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## $$%& $ '(') *%#+, - ." / ! ! 0 12 A Quarterly Journal of Indian Dance Volume: XVIII, No. 3 July-September 2018 Sahrdaya Arts Trust Hyderabad RNI No. APENG2001/04294 ISSN 2455-7250 Nartanam, founded by Kuchipudi Kala Founders Kendra, Mumbai, now owned and Late G. M. Sarma published by Sahrdaya Arts Trust, M. N. Sarma Hyderabad, is a quarterly which provides a forum for scholarly dialogue on a Chief Editor broad range of topics concerning Indian Madhavi Puranam dance. Its concerns are theoretical as well as performative. Textual studies, dance Associate Editor criticism, intellectual and interpretative K. K. Gopalakrishnan history of Indian dance traditions are its Patron focus. It publishes performance reviews Edward R. Oakley and covers all major events in the field of dance in India and notes and comments on dance studies and performances Advisory Board abroad. The opinions expressed in the articles and the reviews are the writers’ own and Anuradha Jonnalagadda (Scholar, Kuchipudi dancer) do not reflect the opinions of the editorial Avinash Pasricha (Former Photo Editor, SPAN; SNA Awardee) committee. The editors and publishers C.V. Chandrasekhar (Bharatanatyam Guru, Padma Bhushan) of Nartanam do their best to verify the information published but do not take Kedar Mishra (Poet, Scholar, Critic) responsibility for the absolute accuracy Kiran Seth (Padma Shri; Founder, SPIC MACAY) of the information. Leela Venkataraman (Critic, Scholar, SNA Awardee) Guest Editor: Ileana Citaristi Mallika Kandali (Sattriya dancer, Scholar) Jayantika Papers: Vijayalaxmi Das Manjari Sinha (Critic, Scholar) Translation: Malabika Patel Pappu Venugopala Rao (Scholar; Former Secretary, Music Cover Photo: Academy; SNA Awardee) Some of the members and contributors to Reginald Massey (Poet, FRSA, Freeman of London) Jayantika Sunil Kothari (Scholar, Padma Shri and SNA Awardee, Photos: Nartanam Archives and Fellow of SNA) Ileana Citaristi Suresh K. Goel (Former Director General, ICCR) Cover, Design & Layout Shakeel Ahmed Annual Subscription: In India: Individual: ` 1000 Institutional: ` 2000 Past issues can be obtained from our office ` Overseas: Individual: US $ 60 Institutional: US $ 80 @ 350/- per copy for individuals ` (All Inclusive of postage) @ 500/- per copy for instiutions Note: Students in India can avail of 25% discount on (Inclusive of postage in India; Subject to availabil- individual subscriptions) ity; Please check with the office.) For all editorial enquiries, sending manuscripts, details of subscriptions, and past issues please visit www.nartanam.in Registered Office: Sahrdaya Arts Trust, #35, Poulomi Aristos, Golden Mile Road, Kokapet, Hyderabad- 500075 Email: [email protected], [email protected] Phone: 9989314829 website: www.nartanam.in All articles, photographs and other materials, appearing in Nartanam, whether in whole or in part, in any form are exclusive copyright of Sahrdaya Arts Trust unless otherwise specified, and may not be reproduced in any form or stored in any electronic or retrievable format without prior written consent. Printed and published by Madhavi Puranam on behalf of Sahrdaya Arts Trust, Hyderabad Printed at Karshak Art Printers, 40-APHB, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad-500044. (Ph:27618261) and published in Hyderabad. Editor: Madhavi Puranam NARTANAM Volume: XVIII, No. 3 July - September 2018 CONTENTS Editorial/ 7 On the Trail of Jayantika: An Introduction / 9 By ILEANA CITARISTI Guru Dayanidhi Das / 13 Chapter I: The first meeting of Jayantika / 16 Chapter II: Meetings of Jayantika (1958) / 26 Chapter III: Meetings of Jayantika (1959) / 46 Chapter IV: Meetings of Jayantika (1960) / 102 Repertoire / 120 Constitution – Jayantika / 158 Appendix I to Chapter III / 166 Appendix II to Chapter III / 176 Appendix to Chapter IV / 202 Guru Raghu Dutta's Notes / 212 6 Jayantika Special Nartanam Photos on Cover From left to right Top row: Gorachand Misra, Mayadhar Rout, Kalicharan Patnaik, Babulal Doshi, Dayanidhi Das, Deba Prasad Das, Mayadhar Mansingh Second row: Kartik Kumar Ghosh, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Raghunath Dutta, Pankaj Charan Das, Dhirendranath Patnaik Third row: Batakrishna Sena, Priyambada Mohanty, Loknath Misra, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Harekrishna Mahatab Bottom row: Laxmipriya Mohapatra and Kelucharan Mohapatra ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We thank the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, for its partial financial assistance for the publication of this journal. Publishers, Nartanam Nartanam Jayantika Special 7 EDITORIAL The Trails of Jayantika We bring to our readers another important issue of Nartanam after much toil and tears. We hope that this issue will contribute significantly to the history of Odissi dance. No research into Odissi will be the same again; such will be the impact of the publication of these rare papers retrieved from the folds of history – the proceedings of Jayantika and other allied documents. Till now the exact proceedings of Jayantika were unclear and thus the documents unearthed by Ileana Citaristi, the diligent scholar and avid reader and contributor to Nartanam fill a significant lacuna in Odissi’s recent history. Indian dance will be grateful to Vijayalaxmi Das, the daughter of Guru Dayanidhi Das who had carefully preserved the proceedings of Jayantika in his personal collection. We have laid out the documents after a brief biographical note on Guru Dayanidhi Das, to whom we owe most of the writings in our possession. Jayantika makes for an important case study in dance. The revival of an entire dance form from shambles is pivoted on this association called Jayantika which only lasted for a couple of years. When we published just one document from this collection in Nartanam Vol XIV no. 4, it created quite an interest among Odissi scholars but none ventured to go to the source and no academy ventured to safeguard or publish them. We appreciate the initiative taken by Vijayalaxmi Das in coordinating with Ileana Citaristi to facilitate their publication by Nartanam. What had happened in the proceedings of Jayantika? We present the documents in Odia which were mostly the minutes and some allied documents which were the notes made by Guru Raghu Dutta. We leave it to our readers and the scholars to interpret the significance of Jayantika. We have translated all available pages in Odia into English but will caution the scholars to pay heed to any valuable content lost in translation (which is a common phenomenon while translating) by subjecting these documents to their own translation and interpretation. 8 Jayantika Special Nartanam Nartanam Conclave 2018 We welcome our readers to the second edition of the Nartanam Conclave. The programme of the seminars and the evening performances of the Nartanam Conclave 2018 can be seen on our facebook page and our website www.nartanam.in. A live telecast of the Conclave will be streamed on our website and YouTube. We are thankful to the Department of Language and Culture, Telangana, Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy HRD Institute of Telangana, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi and the illustrious corporate persona, K. I. Varaprasad Reddy, founder of Shantha Biotechnics who have staunchly stood behind this Conclave. We are especially thankful to B. V. Papa Rao (IAS Retd.), Advisor to the Government of Telangana, Burra Venkatesham (IAS), Secretary to the Government of Telangana, Department of Youth Affairs, Culture and Tourism, and B. P. Acharya, Director General & E.O. Spl. CS to Govt., and Mamidi Harikrishna, Director, Department of Language and Culture, Telangana, for their valuable support to the cause of Intangible Cultural Heritage. We thank the participating dancers and scholars, and also the volunteers of SPIC MACAY and Kona Lakshmi who helped us in innumerable ways to make the conclave a reality. Talent abounds against all odds, scholars excel despite many challenges, the government supports despite a million constraints- but we the people fail the arts. Nartanam is attempting to build an audience base in Hyderabad for performing arts and its academia while also motivating the corporates and the affluent to take an interest for they only can be the patrons of their own arts. If they could be sensitised to the performing arts, they could easily replace the kings of yore in extending patronage to the artists and their art. As I waited under a beautiful tree in the University of Hyderabad for the volunteers of the Nartanam Conclave to arrive, a passerby stopped to see the posters and invitation cards. He struck up a conversation with me and offered to help put up some posters. An aspiring Civil Servant, his question to me was, "Is there any monetary gain from this journal and this Conclave?" That gave me an opportunity to expound on India's Performing Arts and Nartanam's service to them without an eye for any benefit other than that of the immense satisfaction of having tried to contribute in a small way to the cause of our culture. Madhavi Puranam Nartanam Jayantika Special 9 On the Trail of Jayantika: An Introduction ILEANA CITARISTI My meeting with Vijayalaxmi Das happened few years ago during a marriage reception held at Cuttack. She was introduced to me on that occasion as the daughter of Guru Dayanidhi Das, whose name was known to me from the time I was doing research for my book on my guru, Kelucharan Mohapatra. Casually I asked her if she had ever heard about Jayantika from her father and she said she did not know much about it except that quite a lot of hand- written papers were lying in a trunk in her house at Cuttack which had been kept there by her late father. I have to confess that it has not been easy to win her confidence. But slowly, from a slightly suspicious and reticent person she gradually opened up to become more involved in the mission to make these precious documents known to the Odissi world. The importance of these hand-written documents, most of which are proceedings of some of the meetings of Jayantika held between 1958 and 1963, is of various genres. For her, publishing these documents is a way to give the right credit to her father in the history of the systemization of the Odissi dance form, since he is still one of the less recognised figures in the process.