as practiced in its contemporary iterations. On a social and religious level, the choice of Selvi, performed as a nāyikā stripped of emblematic Hindu signifiers and characterized as a Christian reveals other points to consider. As bharatanāṭyam became the purview of Hindu upper-caste, upper-class practitioners, the staging of a still much

talking to her sakhī. The arrows of cupid remind me of him and cause grief. The moonlight is like the hot sun and the cool breeze pierces my body. Music and sweet-smelling flowers cause a headache. I am neither able to eat nor sleep. When I see a pair of love birds I am reminded of our union in the past’ (Narayanan, Aspects, p. 22). 46 Malini Srinivasan, personal communication. 47 http://christianizingbharatanatyam.blogspot.com/2011/09/christian-denigration-of -indian.html.

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misunderstood, stigmatized illness was seen as not appropriate for Chennai audiences, and definitely not to be depicted through a heroine who is upper- caste Hindu. Selvi is a name often associated with low-caste Hindus, Dalits, or Christians within Tamil Nadu,48 and Selvi’s distance from privilege potentially reinforces the misinformed belief of who is most at risk of infection. Street theater has been the primary artistic forum for topics such as hiv,49 but what range of social themes and character embodiment is possible within classical dance forms? What purposes does a Christian identity serve? In Arumbay Thondri, the nāyikā is set within a secularized context of a human relationship, which is not a new trajectory as the secular interpretation has been part of the history of nāyikās from the beginning. But, the nāyikā has also been given a nominal Christian identity that may be meant to sig- nal not only social distance from Hindu privilege for a person afflicted with hiv, but also is a well-worn designated contextual framework previous Hindu and Christian dancers have relied upon for presenting issues related to ethi- cal conduct. Selvi is portrayed as a nāyikā who has been betrayed. It is due to the philandering behavior of the husband that the nāyikā becomes infected by hiv. Here is where the Christian identity may become more significant, in that the gestures of ‘going with many women’ that the dancer portrays is also found in dance items in which Radha is hurt by witnessing the signs of Krishna’s love play with other gopīs. Because of this recognizable set of gestures, Krishna and the sacredness of that metaphor for Hindus may be evoked in this moment of Arumbay Thondri. This can create a certain discomfort when the embodied resonances of a gesture sequence potentially equate Krishna with a secular philandering husband who has infected his wife. The current exposure of sexual misconduct sweeping certain industries in 2017 has also led to a space for some Hindus to query the depiction of Krish- na’s behavior with the gopīs, the milkmaids of Vrindavan, tagging images of Krishna stealing clothes and watching gopīs bathe as #metoo. Instead of being read as a religious metaphor, as a baring of the soul before god, this new interpretive frame has been met with both liberating and defensive perspectives.50

48 Zoe Sherinian, personal communication. 49 For examples of street theater related to aids public health communication, see Anne Stangl, Tracking hiv-related stigma and discrimination in South Asia (Washington D.C.: World Bank, 2010). It is unlikely that M.V Narasimhachari had ever seen a street performance on the topic of aids due to his high social class and caste. 50 See Suchetana Sinha, ‘#MeToo: It’s not Harassment if the Lord Does It, Right?’, Youth Ki Awaaz, [Accessed 5 January 2018] and resulting string of comments.

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Christian Themes And The Role Of The Nāyikā In Bharatanāṭyam 287

At the heart of the defense of this metaphor is the sacredness and privileged opportunity of the nāyikā/gopī to be in an intimate relationship with Krishna. In Arumbay Thondri, the Christian identity is an attempt to create some distance from the Hindu bhakti understandings often connected to nāyikās, but is not necessarily powerful enough to override the associative connections some audience members may carry with them. This speaks to the deep embodied connotations that, on the one hand, may facilitate the ability to empathize better with Selvi as a nāyikā suffering physically and emotionally from betrayal and separation, but also has the potential to disrupt the creation of an effective bridge of understanding, if engrained resonances are seen to violate religious sentiments. On an aesthetic level, this is an unusually difficult theme because of its specificity and ongoing stigma, and yet in general, audiences have been more willing to engage with it due to the recognizable aesthetics of the nāyikā. Topics with social messages more often rely upon karuna rasa, the mood of compassion, which involves emotionally appropriate responses to narrative scenarios of permanent loss and separation due to curses, death, and, also befitting this particular program, illness and betrayal. Karuna rasa is used to enact a particu- larly powerful form of witnessing, usually by a hero or heroine, to great tragedy, but traditionally does not provide a character with a model of how to change one’s actions or responses within a particular situation, thus also potentially falling flat insofar as conveying actionable lessons for an audience. For this theme, the more nuanced śṛṅgāra rasa of a nāyikā evokes stronger audience sympathy and investment in the character’s well-being. The physical symptoms of lovesickness, caused by the absence of the beloved and cured by the beloved’s return, are broadened to also encompass the physical symptoms of illness caused by disease. While the expectation of reconciliation and reunion is always within the realm of the possible for nāyikās, in Arumbay Thondri, Selvi is not and never will be reconciled with her husband, but rather is reconciled with her own life circumstances, as well as reunited with a society that had shunned her due to misinformation about the disease. Here, the sakhī, in this case, the doctor-sakhī, still serves as the go- between that facilitates that (re)union or social mending in response to community members who are suffering and creating suffering for others. The role of advising and uniting the heroine is thus reframed in a broader direction. Śṛṅgāra is expanded to include these new interpretations, building empathy through witnessing and experiencing the story within a register that is familiar, and creating an empowered nāyikā who is transformed through the process of confronting her own physical illness and actively working against the social harms she experienced.

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When viewed through cultural, social, religious and aesthetic lenses, there are many directions to consider. Within the overall trajectory of the applica- tion of Christian themes within bharatanāṭyam, Arumbay Thondri offers both an expansion on the use of the nāyikā into a very unusual theme of experiencing the physical hardships and social stigma associated with hiv, but also falls well within previous experiments by both Hindus and non-Hindus in engaging their art in terms of a secularized, social message about human behaviors.

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