In a 2,000-year-old town on the east coast, classical and folk dancers perform amidst ancient ruins. T E Narasimhan visits the Mamallapuram Dance Festival
On December 27, the day of the inauguration, Mahabalipuram is a sight to behold. On one side is the sea.
On the other side, the stage for the Mamallapuram Dance Festival has been tastefully located so as to have the world-famous Shore Temple as a backdrop.
This is India’s largest such festival, and it goes on for a month. The setting, the ancient town of Mahabalipuram, once known as Mamallapuram, is 50 km south of Chennai on the coast road to Puducherry.
Before the dance performance begins, guests are serenaded by a two-dozen-strong orchestra of nadaswaram (wind) and melam (percussion). Foreigners get a special welcome, which includes a garland and a bite of South Indian snack food with filter coffee at the Tamil Nadu Tourism stall.
As visitors walk toward the venue, an orchestra of veena, violin, morsing, nadaswaram and kanjira, along with percussion, performs songs of the late actor-turned-politician M G Ramachandran. It also performs famous Tamil songs like “Katrinilay Varum Geetham” and “Kurai Ondrum Illai”, popularised by the late, great Carnatic vocalist M S Subbulakshmi.
The festival opens with Bharatanatyam by Lakshmi Ramasamy’s Sri Mudralaya team. Ramasamy is a senior disciple of Chitra Visveswaran. In an hour-long performance, the dancers depict the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. The Dashavataram has captured the minds of Indians and foreigners alike.
For Gita Krishna Raj, performing at Mahabalipuram is a double delight. Besides the exposure a dancer gets, the ambience is effective. Performing in this 2,000-year-old town — a “natural platform”, she says — brings out the best in the dancer.
On this December day of the inauguration, sultry Chennai turns briefly chill. There is a slight drizzle — and yet the crowd is overwhelming. Foreigners sit on the wet grass, while locals occupy the front rows.
Michael Wilson, a tourist from New Zealand, says after the performance, “It was mind-blowing.” He adds disappointedly, “Wish we could get close to the stage.”
Annie, a tourist from Israel, did get to the front. She says, “Music and dance are the only arts which do not have religion, language or anything. We were sitting with Indians and foreign nationals and we all enjoyed the same feelings. I felt at home.”
The Mamallapuram festival is seen as a cultural union of dance forms, including Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi and Odissi. Some 63 performances are lined up for the month-long festival, which ends on January 26, Republic Day. The festival will also showcase folk arts and instruments like Karagam, Thappattam, Oyilattam, Devarattam and Poikkal Kuthirai (all folk dances), Naiyandi melam (a drum), Therukkoothu (street theatre), Villuppattu (musical storytelling), Bommalattam (puppet dance) and Kavadi (a dance in honour of the god Murugan).
S Gokula Indira, Tamil Nadu Minister of Tourism, says, “Tourism [should be] tension-free. Merging it with music and dance adds more flavour.” The festival is organised by the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Union Ministry of Tourism.
There seems to be no better place for this confluence than Mahabalipuram. It was once a major port of the Pallava kings, and its rock-cut monuments bear witness to the high water mark of Pallava rule. It is fitting that today, too, people should travel to Mahabalipuram from near and far to experience these ancient arts.
