Dancing in India
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Chapter -2 DANCING IN INDIA Social, religious and spiritual significance and functions of dance in India have already been discussed in the T' chapter. The said description is well enough to explain that dance is a part of Indian culture and traditions and it has achieved its own space in Indian society. However the history of Indian dancing helps to know more about it. A Brief History of Indian dance A History of Dancing that can be Traceable in Myths: In India, art has been always considered as a means of understanding of the ultimate reality. It is considered as spiritual, idealistic and inspiring in nature. Every art has its own features and the ways of expression and interpretation. It is not only a matter of sensuous enjoyment. Not a luxury to be enjoyed by the leisured rich, powerful people and not something to amuse oneself with. It has a deeper moral and spiritual basis. It has emerged as an effective means of worshipping god. It is considered to be as vital for human progress as devotion or knowledge. An art is believed to be a path to leading to something good and for achieving salvation. Great sages in ancient 44 India have been great artists; many great sages were the authors of some of our art traditions. Almost all art expressions in India had a spiritual background. In ancient India art and religion were interrelated. Temples have been the centers for all performing arts. The great works of art were not made to order, they came as a result of a deep inner urge and hence art maintained its unique greatness. Traditional Indian classical art has been idealistic, spiritual and symbolic rather than realistic. The so-called realism in art is alien to Indian art expression. A work of art is to express one's feelings about God. The classical dance had also emerged out of devotion. There are some Indian myths about the emergence of dance. One of the famous stories is as follows. It is believed that Sage Bharata who is considered as a father of Indian traditional dance forms, who wrote the 'Natya Shastra', staged his first play with his hundred sons and Apsaras (celestial dancers who came out of by Amrita Manthana, the churning of the divine ocean). The play was staged in the Himalayas. Lord Shiva, the greatest dancing God, was so enchanted that he sent his disciple Tandu to Bharata, to teach him the true elements of dance. These 45 elements are described in the Natya Shastra, in its chapters collectively named Tandava Lakshana. Social History of Indian Dance: India is a large country. The Indian subcontinent extends southward from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean; it is bordered on the west by the Arabian Sea and on the east by the Bay of Bengal. There are several socio economic, political and geographical variations. There are different languages in different states. Such elements and their interactions have produced various cultural patterns in India. Difference in language is a reliable indicator of other variations, such as those of dresses, customs, and food and unsurprisingly dances too. There are certain references in history of ancient India about dancing. For example, there is an image of a dancing girl from Mohanjo Daro relics, and the broken upper body of Harappan period clay figure indicative of dance poses. There are beautiful descriptions in Vedas based on the art of dance. The documented dance and theatre history begins at least as early as the first century of the Christian era. The distant past of Indian dance is often claimed to date to the period of the Vedas, the sacred books of Hinduism. But the more realistic and substantial historical 46 evidence found in the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a treatise probably composed between the 200 B. C. to 200 A. D. By the later medieval period, there emerged a variety of regional styles in art, including various representations of dance. This period witnessed the rise of vernacular literatures and the development of regional variations. The history of Indian dance can be divided into two periods, one from the T^ century B.C. to the 9"^ century A.D., and the other from the lO"^ century to the 18"^ century A.D. During the first period, Sanskrit exercised a great impact on the intellectual life of the people and its rich literature motivated the development of arts in the country as a whole with unity and continuity. In the second period there was a marked development of regional styles. The later half of this period coincides with the period of the growth of the various regional languages. Manuals on dance prepared from the 13 century onwards can be found in almost every cultural region of the country. There is Nrittaratnawali from Andhra Pradesh, Sangitopanishad at Sarodhara of Gujarat, Hastamuktawali of Assam, Gobinda Sangita Lila Vilas from Manipur, Abhinav Chandrica from Orissa, Sangita Damodara from Bengal, Adi Bharatam from Tamil Nadu, Hastalakshana Dipika from Kerala, Natyaratnakosha from Rajasthan and Sangitamalika 47 from North India. The Hst is not complete. In fact it merely gives examples from various regions of India. Even a cursory study of these manuals emphasizes two broad facts: 1. Despite regional variations, all classical dance forms followed the basic principles of the Natya Shastra tradition. The dance continued to be divided in to Natya (drama) and Nritta (technical part in classical dance) on the one hand and into Tandava (vigorous and manly danc6f and Lasya (feminine part in classical dance) on the other. 2. Though all the major dance forms follow the extensive principles of Natya Shastra, many distinctive regional styles got evolved and each region ultimately developed a native vocabulary. This second fact led to the formulation of different classical forms in India. The beginning of the classical dance forms - Bharata Natyam, Kathakali, Mohini Attam, Manipuri, Oddissi, Kuchhipudi, and Kathak- can be traced back to developments in the medieval period, roughly from 1300 A. D. to 1800 A. D. After the l?"" century social, political and economic conditions were not in favour of the development of dance. Arts were affected due to political disturbances. But still in such situation the artists continued to practice classical dance. There was a lack of social 48 patronage to these artists. In this period family traditions, called the sampradayas or gharanas, grew within styles and the artists preserved these styles in such critical conditions. These artists frequently contributed to its growth in spite of the lack of basic education or academic knowledge and unfamiliarity with the Sanskrit language. In the Muslim rule the tradition of temple dancing also started loosing its importance and dance reached to the courts of these Mughal emperors. But the devotees of the art continued to practice it in the seclusion of their homes. During this period due to declining religious importance classical dance started to be looked down upon as a tool for entertainment. However during the rule of the Vijaynagar emperors and their patronage of Hindu cultural Institutions, the major development of present dance drama began; they established and develop themselves in the unstable social environment of the 18 and 19 centuries. In the British rule the system of formal education was started. It did not consider the arts as a subject of curricula. The generations that went to the schools and colleges founded by the British in India in the 19th century, remained afar from the art traditions of the country. Apparently the art of dancing had almost ruined by the 20"^ century and what could be seen of it was only a diluted, almost 49 degenerated form of what was known as the 'nautch' in the North, and the 'sadir' in the south. It was Hke a shadow of a big reahty. The recent revival of interest in dance, developed as a symbol of national pride. And this brilliant indigenous art and culture started developing, which has proved helpful to the revival of Indian dancing that took place in 20 century. The Revival of Indian Dancing: The art of Indian dancing has faced several ups and downs in the course of centuries and still it has been survived. Its worst eclipse started with the Mughal invasion and ended with the last years of British rule in India. Foreign cultural aggression led to the neglect of our local arts. The love for the foreign culture resulted in the loss of our own. Consequently, among the young people of modem India, western dance and popular dances (mainly film dances) are far more popular than classical dances. But despite all kind of upheavals - social, political and economic - our dance art was never completely wiped out. All over the country the flame was kept burning by some devotees of the art. 50 In the coastal region, the people of Kerala went on dancing the dances that were their traditional heritage. It is from here the ancient art of Kathakali emerged. In Tanjore, and in the rest of the South of India Devadasis guarded the Bharata Natyam technique. Up in the North, Bindadin and Kalakaprasad Maharaj preserved the art of Kathak, as it was a holy fire for them. In Assam and Manipur, Manipuri has been kept alive by the efforts of its exponents. It was only in the 20* century that members of the upper classes started taking interest in the oldest of Indian arts. They went to the masters to learn dance and brought back sufficient knowledge of the technique to teach new generations. This led to the renaissance of Indian classical dances. Indian classical dance forms started developing and growing vigorously.