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Bharatanatyam Performed: A Typical Recital

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/08949460490274022

1545-5920

Rajika Puri,

Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies

Abstract Originally written as a chapter in a Master's thesis in the Anthropology of Human Movement, "A Structural Analysis of Meaning in Movement; The Hand Gestures of Indian Classical Dance" (CitationNew York University, 1983), this article conducts Rajika Puri's readers through a Bharatanatyam performance, providing relevant facts about the history of the form, its structure (musical and otherwise), and above all its profound depth of meaning. She discusses a Bharatanatyam dancer's costume, make-up, use of music, and the repertoire of a typical performance lasting two-and-a-half hours. Puri introduces the complexities of abhinaya (roughly "mime") and hasta mudras (stylized hand gestures), revealing how it is that Indian dancers combine dancing and acting () with so-called pure movement () in every performance. She tells us that both abhinaya and are included in , the word that is closest to the idea of "dance" in India. And, is the main vehicle of (theater). In an elegant exegesis of the theory of rāsa ("taste" or "flavor") Puri introduces us to the metaphysical concepts that permeate Indian classical dance forms. She concludes by saying that, "Wherever they may be found in the world, the great traditions of dancing deliberately and consciously convey meaning. They are not simply mindless entertainments." Rajika Puri was born in India, but now lives in New York City, although she often stays in India for extended periods. She is an internationally known performer of three idioms of Indian classical dancing: Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi. She holds a B.A. (Hons.) degree in English Literature from Delhi University and an M.A. in the Anthropology of Human Movement from New York University. She has published articles on Indian classical dancing in JASHM, Semiotica and several Indian publications. Notes N.B. For readers who do not read movement texts, the transcriptions into Laban script will be unintelligible, a fact which we regret. However, the transcriptions were added for the benefit of graduate students and others who are movement-literate, and to make the point that semasiologists rely on written transcriptions of the movements they discuss because they want to leave no doubt in anyone's mind about the identity of the action signs they analyze and discuss. 1 Although discussion of the societal role, kinship organization, duties and rituals of dēvadāsis affected the development of Sādir Nāc, it is beyond the scope of this essay. For detailed treatment see CitationMarglin [1980], who deals with the ritual role of the dēvadāsis at the temple of Jagannatha in Puri (Orissa). 2 Noted among scholars who led the revival of dancing in southern India were E. Krishna Iyer, a dance teacher who on one occasion even dressed up as a woman and gave a recital of Bharatanatyam, and Dr. K.V. Ramachandran, an influential dance critic, learned in Sanskrit and music [Singer 1972: 173–176]. Singer describes the rise of the Madras Music Academy, the most important cultural institution connected with the patronage and dissemination of Bharatanatyam, which was founded soon after the Madras meeting of the Indian National Congress in 1927 [1972: 173–176]. 3 This divinity's name is also frequently spelled "Shiva". 4 Specific information about the spatial relationships between dancer, deity, and audience in the rituals of Tanjore dēvadāsis is not available, but it is likely that the dancer stood to the right of the deity, facing the audience. In Indian temples the deity's image usually faces east, and in the few extant dances that are addressed to the guardians of the eight corners of the universe, "east" is always towards the audience, i.e., the direction in which the image of the deity faces. On the other hand, when addressing a deity during a dance, the dancer's gestures are directed to a point straight in front of her body but behind the audience, while gestures addressing spectators are directed towards the two front diagonals. 5 In recent times dances from the Bharatanatyam repertoire have been performed by men, but apart from Krishna Iyer's performance mentioned in Note 2 above, their recitals do not adhere to the usual Bharatanatyam format and include innovations intended for modern Indian or Western audiences. Moreover, men rarely dance solo: instead, traditional formats of dances are often rearranged as duets for a man and woman, in which artistic license is taken with Bharatanatyam. Movements from other idioms are included, costumes are adapted to suit a male figure, and themes are introduced that diverge from the normal content of Bharatanatyam dances. These kinds of presentation are rare in contemporary India, and would there not be regarded as typical of Bharatanatyam. 6 Performed simply, namaste or a namaskāra is a hand gesture in which the palms are joined and the hands held near the front of the chest. Fingers are extended and held close together, pointing upwards, similar to the hand gesture for prayer among Christians. 7 The most popular costume for Bharatanatyam today is called "the fan costume." It is a recreation of clothing worn by dancers in the twelfth century from temple sculptures of Chidambaram and Halebid [Figure 1]. This costume was introduced in the nineteen- fifties. 8 The generic name for this song is Vināyaka Stuti (song or poem to Vinayaka or Ganesha). It is addressed to the elephant-headed son of Siva, who is also guardian of beginnings and remover of obstacles. He is invoked at the beginning of all music concerts as well as before the commencement of a reading of Hindu epics such as the . Ganesha also features at the top left-hand corner of paintings and sculptures that narrate a well-known story or legend. The first character presented in all Indian theater, he is either represented by an actor wearing an elephant mask or invoked in a dance that describes his attributes. Many Bharatanatyam dancers present a Vināyaka Stuti through movement. 9 Today, the length of a performance is governed by modern convention. In earlier times, depending on the occasion, the duration of performances varied from one half-hour to five hours. 10 The main composition in a Bharatanatyam recital is called and a dancer may take as long as an hour to interpret it. is also the longest and most elaborate of musical forms. The organization of sāhitya and svara is the same in both cases, except for the interpolation of jātis in composed specifically for dances. The word basically means "paint, color, tint." It is also used for the four main divisions of Indian society (brāhmin, kshatriya, vaisya, and sudra), and it also means "depict, picture, and write." Most Sanskrit words are polysemic, as can be noted by the many glosses for each word in Sanskrit dictionaries. 11 I refer to kirtanman, javeli, and gitam which may be regarded as special kinds of , and to svarājatis which are variations on . [In transcribing Tamil words and other terms from the technical vocabulary of Bharatanatyam I have used the common forms that are found in most program notes, which are today mostly written in English.] 12 See CitationPuri and Hart-Johnson [1995: 158–186] for relevant comments about improvising and choreographing. 13 The opposition mārgi/dēsi operates much more widely, for example, in indigenous linguistic theory. Mārgi is virtually synonymous with samskrta which means "highly elaborated" and "well or completely framed" in contrast to prakrta which means "normal," "ordinary," and "natural." The latter word (prakrta) is the generic name given to the local vernaculars of the Gupta Empire, the languages of the market-place and of everyday discourse. Many plays of the Gupta period are actually written both in Sanskrit and in different Prakrits, the former language being spoken by "elevated" characters and the latter by "lesser" characters and women. For more information, see CitationPuri [1983: 45ff.]. 14 Bharata's (circa third century CE) is the oldest extant text on Indian dramaturgy [CitationGhosh 1967]. The text is important to Bharatanatyam, but the subject is not developed here in this short essay [see CitationPuri 1983, Chapter 3, for further discussion]. —Editors. 15 The texts on and abhinaya describe in detail the different moves of each of these bodily parts—cf. CitationGhosh [1967], CitationCoomaraswamy [1934] and CitationCoomaraswamy Duggirala [1970]. 16 See CitationFarnell [1996] for contemporary discussion of movement and gesture and the metaphorical process. 17 See CitationVatsyayan [1968] and CitationCoomaraswamy [1934 and 1918].