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When the swaying of trees in the wind,
the cascading of water down a hill and the gamboling of the fawn was
contrived into the realm of the aesthetics, the art of dance was
born. This pleasant form of human activity was an outcome of a divine
intervention, for according to legend, the technique of aesthetic
enjoyment was first devised by the gods, to while away their blissful
idleness in heaven. They needed a medium that would enchant their
eye, allure the mind and amuse the senses, while enveloping all time.
This tall order had been purported by Indra, the god of heaven, who
in turn, appealed to the Creator, Brahma and the Preserver Vishnu, to
join hands in discovering such an art.
This novel activity, born of their joint effort,
was termed Natya. Lord Brahma’s contribution to this creative
technique was the tradition of Natya or the telling of a story
through movement and gesture. The Sama Veda provided music for its
theme. From the Rig Veda emitted the words of his Natya composition
and the Yajur Veda was consulted for gestures, while the Atharva
Veda was the source of the element of sentimental flavour. Once ready
this Natya or dance drama was presented before the Great One, Lord
Shiva. Was it then unusual that Shiva himself should break into dance
and express his divine appreciation in an ecstasy of motion, imbibing
the Cosmic activities of Creation, Preservation and Destruction? It
is not surprising, therefore, that classical repertoire usually
contains a representative number demonstrating the Ananda Tandava
dance pose of Shiva.
According to a myth, related in the Koyil Purana, a
group of heretic sadhus or ascetics had refused to recognize the
presence of God. They continued their infamous activities in the
forest, in open defiance, at Tillai, the present day city of
Chidambaram. Lord Shiva, along with Lord Vishnu disguised as his
wife, came to the forest of Tillai. The suspicious heretics, sensing
danger, sent a fierce a tiger charging at the Lord, who tore off its
skin and draped it as a mantle around himself. Next came a serpent,
which Shiva coiled round his neck and locks and finally a black
dwarf, Muyalam, was crushed underfoot by the Lord. The snake god, Adi
Sesha, on whom Lord Vishnu reclines, in Vaikuntha, prayed to be
granted the gift of seeing Shiva in true form and Shiva broke into
his cosmic dance or Tandava pose, holding in one hand a damaru
(hour glass drum), beating the time process of the universe.
Another hand he help up, with palm upturned, protecting his devotees.
The third hand held fire, denoting sacrifice, while the fourth one,
stretched across his body and pointing to his upturned foot,
signaling refuge for those who sought his love. Under his right foot
the Lord crushed evil, in the form of the dwarf, Mulayam. A serene
facial expression, completed the stance.
The three-eyed Shiva has the attributes of the sun,
the moon and latent fire in his eyes. The serpents around his neck
suggest diverse forces which the Lord tamed and the dance itself is
the ever enduring cycle of creation, continuance and dissolution.
Shiva, the dancer, is symbolic of the hearts of men, freed from the
clutches of the ego that binds human souls to the world of illusion.
When a classical dancer enacts the details of this legend, besides
the appropriate emotional alternations, she depicts the image of
Shiva with telling hand and eye gestures.
Other than the Shiva theme Lord Vishnu and his
spouse, Lakshmi, are often depicted in dances. The goddess is
described in the Pavai style, appearing before an army of asuras
or evil beings, as a dancer with exquisite movements, and a
rather seductive gait. The enchanted asuras gaped helplessly and,
forgetting their battle with the gods, laid aside their weapons and
pursued the enchantress, leaving the earth free of their evil
influence.
Lord Vishnu, descended on earth in ten forms all of
which have become the basis of celebrated dance themes. In the
Kathakali dances, of the Malabar region of Kerala, the stories of
Lord Vishnu add great dimension. It was while sage Manu, one of the
progenitors of men, was performing an oblation, that he noticed a
tiny fish. When he lifted the creature in his grasp, it grew in size
till he had to put it down into the ocean, the symbol of human
consciousness. The fish was none other than the Lord Vishnu. This
story is dramatically presented in a Kathakali abhinaya.
With the employment of hand gestures, stylized gait
and artistic movement of limbs, the performer also enacts the tale of
Lord Vishnu in his incarnation of a tortoise in the ocean bed on
which Mount Mandara pivoted as a churning stick to stir the waters of
the ocean of milk. Yet another poignant dance theme, is that of
Narasimha, or the lion-man form of Lord Vishnu who came to the rescue
of h is devotee Prahlad is told. The boy Prahlad had refused to cower
down to the demands of his proud father, King Hiranya Kashyap, who
questioned the very existence of God. In the ensuing battle, which is
stirred by loud musical accompaniments and vigorous dance steps, the
dancer enacting Narasimha pulls out the entrails of the heretic, but
in the next moment, his wrath changes to benevolence and he blesses
Prahlad, and brings the dance to a finale.
The most commonly presented form of Vishnu is that
of Lord Krishna. This man form of God who delighted is things that
make men happy is used as a dance theme in all schools of classical
performance. Among the well known of these themes is that of Kaliya,
had poisoned the waters of the Jamuna river. Krishna’s ball had
fallen into the river and the child god plunged into the water only
to be involved in a mighty combat. The river waters were stained a
deep red when finally, Krishna emerged above the mounted on the hood
of the dreaded serpent.
A part from this triumphant allegorical account of
the power of good over evil, what makes the Krishna theme so
universal is the dalliance of the Lord in the groves of Vrindavan on
the banks of the river Jamuna in the company of the gopies.
Referred to as the Rasa Lila, or Rasa Mandala, it is a compulsory
section of the kathak dance performance. The ardent dance of love,
where Krishna enjoyed the company of the milkmaids of Vrindavan is a
source of perennial inspiration. It is immortalized in treatises like
the Geeta Govinda where the padavalli or verses are the basis
of Odissi dance numbers enumerating Krishna playing upon his flute
while the gopis dance in ecstasy as they became one with the
Supreme Lover, Krishna.
While giving expression to this dance of divine
love, the dancer draws upon a series of moods or bhavas,
displaying a multiplicity of emotions, to exemplify the fervour
of romance. The dancer expresses the longing of the beloved expresses
the longing of the beloved changing to anxiety at the non-appearance
of Krishna. Then the gopi is displayed as a person lost is her
reflections of earlier encounters. As Krishna still does not appear
on the scene, her mood changes to anxiety and distress, followed by
lament. The mounting crescendo of feeling borders on insanity and
she sinks into a stupor of dejection. These stage of emotion are
fulfilled through a series of practiced facial expressions, common to
all dancers and termed as Navarasa bhava. The erotic mood is termed
as shringara, when the lips are parted in a half smile. The
comic side, or hasya is distinguished by a tingle of grimace and in
the karuna or pathetic mood, the outstretched hands the
jutting chin and the yearning in the eyes, complete the pose. The
other three poses reflect the manly moods of furiousness, heroism and
the terrible. The shoulders are taut, the eyes are wide open, the jaw
is stiff and the face expresses anger. Sometimes, the dancer gives in
to a wondrous mood, and finally she blends serenity with studied
calmness, to depict inner peace.
To render any theme in dance, therefore, the dancer
enriches her presentation, not by charading the events of the story,
but by interpreting a small portion of the story in several
projections. Even a single line of the theme, like ‘O Krishna,
come to me’, might require the dancer to show the lord playing
the flute, or as a prankster teasing the gopis, or again, as a
charioteer who drove Arjun’s vehicle into battle against the
Kauravas. She can even enact Krishna as the saviour who lifted a hill
to save his people from a deluge. As a dancer, her portrayal would
require movements to convey the excitement of spotting a beloved at
dusk.
These inventive and imaginative skills of the
dancer come into sharp focus while performing the theme of the nayak
and nayika or the hero and the heroine. Such role
portraiture envisages every human mood, while the nayak or hero has
been typecast into a fixed form of either being dhirodata or
temperate and firm, or its opposite dhiraprashanta. The nayika
can be portrayed in a thousand ways. She can be shown as swadheena
bhartrika or contented one whose lover is at her beck and call or
the vasakasajja nayika who adorns herself with care for her
lover, to give him a fitting reception. The virahaholkantika woman
is dressed at her temporary separation from her lover, in contrast to
her unenviable sister, the khandita nayika¸ whose lover
has been dallying with another woman. This latter nayika is mollified
and commands her lover to return to her, or retrace his steps to the
other woman. The kalahantaria nayika is left inconsolable a
she has just quarreled with her lover. She is filled with anguish as
the vipralabda nayika. She spends her time s the proshita
bhartrika, who languishes with amorous longing when, finally as
the abhisarika, she steps out to meet her husband bathed in
confidence at having overcome all obstacle.
Relative to such portrayals of female emotions
there are dance themes that choose to depict the escapades of
goddesses, as symbolic of each mood. In all these tales womankind
creates an element of completeness in the integrated whole. Thus,
Parvati, the daughter of King Daksha and consort of Shiva, is also
Shakti, the source of power of good over evil-the soft persuasion,
that triumphs over arrogance and violence. As Lakshmi, she is the
auspicious bestower of plenty on earth. That womanly charm, an
enviable asset, is made positive in the story of Mohini who turned
the demon, Bhasmasura into a heap of ashes by seducing him to dance.
In due course, as pert of a dance gesture, the demon touched his
vulnerable head and melted into a heap of ashes. The power of woman
to foil inevitable death is the theme of the deeds of Sati, who
wrenched her husband free from the depths of the kingdom of death.
The ever patient, Sita, the wife of Lord Rama, is a depiction of the
long suffering lot of woman while Kali is the avenging destroyer. The
affectionate Radha is the gentle gopi who, like a devout soul, is
forever seeking union with the divine. In maya we see the
woman who veils all truth and abhisarika is the determind one
who flaunts all obstacles, to reach her goal.
Thus dance themes are basically tools that lend
themselves to gesture and language are capable of arousing
fundamental emotions. Their varied themes, of earthly loves, heavenly
battles, varied environments are but manifestations of ecstasy in
motion. The dancer’s skill analyses from head to toe the harmony
of spiritual being, with earthly passion. Their stories are salvos of
human aspiration, expressed through the language of countless souls.
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