From temple to arena

Two very different books describe the complex journey of Bharatanatyam and one of its greatest proponents.

In an incredible change of fortune, in less than a century, a performing art which was sacred to a small band of dedicated dancers exploded onto the world stage and became a symbol of so many things that represent India: colour, song, lyric, craft, philosophy, yoga and movement based on the principles of gravity. The journey of Bharatanatyam from temple performance by devadasis to the proscenium arena of today is a success story that has not frequently been told. So it is surprising to encounter two new books on Bharatanatyam, both intellectually stimulating for vastly differing reasons.

Bharatanatyam: A Reader, edited by Davesh Soneji, an assistant professor of “south Indian religion” at McGill University in Canada, is an extraordinary bouquet of some of the finest historical writings on Bharatanatyam that are held together by an erudite assessment of Bharatanatyam’s history, and reconstruction of form and presentation. Recognising that Bharatanatyam mediates the tensions between strangeness and familiarity, tradition and modernity, past and present, Soneji boldly unveils the “mythopoeic histories of Bharatanatyam which were carved to obfuscate the social history of the dance, largely to enable a continuous view of Indian culture”.

And he achieves this by juxtaposing articles that bring alive the close relationship between dance and the devadasis on the one hand, and on the other the burgeoning forces of nationalism/ modernity, which propel the creation of a national performing art as a symbol of Indian pride. Soneji’s technique is of retrieving the textual antiquity of the dance and revealing how the 20th-century investigation into the antiquity of Bharatanatyam in Sanskrit texts dissociated the dance from its social roots and universalised its aesthetics and history. This also enabled a Nehruvian “pan-Indian reading of aesthetic history with the Natyashastra superinscribed as the common root of all regional performance traditions”.

The volume then adopts the abhinaya technique of anavarna, revealing the story by peeling back layer after layer of history. It leads the reader through a fascinating labyrinth of histories, evidence and oral reminiscence that capture the syntax, context and vicissitudes of Bharatanatyam and how it came to be seen as India’s national dance form.

The first two sections of the book, which analyse links with the devadasi community and its reinvention in south India, contain its most fascinating chapters. Beginning with representations of the dance in colonial India and reflected portrayals in Europe, the two sections show the devadasis at the vortex of this changing art form, and unveils their complex art by going into intricate details of their repertoire and social mores. But these original owners of this art form would eventually be dispossessed, through a process in which a whole slew of state and non-state actors participated.

The next two sections, “Contemporary Extensions” and Dancers Speak”, bring the art form into our own generation. While the recasting of the dance in the early 20th century is presented with a fine eye for detail, these sections are the least satisfying. The articles dissipate without an empowered third eye efficiently linking them.

The other book, Rukmini Devi: A Life, is by Leela Samson, current director of Kalakshetra, the institution that Rukmini Devi Arundale founded in 1936 — inspired by creative prodding from the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, the renaissance ideas of fellow Theosophists, and her own dream of ennobling life and living with a new vision.

Samson’s book is a wonderful diary, a celebratory hagiography that grabs tidbits of information on her late mentor from various sources: historical, archival and vernacular. It does not force any unitary biographical vision; rather, through amazing nuggets of information, the reader is prodded to create their own image of Rukmini Devi. Samson collects a boxful of memories and memorabilia. Any future definitive book on Rukmini Devi will benefit from Samson’s painstaking research.

The book is studded with insights. For instance, Rukmini Devi believed that “it is only a few who were born dancers. Others were made into dancers. As for the rest they had dance thrust upon them! As a result, only a few could rise to the level of the sublime.” There is, she said, “a minimum level up to which you can teach people, train their minds and make them realize at least their limitations, if not their strengths. Every sincere student, in the course of his training or in later years develops a ‘background’. He should be allowed to exercise his originality, allow that background to come into play whenever necessary. Because in art as in other professions, your interpretation of the dance is really what you are in actuality.”

Where Samson dithers is in taking statements like these to their logical conclusion and examining them in the light of Kalakshetra’s journey. To be fair, that is not the object of this volume — perhaps her next…

This is not to deny the valuable insights that Samson herself offers. For example, in a lament about dancers of the younger generation, Samson wonders “whether they can yield to ‘the Presence’. Such an exalted ideal in art more often than not evades even thought, leave alone its unconscious expression.”

What connects the two books is the thoroughness of detail and research. Also, what both fail to do is to bring into focus the sweat and grime of Bharatanatyam. Soneji is excited by the historicity of the dance form and Samson remains in total and hushed awe of her mentor, firmly believing that Rukmini deserved more from history. In both perspectives, a sense of the power and excitement of Bharatanatyam is a casualty.

Both books also contain amazing visual documentation. Soneji’s volume has rare sepia-tinted images. And Samson’s is a veritable scrapbook of images, notings and jottings by and on Rukmini Devi. These marvellous visuals add immeasurable value to both volumes. n

Geeta Chandran is founder-president of the Natya Vriksha Dance Company and author of So Many Journeys, a personal account of Bharatanatyam

RUKMINI DEVI
A LIFE
AUTHOR: Leela Samson
PUBLISHER: Penguin
PAGES: 256
PRICE: Rs 550

BHARATANATYAM
A READER
EDITOR: Davesh Soneji
PUBLISHER: OUP India
PAGES: 496
PRICE: Rs 795