Chennai • CITY EDITION • FEBRUARY 28, 2020 Arts | Dance | Music | Movies www.thehindu.com/FridayReview Theatre | Review | History & Culture | Faith Lakshmi Viswanathan CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC of the soul to the Highest. It needs the sential feature of India’s art is that it is same devotion, the same great flights A leap year child, founded on a spiritual outlook,” she et me begin by paying my of imagination that produces reli­ Rukmini Devi said. She often emphasised that “ homage to the founder of gious feeling. Added to these are the spirituality” was above religion. “In Kalakshetra, Rukmini De­ creative spirit which, blossoming out Arundale was also a India there is no religion apart from vi Arundale. I knew her, of the artist produces great works of non­political activist our daily lives.” interacted with her, and art. Think of some of the great tem­ in my own modest way, ples and the bronze images of South and a woman known Path-breaking experiments Lhelped her with some of her thought­ India. These were not made by so­ for her refined Such clear thinking moulded her ful ventures like the Kalakshetra Jour- phisticated people… they may not vision for dance and thus was born nal. I admired her as a leader of In­ even be able to speak to us about ab­ aesthetic sense the institution Kalakshetra. She was dian culture, a thinker and a creative stract philosophy… nevertheless they the first to understand the value of a artiste. She knew that the arts have to were the people who created master­ school for dance. And she gathered be homogeneously allied to bring out pieces. Such art helped people to ap­ around her not only the expert teach­ the best in human endeavour. To me preciate reality.” ers of dance, but also the great musi­ she exemplified what the Vishnud­ As an active Theosophist, Rukmini cians and scholars of her time who harmottara Purana states — all the Devi had travelled widely. She ab­ could compose the music and select arts are connected, and to be a good sorbed ideas, and was inspired to the lyrics for her path­breaking expe­ artiste you need to have a sound create her own artistic works. In a riment — the adaptation of Valmiki knowledge of all the arts. : telling remark she said: “The people Ramayana for dance dramas. This Rukmini Devi lived her artistic life who are most ignorant of Indian cul­ was her most important contribution holding a candle up to this credo. She ture, I am sorry to say, are Indians. to dance and one which brought had a keen sense of observation and This sounds very strange but it is a about the blossoming of all her crea­ understood the arts of India with fact. Abroad many people study our tive energy. What indeed did this amazing sensitivity. She observed: culture. If we really believe in our cul­ venture showcase? The Ramayana “We do not know how to create con­ ture and its value both in national series composed by her over several sciously the beautiful things we once and individual lives we have to make decades helped her to visualise poe­ created unconsciously. The simple every effort to understand not only try as dance, make it dramatic, me­ potter keeps on making beautiful the exterior form of that culture but lodic and musically vibrant, and vi­ pots. The weaver knows colours and sually appealing. if you ask him to make something Daring to innovate, she took ideas modern he will do something ugly. Rukmini Devi from the old Bhagavatamela dance­ But if you leave him to do his ordin­ dramas, and vested them with her ary way, he will make something ( 29 Feb. 1904-24 Feb.1986) own choreographic ideas. Boldly she beautiful unconsciously.” introduced Kathakali techniques for She felt that we complicate things male characters such as Ravana and and lose simplicity. The creation of Hanuman. Her wide travels to far­ beauty was part of everyday life. And eastern countries inspired her stage the spiritual background which is Visionary craft. Her innate good taste guided simplicity, she felt, had that high as­ her designs in costume and accesso­ piration, a deep love of an ideal, a ries. Till today people flock to see the goal and an unconscious but intelli­ Kalakshetra Ramayana shows as well gent impulse to express it in our eve­ as other dance­dramas enjoying the ryday lives. She believed that the old­world charm, the melodies com­ creation of beauty was as much a posed by the stalwarts, including My­ spiritual expression as worship in a sore Vasudevachar, his grandson Raj­ temple. She believed that the arts aram, Papanasam Sivan and others. help in the development of all as­ For her, purana in her creative pects of life. The presentation of work was a tool to express inner self. beauty through dance, music, paint­ artiste “We cannot dance the dance of ing, sculpture, etc., which are chan­ Krishna unless we believe in Sri nels of that beauty, and channels of the spirit that gave birth to that Krishna, unless at least for the time spiritual thought stimulate the minds form.” Various facets Of the iconic being, we become one with Krishna. and emotions of people. She wrote: She believed that discernment and dancer-choreographer-guru If we do not believe in Him what is “Right emotion is the essence of evo­ discrimination in matters of beauty Rukmini Devi and Koothambalam the use of dressing up and dancing. lution. It is a very dangerous thing to should be welcomed. Democracy auditorium in Kalakshetra * PHOTOS: The outward form should be a visible THE HINDU ARCHIVES be brilliant or clever without know­ says anybody can be an artiste. But sign of the inward grace.” ing how to use imagination without democracy does not insist that every­ Rukmini Devi was the first Chair­ knowing how to control emotion, for body should be perceived as a good propriated the dance from the hered­ person (1962) of The Animal Welfare no matter how clever a man is, he artiste. Rukmini Devi observed in a itary dance community. She voiced Board of India. When asked how she still remains primarily a creature of lecture that twenty people voting de­ her observations clearly: “The art ve­ became an activist, she said, “I was emotion. Therefore it is necessary mocratically about the quality of a ry nearly died as it had become a standing one day on a railway plat­ that the emotions become stimulated work of art is not the right way. “We means for remembering the body form, waiting for my train when I felt in the right way. There needs to be a should know how many among the rather than of forgetting it. Yet those my sari being tugged by someone. I fine tuning to see and hear the great twenty are sensitive and knowledgea­ whom the world denounced as hav­ turned around and it was no ‘some­ and the true. This can be done only ble about good art.” ing become corrupt gave themselves one’ but a monkey, a caged monkey, through one channel — by attuning She proved time and again that her modern world, but in order to give where teachers and the taught lived up with devotion and sincerity to the pulling at my sari to ask me to help it ourselves to beauty, to greatness.” roots were firmly planted in India, great gifts we must have a true ideal together in harmony. She eventually art they loved. The art was their very get out of that trap... I felt that the and in fact she never veered away of great refinement, a refinement of built a Kerala style theatre for perfor­ life and they worked and sacrificed monkey had given me a task, a Art as life from a lifestyle which was typically the mind, of the soul…” mances, giving credence to the aes­ their bodies for perfecting the art.” mission.” It is not surprising that Rukmini Devi South Indian, which included a strict To quote her again: We should thetics of traditional theatre. In­ The fact remains that a deep love Rukmini Devi declined the posi­ pioneered the Renaissance of Art in vegetarian diet, a passion for Carnat­ never say that a thing is not modern. house artistes and craftsmen gave for dance inspired her to go to its tion of being the President of India, modern India. To make her ideal ic music (a trained singer herself), a The very word MODERN is not In­ the finishing touches to not only the roots and study it with diligence with when it was offered by Prime Minis­ work, she started an institution of taste for authentic handwoven Kan­ dian. It is an English word, express­ décor and ambience of the whole gurus at a time when crucial changes ter Morarji Desai. She was nominated learning where art dominated the chipuram silk saris, which became ing an un­Indian spirit. Our word is campus but also executed, under her were taking place in our society with for two terms to the Rajya Sabha, core of education. She said : “We may her fashion statement, and hand­ ETERNITY not modernism. watchful eye, costumes and accesso­ regard to temple dancers. where she mustered support for one say Art does not matter, it is religion, crafted temple jewellery. It is not sur­ Conceiving her design for living ries which brought out a visual treat. “Whenever there is a decay in ci­ of her causes — the Animal Welfare it is spirituality that matters. Any bo­ prising that for decades she was an with the arts, Rukmini Devi had a Stage craft in her hands became an vilisation we also see a degradation of Board.