PAPER 4

Detail Study Of Kathak, Nautch Girls, Nritta, Nritya, Different Gharana-s, Present Status, Institutions, Artists

Module 13 Kathak Experts 1960 To 1990

Once the first phase of knowing Kathak as a form was over, new talents, exclusively trained in Kathak alone came centre stage. These were dancers who focussed only on one form and made the form shine. They came from different backgrounds and tutelage, cities and villages but all aimed at popularsing this ancient form that had fallen on bad days due to long neglect and lack of support under colonial rule. Those who helped set Kathak seriously as a form to be reckoned with, learnt and performed from the 1960s to 1990s, are: Damayanti Joshi, Maya Rao, Birju Maharaj, Kumudini Lakhia, Pt. Sundarlal Gangani Rohini Bhate, Purnima Pande to name a few.

Damayanti Joshi (1928-2004) initially trained by Pandit Sitaram Prasad of the Jaipur gharana, was the chosen protégé of Madame Menaka, who adopted her as a daughter when she was four. Damayanti toured with Menaka’s troupe in India and abroad. She trained with all the three brothers, Achchan, Lachchu and Shambhu Maharaj of Lucknow gharana. Imbibing from both traditions, she was a successful solo artiste. She danced and toured the world in Menaka's troupe from the time she was five and by 15 she had already performed at all the major cities of Europe, plus also

1 receiving a full education. Damayanti was a frail little four-year-old when she was attracted to the sound of jingles. Her mother Vatsala Joshi was an artiste too but the orthodox atmosphere in her family did not allow her to pursue her interest in music. But she used to sneak out and learn music from Sharada Bhate who taught the harmonium. However, early marriage and early widowhood put an end to her dreams. After the death of her father, her family abandoned her to fend for herself and her child. Vatsala began to go out to give tuitions in embroidery and tailoring. Damayanti was left in the care of neighbours. Early in life Damayanti learnt to be on her own. A child in the neighbourhood was learning dance from Pandit Sitaram Prasad. As soon as she heard the sound of jingles, Damayanti would run to that house, stand outside and watch. Pandit Sitaram Prasad was associated with dancer Menaka at this time. Menaka had lost a child 10 days after birth and was keen to adopt a girl to whom she could pass on her creative ambitions. After much persuasion Vatsala agreed to make Menaka Damayanti's guardian. She refused to give the child in formal adoption saying, “Let us share this child. Let her have two mothers.” Menaka agreed. Like child Krishna, Damayanti too had two mothers.1

Damayanti was a frail child. As Menaka brought in Damayanti, Menaka's husband, Colonel Sokhey remarked, "Why have you taken this girl? She is so weak. How is she going to dance?" She retorted, "Why then have you become a doctor?" A strict regimen of eating, exercise and education began for Damayanti. In 1936, Damayanti went with Menaka on her performance trip abroad. Unfortunately, Menaka did not live long enough to nourish Damayanti's dancing career. But growing up with her, Damayanti met many different

2 artistes and scholars and her perspective on dance and life was shaped with great care by Menaka. After Menaka’s death, Vatsala and Damayanti began living in a one-room apartment in Dadar which became their private fort.

With the death of her mentor Menaka, who initiated her into the life of a performing artiste, began days of struggle for Damayanti and her mother. Damayanti was performing, learning and studying in college. Colonel Sokhey was supporting her education but performing artistes were not held in great esteem at this time and Damayanti and her mother were two women on their own with the daughter determined to establish herself as a dancer. Damayanti's mother Vatsala became her armour in dealing with the world and the vagaries of the life of a performing artiste.2

Pioneering artistes like Damayanti and others from non-performing families had brought Kathak out of the court ambience. There was a great need for these artistes to divest Kathak of all the elements associated with the court. Damayanti’s entire dancing career, one can say, was centred on this concern to make Kathak a dance performed outside the court. Certain exaggerated gestures like biting the lips or raising the eyebrows unnecessarily were totally avoided by Damayanti. She never did bhava sitting down, for, it has an association with the court or the private dancing halls. She liked to do her bhava standing. Nor did she ever use sarangi as an accompaniment for it was traditionally associated with the court and private hall dancers.

The traditional court dancer used to wear churidar-pyjamas with an

3 angarkha and a cap. Damayanti wore such a costume occasionally but she mostly wore saris and ghagras and the sari became her main costume later. The ghaghras she wore were similar to the ones worn by women in miniature paintings which allowed easy circling movements.3

Damayanti began to learn Kathak from Pt Sitaram Prasad initially who belonged to the Lucknow gharana. Later she learnt from Lachchu Maharaj, the legendary Kathak guru who also belonged to the Lucknow gharana. In course of time she learnt from all the three brothers, Achchan Maharaj, Lachchu Maharaj and Shambhu Maharaj. She also learnt from Gauri Shankar, a Jaipur gharana guru who had been with the Menaka Indian Ballet. Many other gurus willingly came home to teach her and compose for her. She collected from different sources a variety of different aspects of dance and music to blend them and evolve a Kathak style of her own.4

Damayanti was famous for both her layakari or the rhythmic aspect and bhava or exposition of moods. Lachchu Maharaj was famous for his bhava and Damayanti learnt that aspect from him. The knowledge of layakari she imbibed from Bhola Shreshta who, despite his initial resistance, taught her generously later. He was not a dancer and so while he played the complicated patterns on the tabla, Damayanti reproduced them in her footwork and translated them into the idiom of dance. Damayanti was probably the only dancer of her time who ventured into such complicated, mathematical calculations of rhythm. She could dance with ease in the pancha jati tal or five different rhythmic combinations. She was famous for her compositions Sur Sundari and Ashta Nayika. Damayanti spoke

4 constantly about the autobiography that she was planning to write. Had she written it, it would have recreated an entire era of dance and dancers who dared to dance on stage when they were expected to stay at home.5

Maya Rao (1928 – 2014) was born in Bangalore to Hattangadi Sanjeev Rao and Subhadra Bai in a family consisting of 3 sons and 3 daughters. In 1945, Maya Rao finished schooling and joined Maharani’s College, choosing History, Economics and Logic as her subjects. Although she had a flair for dancing, Maya Rao was born and brought up in an orthodox middle class family, where elders did not permit their daughters to learn dancing. When she was 12 years old, she watched Uday Shankar perform with his large troupe of musicians and dancers at the BRV theatre in Bangalore and this performance left an indelible impression in her young mind. Initially, she was taught Hindustani classical music – vocal and instrumental (dilruba) – from Rama Rao. Impressed with Uday Shankar’s troupe, her father permitted Maya Rao to take up dancing. “I started dancing when dance was taboo and to the progress we see in the dance scenario today, I feel proud to be part of this evolution where dance is seen as an important component of modern India and has percolated down to every household,” recalls Maya Rao.6

Maya first learnt Kathak from Sohanlal for two years from 1942. In 1951, Maya went to Jaipur to continue with her Kathak dance, also teaching English at the Maharani Gayatri Devi’s school for two years. In 1953, she went to Colombo as suggested by her brother Manohar who knew Chitrasena, and learnt Kandyan dance. In October 1954, she attended an interview in Lucknow for dance scholarship and was

5 selected to study Kathak at the Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi under Shambhu Maharaj, the nephew of Maharaj Bindadin, who joined as its first guru in January 1955. Maya Rao was his first student in Delhi and spent four memorable years training under him. She was the first Indian lady to be selected by the Govt. of India for the USSR Cultural Scholarship in Choreography. Since the training was not conducted in English, Maya Rao had to devote about 6 months of the training period in learning Russian. Everyday two hours were allotted for Russian language class and two hours for Ballet dance training. After 3 years in Russia, Maya Rao returned to India in January 1964 but she had no assignments in Delhi for nearly 3 months since the Department of Choreography for Bharatiya Kala Kendra did not materialise. That was when Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay, Vice Chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi, motivated Maya Rao to start an institution for Choreography in Delhi. On August 17, 1964 the Natya Institute of Choreography was launched in Delhi with Maya Rao at its helm, under the aegis of the Bharthi Natya Sangh. In December 1964, she married musician Nataraj. 7 In 1987 at the behest of former Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, the Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography (NIKC) was established in Bangalore with the assistance of the Government of Karnataka. Since its inception, the NIKC has been providing a forum for dance education in India. Its uniqueness lies in using traditional dance methodology alongside modern pedagogy techniques, keeping in pace with the global trends in dance education. NIKC is India’s first and only college offering a 3-year BA Degree in Choreography, affiliated to Bangalore University. As the Chairperson of the Karnataka State Sangeet Nritya Academy, Maya Rao initiated National Performing Arts Festivals at Heritage Monuments – Somanathapura

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(1988), Pattadakkal (1989) and Halebid (1990). In publications and archiving, Guru Maya Rao created syllabi and text books for Karnataka Secondary Education Board’s Kathak examination. NIKC’s library houses more than 3000 rare books on the performing and fine arts. There is an audio visual collection of choreographies. Digitization of archival dance photographs spans the last 7 decades. Maya Rao has conducted extensive research on Kathak, Raas and Bhagwata traditions, Yakshagana and other operatic dance theatres, the Natya Shastra, world history of dance, folk and ritualistic forms. She has written numerous articles on dance and choreography for several leading regional, national and international publications. Her lecture demonstrations on choreography, dance and its history have been put together in the form of a DVD titled ‘Maya to Matter.’8

Pandit Sunderlal Gangani was a very humble, loving and caring person. As a guru he was always of big heart and he gave a lot generously. Schooled only up to class four, Guru Sunderlal would not be considered educated in the conventional sense. But he was a person of very high merit. His compositions suggested a very scholarly vision. What he wrote went beyond expectations. He settled in Baroda in 1951, began teaching at M.S. University of Baroda along with his brother Kundanlal. They were the first persons who came from Churu district of Rajasthan to Baroda. With their knowledge of Tabla and Kathak, they were employed in the M S University of Baroda. Pt. Sunderlal gave a new dimension to Kathak, with writing lyrics on different and unexplored themes such as “Kathak in rashi, Kathak in grammar and Kathak in mathematics.” The rashis or sun signs of famous characters from the Ramayan were woven into kavits. It is quite a challenge to create such compositions

7 in rhythm, and then to set the dance to them. He made his creations so interesting, they appealed to all, the learned as well as the ordinary people.9 Similarly, he played with the alphabet and grammar, creating kavits starting with each letter of the ‘ka’ barakhari to invoke images from Krishna’s life, or using the letters ra, raa, ri, ree, etc., or some other section of the alphabet. And then there were the numbers. He brought out the different nature of the numbers and created compositions suiting each one. Another unique composition was the Ashta Nayika, in which the nayikas are described succinctly in just one line each.10

In understanding the ghoodartha or profound inner meanings of lyrics, the guru consistently went beyond the obvious and physical to reach greater realisations, whether these related to science, geometry or philosophy. While Sunderlal moulded, in his 39 years at the university (from where he retired as a reader in 1989), a large number of students who perform across the world, perhaps the credit went more to the university than the maestro.11

He was awarded Gujarat Rajya Gaurav Puraskar and also the prestigious Sangit Natak Akademi award. Pt Harish and Dr. Jagdish Gangani are the sons of Sunderlal Gangani under whom they trained in Kathak from childhood. It is indeed amazing to see that two sons, trained by same guru/father display total different ethos and style of Jaipur Gharana Kathak.

Pt. Birju Maharaj was born on 4 February 1938 in Lucknow. Initially his name was ‘Dukh Haran’, which was later changed to ‘Brijmohan’, a synonym of Krishna. Brijmohan Nath Misra was shortened to ‘Birju’

8 which remains the name he is fondly known by. Surrounded by a musical atmosphere, his inborn talent surfaced at the early age of three years, when he would playfully sit on his father’s lap and recite tihais and tukras, oblivious of the fact that they were complex pieces. The sound of the music and dance emanating from the taalimkana (classroom) was enough inspiration for young Birju to devote himself wholeheartedly to dance. Though he was too young to receive formal training, he would watch carefully when his father taught his disciples. Achchan Maharaj recognized his talent and took him under his guidance. Achchan Maharaj spent most of his time practicing his art and teaching his students and Birju Maharaj still a small child, imbibed a great deal by observing. Recognizing the inborn talent of his son, Acchan Maharaj gave him the opportunity of performing with him at an early age.12

His father performed at musical conferences all over India and by the age of seven, Birju Maharaj had accompanied him to Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Dehradun, and even far off places like Madhubani, Kolkata and Mumbai. He got the opportunity to share the platform with his illustrious father, who allowed him to present a few pieces before he himself came on stage. Achchan Maharaj shifted to Delhi to teach at Sangeet Bharti. Birju Maharaj, then eight years old, enthusiastically imbibed all activities at the centre. He became proficient at dancing, singing and playing the tabla. Achchan Maharaj shifted back to Lucknow with the family due to the communal riots, which raged all over the country during the pre- independence period. Even though Achchan Maharaj passed away when Birju was nine years old, he left an indelible mark on him. Birju then came under the guidance of his uncle Shambhu Maharaj. The

9 following years were full of struggle and household goods were sold to make ends meet. He spent about ten months in Mumbai learning from his other uncle Lachchu Maharaj. At the young age of thirteen, he was invited to join Sangeet Bharti in Delhi to teach Kathak. Soon he established himself as a good dancer and dedicated teacher.13

Birju Maharaj’s mother Ammaji lived at the ancestral house in Lucknow. As was the custom of the times, the women stayed in purdah and had nothing whatsoever to do with dance. Since the sounds of music and dance were a part of her surroundings, Amma remembered a surprising number of musical compositions of those times. Coaxed by her son she sometimes came forward with uncommon and previously unheard lyrics, singing them coyly. In this way, Birju came in possession of some invaluable compositions and got glimpses of his childhood, through his mother’s eyes.14

Pt. Birju Maharaj has given a new dimension to Kathak, by experimenting with his technique in the application of dance dramas, which has today become a very successful medium for mass propagation. His bold and intellectual compositions in traditional themes are brilliant, whereas his contemporary works are also refreshing in concept, crisp and entertaining. In the early days he choreographed interesting pieces like Makhan Chori, Phaag Bahar, etc. In the seventies, full length mythological and historical dance dramas were the norm. Some of them were Katha Raghunath Ki, Krishnayan, and Roopmati Baajbahadur. Mughal themes depicted were Darbar-e-Salaami, Shaahi Mehfil, etc. In the 1980s some excellent abstract and purely rhythmic compositions were made – Laya Parikrama, Naad Gunjan, Ghunghru Sangeet, etc. The trend has

10 continued. Humorous ones like Samachar Darpan, File Katha and sensitive ones like Anamya were appreciated for their unusual ideas. The list is endless as he spends every day in creating something new and giving shape to another new idea.15

Pt. Birju Maharaj is a superb drummer, playing nearly all drums with ease and precision; he is especially fond of playing the tabla and naal. He can play all string instruments, sitar, sarod, violin, sarangi with ease, though he never underwent any formal training. He is a sensitive poet, writing modern poetry as well as songs, dance compositions, thumris, etc. He is a singer par excellence, having command over Thumri, Dadra, Bhajan and Ghazal. With his in-depth understanding of laya (beat), he finds it easy to compose new pieces. He is fond of creating tihais especially Ginti Ki Tihai. A master storyteller, he interlaces his performances with incidents from his life, day-to-day incidents narrated with realistic imitations and vivid descriptions to captivate the audience.16 Pt. Birju Maharaj has directed, composed music and sung for two classical dance sequences in the film Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) directed by Satyajit Ray. He directed and composed a music piece for the film Dil To Paagal Hai as a jugalbandi featuring Madhuri Dixit. In Gadar, he choreographed a group dance. He choreographed, composed music and was the male lead singer for the song Kahe Chhed Mohe in the film Devdas. His disciples have performed as the accompanying artistes for these dance sequences, along with the film personalities. 17 He won the National Award for Best Choreography (2013) for choreographing the song Unnai Kaanadhu Naan, which features Kamal Haasan performing Kathak in his multilingual film, Vishwaroopam.

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