Bharatanatyam: Roots and Contemporaneity

Bharatanatyam stands as one of the oldest classical dance forms of India. The discipline

involves geometric precision of austere shapes and vigorous dynamics.11 The roots of the word

itself split into sanskrit words, “bharata” and “natyam” which translate to the author’s name,

Sage Bharata, and dance; this form functions as an emblem of Indian dramatic arts theory12 and

beliefs. With the British imperialist occupation of India, the form has become a casualty of

Victorian imperrialism and reductionist narratives in post-contemporary discourses. However,

understanding the intricacy of Bharatanatyam functions to “rehistorize and reconceptualize

emergent ‘Third World’ dance forms and cultural negotiations,” 13 something which is necessary

in understanding both its place in western ideology as well as Indian tradition.

The precedents set by the various designers and thinkers above contextualize

methodologies for researching the spatial information and theorizing value of othered experience

in my own project. To do so, Bharatantyam’s positionality within both the dance and designed

space must be understood.

BHARATANATYAM: ROOTSAND CONTEMPORANEITY

Bharatanatyam is intricately tied to the religious and cultural history of the Indian

Diaspora. The Natyashastra, written by Sage Bharata, is noted as the fifth veda and is a treatise

codifying the tradition of performing arts, including the sciences, literature, medicine and

music.14 The seminal text describes the act of dance as “a dual experience that involves both the

11 Avanthi Meduri, "Bharatanatyam as a Global Dance: Some Issues in Research, Teaching, and Practice. " Dance Research Journal 36, no. 2 (2004), 183: 11-29. doi:10.2307/20444589. 12 The Natyashastra describes the nature of performance, the structure of performance, the performance experience and a performer's approach to training the body. It is important to preface the project’s proposal with the holistic perspectives attributed to the Indian art form. 13 Avanthi Meduri, "Bharatanatyam as a Global Dance: Some Issues in Research, Teaching, and Practice, ” . 29 14 Indira Dasi, “Classical Indian Temple Dance” (Masters thesis, University of Waterloo, Ontario, 2011) 13

performer and the spectator.”15 The book was a transcription of the Isai Vellalar, a lower caste

community in Tamil Nadu who were known as temple dancers and courtesans. The dancers had

an independence and fluidity within the culture which was imbibed into the dance form as well.

Many of the dancers had sexual and spiritual connection with the gods, and described dispaities

within the caste system in place.16 The document is split into two parts - first dealing with the

Rasa (individual emotion employed as a vehicle for communication)17 and the second with prose.

It is also interesting to note that the first five parts of the Natyashastra actually detail the

‘making of playhouses’ and construction methodologies, tying theater to architecture in a

historical context and also emphasizing the importance of theater greater than entertainment or

pleasure.

When discussing dance, the Natyashastra outlines the 108 karanas, or “fundamental units

of dance movement.” 18 These movements and poses are plastered in sculptures in the oldest

temples in South India. The contemporary hand gestures were derived from another component,

the mudras and hastas (Figure 2).19

15Mary Elizabeth Diercks Parham Chin.

"The Essence of PerformanceAccording to the Natyasastra Including an Introduction to the Practice of Performance for the Body (Angika) and Voice (Vacika). " (PhD diss., University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1995) 1, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 16 Understanding the Isai Vellalar community and their social placement in society is extremely important to highlight that even in this ethnic history and artform, there was an extractive narrative from lower caste artists and expressions. This becomes ever more important as the state transforms under British colonial rule. 17 Pramod Kale, The Theatric Universe: A study of the NatyaShastra. (Bombay : Popular Prakashan, 1974) 196. 18 Avanthi Meduri, "Bharatanatyam as a Global Dance: Some Issues in Research, Teaching, and Practice, " 14 19 “Hand Gestures In Bharatanatyam, ” Btaconnect, last modified Jul 6, 2019, shorturl.at/svHX0

Figure 2: Asamyuta Hasta, Single Hand Gestures of Bharatanatyam

Expressions in Bharatanatyam are articulated through physical prowess and drama, with

specific limbs associated with certain movements and angles.20 Typically, the dancer moved in

triangular formations, creating semi-symmetrical patterns rooted in the ground unlike historical

and contemporary western dance forms like ballet. 21 Content of dance spanned from religious to

romantic, yet these ideas proliferated differently by religion and lineage. There is also an intense

emphasis on emotion and facial features which allows the dancer to communicate non-verbally

with the audience. One of the praxes of the dance form is rasa, defined in the Natyashastra as

20 Kapilla Vatsyayan, Arrested Movement: Sculpture and Painting, (New Delhi: Wisdom Tree, 2007), 9. 21 Ibid., 17.

divine nectar or flavor which each dancer and performance aims to induce. Royona Mitra22

summarizes the concept concisely below.

“Using the Indian body as its key reference point, these sthai bhavas were stylized through hand gestures and facial expressions into eight prototypes called rasas; these rasas constitute the emotional states of love, laughter, fury, compassion, disgust, horror, heroism and wonder. Much later on a ninth rasa, peace, was added, leading to the phrase navrasa or nine rasas. According to the Natyashastra, dancers train in the art of abhinaya, a strictly codified language that draws on the prototypes of the rasas through physicality, hand gestures and facial expressions (angika), textual delivery (vachika), costumes and make-up (aharya). Together they deliver characterizations, narrate stories and, in turn, evoke rasa in the audience.” Rasa acts as a point to connect Indian philosophy to a greater cultural zeitgeist. Mitra

details how “the ‘most distinctive aspect of the performative discourse in the Natyashastra is its

clear emphasis on the ‘universality’ of production and reception of emotions presented in rasa

theory… Although the codifications in the Natyashastra were generated with reference to the

particularities of Indian bodies, the human emotional states that are meant to be evoked by them

are supposedly universal.”23 The scripture on Bharatanatyam is only a small section of the

Natyashastra which discusses greater theatrical performance, art and architecture. It is important

to recognize that we are approaching this philosophy holistically, where the use of

Bharatanatyam is a personal choice from my own lived experience for a case study on an

architectural process. But, this is only a fraction of the knowledge and philosophies rooted in my

culture and heritage. Ultimately, this is a process where all ethnic ideologies can serve similarly

as foundations to more complex, inclusive and equitable perspectives towards the lived

existence of a global community.

22 Royona Mitra, Decolonizing Immersion, Translation, spectatorship, rasa theory and contemporary British dance, (Performance Research, 2016) 91. 23 Ibid., 91.

It is important to recognize the positionality of the artform as time passed and western

imperialism affected Indian society. As most Bharatanatyam performance knowledge systems

were passed down through the gurukula24 pedagogy, western intervention in Indian customs

created desires for understanding and interpreting Hindu Theater. “Ancient Indian theater was

introduced to the West in 1789 by William Jones’ English translation of The Lost Ring of

Sakuntala (Abhijnanasakuntalam). V. Raghavan has written about the result of this translation:

Two years after this, the German translation of this play by Forster influenced Goethe, who burst into a sonnet of praise for the play, imitated its prologue in his Faust and planned to adapt it for the Weimar stage. Interest in Sanskrit drama grew in France and Germany in the nineteenth century; even smaller forms like the monologue and the farce were studied, and histories of Indian literature, culture, and drama in general included accounts of Sanskrit drama. A definite stage was reached with the three volumes of the select specimens of the Theater o f the Hindus of H. H. Wilson in 1826-27 (later reprinted in two volumes in London) which were immediately translated into German and French. This series of translations of six complete Sanskrit plays and short accounts of twenty three others of all types did for Sanskrit drama what Max Mueller's Sacred Books o f the East did for religion and philosophy in Sanskrit. It was Wilson’s ambition, as he stated in his preface, to secure for the Hindu theater a place in English literature (qtd. in Baumer, 9-10). “25

This excerpt is especially interesting in denoting how the dance form underwent major

changes after the entrance of Imperial Britain. The performance act became rooted in western

philosophies and roots, stemming mainly in Literature, which was a practice contrary to what

was detailed in the Natyashastra26. Beyond this, because of legislation put forth by the British

Raj, practicing dancers became associated with sex acts and prostitution subsequently devastated

the profession. However, pivotal dancers like Rukmini Devi Arundale and Balasaraswati kept the

24 Gurukula is an Indian education system with shishya, student, living near or with the guru, in the same house. The guru-shishya tradition is a sacred one in Hinduism and appears in other religious groups in India, such as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. 25 Mary Elizabeth Diercks Parham Chin, “The Essence of Performance… ” 10-11.

26 Pallabi Chakravorty,

"From Interculturalism to Historicism: Reflections on Classical Indian Dance, " Dance Research Journal 32, no. 2 (2001): 108-119. http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/scholarly-journals/inter culturalism-historicism-reflections-on/docview/2055108/se-2?accountid=4485.