Decoding Bharata Natyam - A Short History

This was my first blog a couple of years back – one that I had decided I would use to write about Bharata Natyam – my first love. However, I sadly neglected it, while I wrote about other more generic topics. Now that I am standing on the brink of starting my own dance classes soon, I find that I want to tell people a story – a story about the history of Bharata Natyam as I studied it when I was learning dance. My endeavor here is not to bore you with dry facts or too much of verbosity, but to give you a clear background of how Bharata Natyam gained its current form. Oh, and for those who tell me that it is difficult to follow because of the language of the music, let me tell the discerning listener that a lot of the songs are in Sanksrit – our mother language, and if you listen closely and watch the hand gestures, movements, and expressions, there is no reason why you should not be able to follow the story the dancer is depicting.

But to go back to history, in the temples of South India, there lived women who were known as “Devdasis” – those who served God mainly through dance and music. A lot of households gave one of their daughters to the temples to be brought up by the priests as Devdasis, and these girls would be tutored in dance and music from an early age, which they would then perform on the temple premises at any great occasion. This was their vocation for life.

Now, there is always a relation between religion and state, and so, the kings who ruled in ancient South India, would come to the temples, from time to time, to visit, pray, and also to see the dance of the Devdasis. Often a king would be so enamored of the dancing damsel, that he would take her back to his palace, for his own private entertainment. These ladies were then called the “Rajdasis” – those who served kings. This is how Bharata Natyam left the temple premises and entered the royal palace.  From there, over the years, other people also started to learn the dance and slowly it spread to a number of places.

In present day, Bharata Natyam has six main items: Alarippu, Jatiswaram, Sabdam, Varnam, Padam, and Tillana. This form was given many years ago in Tanjore by four brothers, Chinnaiya, Punnaiya, Shibananda, and Vadivelu. They gave structure to the Bharata Natyam recital through these six main items, and were part of a Dravidian king’s court, where their students performed the dance. Of course, other items like kavithwam and geetham and vandanas were added to the repertoire over the years.

In the recent past, the great danseuses who have contributed immeasurably to this form of dance are Bala Sarswati – whose simple appearance belied her immense talent, Rukimini Devi Arundale – who established the world-famous Kalakshetra school of dance, Yamini Krishnamurthy – whose performances awed the world over,  and Mrinalini Sarabhai – who was dancer, choreographer, and teacher par excellence and founded the Darpana Academy of dance.

When I talk about great dancers, I must talk about great teachers of the dance as well, because without those teachers, the dancers wouldn’t exist. And when I talk about teachers, my Guru Dr. Thankamani Kutty immediately comes to mind. Hailing from Kerala, she and her husband late Guru Dr. Govindan Kutty left their home to come to Kolkata where they established the most famous school of Bharata Natyam, Mohiniattam, and Kathakali in eastern India – Kolkata Kalamandalam. A branch of Kerela Kalamandalam, Kolkata Kalamandalam has been producing  talented dancers for years now, including yours truly. Most of the famous Bharata Natyam dancers have trained in this school at some time or the other. Dr.  Thankmani Kutty can be credited with bringing Bharata Natyam to Bengalis, who before that, had mainly concentrated on learning Rabindrik dance or Kathak.

Of course, the history of Bharata Natyam cannot be covered in a single blog post, as reams can be written about each topic in detail. I have just given you an overview here, to kindle your interest in learning more and maybe learning the dance itself.

Watch out for my next blog post on describing the costume and jewelry of Bharata Natyam!