Archaeology of Dance in Java: Interpreting the Past Through Iconography
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focus Archaeology of dance in Java: interpreting the past through iconography Alessandra Iyer traces reliejs of the Siva Temple at the Prambanan Complex in Indonesia to reconstruct dance movements of an ancient art form focus y starting point is a con- Is sculptural/pictorial evi- I would question the notion of cept of reconstruction dence admissible as a methodologi- preserving a "conflict-free" her- broader than that nor- cal tool, within this framework, for itage in constant need of being kept mally used in dance research. I reconstructing a dance style? alive. Reconstruction cannot and work with reconstruction in rela- Opinion is divided. There are those should not exist only as revival of tion to dance styles and techniques who are prepared to consider a petrified heritage in the name of of body manipulation which were iconography as reliable evidence preservation of antiquity and au- once used in a performance con- and those who are not. The latter thenticity of tradition. Rather, it text but are now obsolete. seem to be caught up in a way of should strive for recognition of its Reconstruction is an interpre- thinking which automatically independent status from tradition tative act and for wide acceptance privileges and bestows authentic- and heritage, as a form of intellec- and credibility it requires the hall- ity to the written text alone. tual enquiry inscribed in the mark of authenticity. More recent The specific case study pre- present. research trends in the field of ar- sented will be my recent investiga- These are the issues I would chaeology have highlighted the tion of some dance reliefs from like to raise for discussion. In the Central Java, following pages I will focus spe- Indonesia, cifically on my reconstruction whose dance work, limiting myself to initiating movement the debate. content I have identi- The Prambanan temple complex fied and re- In the village of Prambanan, about constructed 15 kilometres from Yogyakarta, in in practice, Central Java, Indonesia, there is a using a large Saivite (pertaining to Saivism model based or Siva) complex , which is one of on an obso- the largest in Asia. lete dance The complex, believed to be- ambiguous nature of a notion of technique of body manipulation long to the early part of the 9th reconstruction based on concepts which seems to have been linked century A.D.(1), is made up of a of absolute objectivity, re-evaluat- with Saivism (cult of the god Siva) series of concentric courts which ing subjectivity of interpretation. and its growth. The paper is, how- contained some 224 minor sur- The data is a "network of re- ever, not concerned with the move- rounding temples and 8 temples sistance" against which the act of ment reconstruction alone; there in the inner court. Only these interpretation is measured. Meth- are other issues worth exploring. temples in the inner court have odology becomes crucial. The rela- What happens when a dance re- been restored. Among them, there tionship of the interpretation (and construction (say, a style or a spe- are three tall architectural struc- interpreter) with the "network of cific work) is accepted as authen- tures, the most important temples resistance" is defined by the re- tic? What is the actual relationship (candi) of the complex. These are finement and contextual sensitiv- between reconstruction and con- candi S i v a in the centre, with candi ity/appropriateness of the meth- temporary dance practice? Is re- Brahma to the right and candi odology. This will also define construction to be seen only as a Visnu to the left. The temples are authenticity. tool for preservation? so named because the main stat- 6 SPAFA Journal Vol. 7 No. 3 Candi Siva, Prambanan complex Photo: Alessandra Iyer focus ues in the celias represent these representation of a karana move- umentation of dance forms which gods. Candi Siva is more popu- ment. A karana is a small move- may no longer be in use is not larly known as candi Loro ment sequence which forms the universally accepted as a valid Jonggrang, after a legendary local basic unit of an obsolete technique methodology, either in the context princess identified withDurga, of dance described in the Sanskrit of Western or in that of non-West- whose statue is enshrined in the text Nätyasastra, the foremost ern dance research. Questions temple in the North-facing cham- work on dance, music and drama have been asked on how accurate ber. of India. Although I am not the static visual representations can be The three temples are rich in first to suggest that the dance re- in recording dance movements and iconography, and the inner side of liefs at Prambanan are karana (or also whether these movements can the balustrade of candi Siva and related to karana)(2), no one had be authentically recreated from a candi Brahma is covered with re- identified them as karana on the practical point of view(4). Reliabil- liefs depicting the story of Rama. basis of movement analysis, prior ity of the dance image as record is On the inner balustrade of candi to this present attempt. Such an questioned because it is thought Visnu, one can see episodes from identification would not have been that its narrative, devotional or the life of Krsna, one of the heroes possible without the previous re- symbolic function would automati- of the Mahabharata epic. The search on the karana seen on In- cally exclude a relationship with outer walls of all the three candi reality, (on scrutiny, this is clearly are covered with a variety of orna- If the iconographic only an assumption which has mental motifs showing flowers, evidence is further unfortunately prompted some animals, and minor celestials. On corroborated by other writers to dismiss dance images as the outer balustrade of candi Siva, uncertain evidence). Yet there is sources, such as there are 62 reliefs showing danc- no reason why these images would ers and musicians, together with manuals, literary not have taken their cue from forms another 70 reliefs showing groups works, extant practices known to the artists and craftsmen of three celestial beings in stand- in living traditions and through living performance prac- ing postures, which are known so on, then clearly one tices while also having a function as the apsari/vidyãdhara cannot dismiss the other than realistic representation (gandharva) groups. These reliefs possibility that such of dance. are usually thought to be decora- images do reflect was If the iconographie evidence tive but there are reasons to be- what dance practice is further corroborated by other lieve that mere decoration was not sources, such as manuals, literary their raison d'etre. I do not think dian temples that Subrahmanyam works, extant practices in living there can be any dispute that these carried out. It is his reconstruction traditions and so on, then clearly are dance scenes. But what kind of the karana of the Nãtyasastra one cannot dismiss the possibility of dance is represented? Although which I have used as a model to that such images do reflect what at this stage one cannot comment which the reliefs could be com- was dance practice. The question on the dance represented therein pared, for reasons I am about to of reliability becomes then a meth- in terms of choreography, one can explain(3). odological issue: the degree of ac- certainly present a formal analysis Can one reconstruct a dance curacy in 'reading' the dance im- of the dance movements portrayed. technique fromiconographicevi- age and reconstructing the It is now possible to identify dence? Reliance on iconographic movement will depend entirely on each one of the dance reliefs as a representations of dance as doc- the approach. 8 SPAFA Journal Vol. 7 No. 3 focus There have been different one so wished, for choreographic Prambanan had either been models of karana reconstruction purposes. glossed over or dismissed as rep- proposed over the years but It was a widely held view, resentations of some old dance Subrahmanyam's has the advan- when I began my investigation, form of which nothing was known. tage of being practically oriented, that the dance reliefs of Prambanan I would like here to give some that is, not merely based on trans- could not be representations of examples of the analysis carried lations of the chapter on karana karana because no relief is exactly out in order to arrive at an iden- found in the Nãtyasãstra. Ulti- identical with an existing relief tification of the movements shown mately, what makes one recon- seen in India - in struction more acceptable than temples such as another is entirely determined by the Brhadisvara whether it allows us to make at Tanjore or the better sense of the data. Natarãja temple Subrahmanyam's reconstruction at Chidambaram fulfills this requirement. Her which are well model is based on a correlated known for their study of textual material and sculp- identified karana tural evidence from all over the representations. subcontinent. The textual mate- Those who held rial consists of the Nãtyasãstra and this opinion its variant manuscripts, and the viewed the tenth/eleventh century commen- karana as static Dance reliefs and trio figures in niches, candi Siva tary to it written by Abhinavagupta poses, without Photo: Alessandra Iyer (deemed by all scholars who have realising that worked on the Nãtyasãstra to be each karana is a movement and as in all the reliefs. I have selected the essential tool for an under- such, any portion of that move- relief P14, P22, P49 (the P here standing of the work), as well as a ment can be visually rendered in standing for Prambanan) corre- number of other texts, written in a pictorial or a sculptural repre- sponding to K 24 (Bhujañga post-Nãtyasãstra times.