VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA DANCES OF INDIA DANCES OF INDIA CONTENTS 1. Acknowledgements 1 2. Editorial Dr.Padma Subrahmaniam 3 3. The Dance of Shiva Ananda K. Coomaraswamy 15 4. The Gift of Tradition K. S. Ramaswami Sastri 20 5. The Spiritual Background of Indian Dance Rukmini Devi 25 6. The Renaissance of Indian Dance and its Consequences Mohan Khokar 30 7. The Art of Dance Dr. C. P. Ramaswami Iyer 35 8. The Place of Language in Dance Prof. C. V. Chandrasekhar 40 9. Waiting in the Wing Usha Jha 47 10. The Ramayana in Indian Dance and Dance-Drama Mohan Khokar 54 11. The Art and The Artist K. S. Ramaswami Sastri 60 12. Kuchipudi Dance V. Patanjali 62 13. The Veedhi of Bhagavatam Andhra Dr. V. Raghavan 69 14. Bhagavata Mela - Dance-Drama S. Natarajan 72 15. Koodiyattom D. Appukuttan Nair 74 16. Origin and Development of Thullal P. K. Sivasankara Pillai 77 17. Kathakali-The Total Theatre M. K. K. Nayar 81 18. Mohiniaattam Dr. (Smt.) Kanak Rele 97 19. Bharatanatyam Smt.Chitra Visweswaran 102 VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA DANCES OF INDIA 20. Dance can Play a Therapeutic Role Smt.Sudharani Raghupathy 105 21. Yakshagana Bayalata K. S. Upadhyaya 108 22. A Glimpse Into Odissi Dance Dr. Minati Mishra 115 23. Mayurabhanj Chhau Dr. (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan 121 24. Kathak Dance as an Art -Form Dr. S. K. Saxena 132 25. Udayshankar Moni Bagchee 135 26. Temples as Patrons of Dance Dr. K. V. Raman 138 27. Therukkoothu-The Folk-Theatre of Tamilnad Smt. Shyamala Balakrishnan 140 28. Chakkiyar Koothu Mrinalini Sarabhai 144 29. Vivekananda Kendra Samachar 146 30. Folk-Dances of Gujarat Parul Shah 169 31. Folk-Dances of Punjab - Bhangra Dr. (Mrs.) Kapilavatsyayan 175 32. Folk-Dances of Haryana Sudhir K. Sharma 178 33. Folk-Dances of Madhya Pradesh Dr. (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan 181 34. Natya Tradition in Maharashtra Sucheta Bhide 184 35. Folk-Dances of Rajasthan Dr. (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan 188 36. Folk-Dances of West Bengal Dr. (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan 192 37. Manipuri Dance Darshana Jhaveri 194 38. Folk-Dances of Arunachal Pradesh Niranjan Sarkar 196 40. Assamese Dance Pradeep Chaliha 205 VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA 1 DANCES OF INDIA Acknowledgements his volume of the Kendra Patrika on 1. Traditions of Indian Folk-Dance “Dances of India” is expected to be by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Tof lasting and cherishable value. Publishers: Indian Book Though performing artists and exponents Company, New Delhi. in the field are comparatively few in number, there are thousands who love and admire 2. Lesser Known Forms of the excellent heritage of our culture, Performing Arts in India. Edited namely, the dances of India. As the topic by Durgadas Mukhopadhyaya. itself indicates, it is not a subject on which Publishers: M/s. Sterling everyone can write authoritatively. Publishers Private Limited, Therefore, it was very essential to invite New Delhi. contributions on different topics from the 3. “The Art of Dance” from the artists and exponents of dance in different Voice of Samanvaya. Publishers: parts of the country. With a deep sense of C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar gratitude, we express our hearty thanks’ Foundation, Madras-LB. to all those artists who extended their valuable help and co-operation promptly, 4. The Dance of Shiva by Ananda and made our venture a good success. K. Coomaraswamy , Publishers: They not only sent articles but also helped Sagar Publications, New Delhi. us with a good number of relevant photo- 5. “Origin and Development of graphs, which have added much to the Thullal” by P. K. Sivasankara richness and quality of the volume. Besides, Pillai from Kalamandalam on a subject like this, when the attempt is Annual (1970). Publishers: to try to give a fairly comprehensive Kerala Kalarnandalam, Cochin-11. picture, one has to necessarily reproduce certain ,widely accepted and standard 6. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay articles connected with the theme. This for perrmssron to reproduce could be done only with the generous help articles from their Bhavan’s and co-operation extended to us by the Journal and from their, book various publishers of books and ;magazines. “The Sacred Dance of While thanking them earnestly, we give India” by Mrinalini Sarabhai. below the names and addresses of the 7. “Folk-Dances of Arunachal publishers who have helped us by giving Pradesh” by Niranjan Sarkar. their permission to publish in this volume Publishers: Arunachal Pradesh whatever portions we required: Administration, Shillong. VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA 2 DANCES OF INDIA We are very thankful to artiste Kalpana with which they executed the whole who managed to get a good. number of volume. While every care has been taken valuable photographs which have been to see that no party is left out in our used in this volume. Our thanks are also acknowledgement for their meritorious due to ‘SITRA’ who did the cover design in assistance and co-operation, we earnestly spite of his heavy pre-occupation with solicit forgiveness for any mistake of other commitments. We are indeed very omission or commission which, of course, thankful to M/s. Rajsri Printers for their has not been deliberate. neat handling of the work and the speed VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA 3 DANCES OF INDIA BHARATIYA NATYA AND NRITTA Dr. PADMA SUBRAHMANIAM EDITORIAL he earliest extant literature on the compendious work dealing with all these subject of Indian Dance is Bharata’s elements in totality and running to thirty- Natyasastra. There seems to have T six chapters. It is highly probable that this been some Nata Sutras even before this composite work was written during the Sastra was penned. But they have either course of a few centuries, by authors of been lost or got dissolved into the present the same pen-name. Hence this work may Natyasastra. The term Natya encompasses be considered as an extraordinary in itself all the artistic elements of the compilation of a series of supplemental Theatre Art. Dance was only a part of treatises on the subject. This clearly proves drama in ancient India. But drama itself the exclusive importance that the nucleus was mostly danced. There was hardly any of the original treatise on Natya and its bifurcation between these arts in the true author Bharata enjoyed in the ancient Hindu Hindu theatre. Like the Hindu religion, which society. is itself a fusion of the Aryans’ . Vedic yagna and the non-Aryans’ Agamic puja, Natya, in its complete form consists of the Hindu theatre also took the form of a music, dance and communication through homogeneous presentation of dance and expression. Of these, the second and third drama. Dance seems to have been a elements are known as Nritta and Abhinaya, favourite sport of the non-Aryans, while respectively. The Natya- sastra describes drama, with its literary beauty was the all these elements in great detail. Later, Aryan’s love. The art of dance developed authorities like Saarangadeva (12th as drama through its getting mingled with century A.D.) recognised another form the Aryan culture. Natya was the term called Nritya and defined it as a which indicated this composite whole. The representational kind of Nritta. But term Sangita was always referred to in its Bharata’s period had the arts of only Nritta triple aspects viz., Gita (song), Vadya and Abhinaya as parts of Natya. Nritta (instrumental music) and Nritta (dance). could be handled in two ways, viz., Uddhata All the earlier works on Sangita had (gracefully forceful) and Sukumara chapters on everyone of these elements. (gracefully soft). These obtained the Natya included these three plus drama too. names of Tandava and Lasya perhaps only The Natya sastra is an unsurpassed after Kalidasa’s time. During Bharata’s VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA 4 DANCES OF INDIA period, the term Tandava seems to have to foot are prescribed for each limb, based been a synonym of Nritta. The Aryans seem highly on kinetic principles. The student to have freely incorporated the art of Nritta was expected to master these individual into their Natya. Ever since then, Natya exercises and proceed to practising was almost suffused with Nritta. Its actual combinations of movements of various place in it is revealed through the study of limbs. the nature of Natya. These exercises are to be meaningfully The goal of any Natya is only to create utilised to convey ideas and more important Rasa. Rasa is the enjoyment of an aesthetic than that, feelings. This is the essence of bliss’ derived through witnessing or reading Angika Abhinaya. Physical expression is a a production. The process through which part of human nature. The connection this is achieved is the sub- structure of between the psyche and the physic is so the varied rules analytically laid down in intrinsic, that even the minutest vibration the Natyasastra. The Bhava, i.e. feeling, of the mind gets easily reflected through contained in a situation and the character the body in daily life itself. For instance, involved has to be expressed by the actor nodding the head is part of human or the writer, as the case may be, in such behaviour while reacting. The force, speed a way that it can be understood by the and space of our pacing also reflect the onlooker or reader. Unless the feelings and inner composure and conflicts. The art of ideas are communicated, the audience physical expression is hence beautifully cannot share those feelings, which conceived, classified and codified by ultimately is responsible for evoking Rasa. Bharata, to artistically suit a dramatic The art of communication is called representation. Abhinaya. There are four mediums of Angikabhinaya is of two categories. One is expression available for the artists.