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1| Page In the Arms of the Lord of Dance It was 40 degrees above zero scorching Indian heat. We, spectators were bathing in sweat and sipping icy Pepsi. But the dancer after finishing two-hour performance full of quick and impetuous jumps came up to us fresh as a lotus flower. For all that she was thickly made up in a theatrical way and robed in magnificent garments, and the oil lamps were burning on the stage where she danced. -Aren't you hot? - I asked the temple dancer quite forgetting to make a compliment to her art in amazement. However I little understood in a cascade of strange bent poses in which she stood motionless like a statue, in swift finger work taking shapes of complex figures and in the unusual playing of eyes. -The thoughts about the heat would distract my mind from my thoughts of Shiva, - a devadasi, a maidservant of deity answered mysteriously. - But now it is clear to me that I had danced badly. If I danced the way my guru does you wouldn't have been hot too. Only later I knew the gift of a true devadasi is like that of yogis who are able to melt snow and ice in Himalayas a few meters around them with the heat of their bodies. The matter here is in the perfect work with psycho energy. But I think that a classic dance even exceeds yoga. The yogi's aim is in self-transformation. The aim of an Indian ritual dancer is by becoming a vessel of divine energy also to lead viewers to the unity with the higher forces of the Universe. It is not by mere accident that the final and at the same time the culmination moment of dance is moksha, the deliverance from hardships of existence and blending with the divine source. A dancer acts like a great extrasensory person, a healer of body and soul illnesses. The amazing fact that quite a lot of people who watch temple dance not only feel a special feeling of pacification but also get rid of aches especially of psycho somatic nature is explained by the mighty emanation that is coming from a dancer. Something similar happens when a shaman performs his dance. Shamans are believed to be obsessed by ghosts. But Lord Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance enters the body of an Indian dancer. Almost everyone might have seen a figurine of four-handed Shiva in this position. In his one hand he holds a drum, the image of the initial sound, rhythm, vibration out of which the Cosmos sprung out. In his second hand he holds the fire that destroys all that becomes obsolete. The gestures of two other hands show that he will protect and save those who worship him. Dancing Shiva treads under his feet a demon that embodies stagnation and passivity not letting him to take possession of human souls. The god's dance is the symbol of the cosmic movement and renovation. When he stops there will be the end of all days. Shiva is not only the Lord; he is also a Yogishvara, a divine yogi. The two incarnations of one god reflect the fundamental unity of two forms of meditation: one being static yogi, the other is dynamic and is embodied in temple dance. A dancer's deepest concentration on the meaning of gestures and poses rapidly changing each other during the performance leads to the complete estrangement from body. It starts to move as if by its own will without a slightest strain. Both in yoga and dance a body is trained with the aim to completely forget about it in the end, - explains an outstanding Indian dancer Padma Subramanyam. - It is a means thanks to which the prevalence https://thebatmenbegins.wordpress.com/ https://thebatmenbegins.wordpress.com/

In the Arms of the Lord of Dance

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In the Arms of the Lord of DanceIt was 40 degrees above zero scorching Indian heat. We,spectators were bathing in sweat and sipping icy Pepsi. But thedancer after finishing two-hour performance full of quick andimpetuous jumps came up to us fresh as a lotus flower. For all thatshe was thickly made up in a theatrical way and robed inmagnificent garments, and the oil lamps were burning on the stagewhere she danced.

-Aren't you hot? - I asked the temple dancer quite forgetting tomake a compliment to her art in amazement. However I littleunderstood in a cascade of strange bent poses in which she stoodmotionless like a statue, in swift finger work taking shapes ofcomplex figures and in the unusual playing of eyes.

-The thoughts about the heat would distract my mind from mythoughts of Shiva, - a devadasi, a maidservant of deity answeredmysteriously. - But now it is clear to me that I had danced badly. IfI danced the way my guru does you wouldn't have been hot too.

Only later I knew the gift of a true devadasi is like that of yogiswho are able to melt snow and ice in Himalayas a few metersaround them with the heat of their bodies. The matter here is inthe perfect work with psycho energy. But I think that a classicdance even exceeds yoga. The yogi's aim is in self-transformation.The aim of an Indian ritual dancer is by becoming a vessel of divineenergy also to lead viewers to the unity with the higher forces ofthe Universe. It is not by mere accident that the final and at the same time the culmination moment ofdance is moksha, the deliverance from hardships of existence and blending with the divine source. Adancer acts like a great extrasensory person, a healer of body and soul illnesses. The amazing factthat quite a lot of people who watch temple dance not only feel a special feeling of pacification butalso get rid of aches especially of psycho somatic nature is explained by the mighty emanation that iscoming from a dancer. Something similar happens when a shaman performs his dance. Shamans arebelieved to be obsessed by ghosts. But Lord Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance enters the body of anIndian dancer.

Almost everyone might have seen a figurine of four-handed Shiva in this position. In his one hand heholds a drum, the image of the initial sound, rhythm, vibration out of which the Cosmos sprung out. In

his second hand he holds the fire that destroys all that becomesobsolete. The gestures of two other hands show that he will protectand save those who worship him. Dancing Shiva treads under his feeta demon that embodies stagnation and passivity not letting him to takepossession of human souls. The god's dance is the symbol of thecosmic movement and renovation. When he stops there will be the endof all days.

Shiva is not only the Lord; he is also a Yogishvara, a divine yogi. Thetwo incarnations of one god reflect the fundamental unity of two formsof meditation: one being static yogi, the other is dynamic and isembodied in temple dance. A dancer's deepest concentration on themeaning of gestures and poses rapidly changing each other during theperformance leads to the complete estrangement from body. It startsto move as if by its own will without a slightest strain.

Both in yoga and dance a body is trained with the aim to completelyforget about it in the end, - explains an outstanding Indian dancerPadma Subramanyam. - It is a means thanks to which the prevalence

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of the corporal element in our consciousness is defeated. A dancer's ego liberates itself from all theearthly by blending with the cosmic dance in which the universe moves. The result of such dance islike that what yogi and priests are aiming at by making sacrifices. Rest in the middle of movement isthe characteristic feature of basic figures in Indian dance and are called karanas. A dancer's bodykeeps firmly fixed positions in the swiftest jumps. This requires an extremely developed feeling ofbalance, ability for concentration and breath control - pranayama that makes yoga and dance related.The combination of statics and dynamics reveals the principles of Hindu world vision: the maleprinciple is the passive and contemplating consciousness; the female principle is the active and worldcreating energy. It happens that a dancer stays in one position for a long time, only her fingers andhands dance showing the amazing flexibility and speed. The narration goes with the help of alanguage of gestures called hastas and mudras. For instance, little fingers of both hands fastenedtogether signify intimacy, friendship, while joined index fingers on the contrary signify enmity. Twopalms put one over the other with thumbs moved asides is the mudra "matsya", i.e. "a fish" one ofLord Vishnu's reincarnations. If you see thumbs start moving that means the fish has started to move.

The ancient Indian dance treatises tell about 28 positions for one hand and 24 positions for two hands.Hastas and mudras are mostly polysemantic; their meaning is determined by the context. Thus aposition called pataka (all fingers are fastened together, the palm is open) can symbolize night, light,a river, a horse, heat, opening or closing of a door, a street, equality, oath, an ideal ruler, oceanwaves, dream, praising. The execution of hastas and mudras has a considerable psycho physical effectconnected with the size of hand projection upon cerebral cortex. This effect is well known to teachersand speech therapists that use finger games to develop speech and quickness of wit in children.Doctors see in hastas and mudras a stimulation of acupuncture points on fingers, as a result a headbecomes clearer and lighter. The Hindus believe that hastas and mudras make Ajna-chakra, the thirdeye more active.

Another basic legs position is ardhamandali or semi-sitting positionwith knees widely moved apart. This is a position of rest thatrelieves the nerve system. It can be imagined as a combination oftwo triangles formed by a line mentally drawn between knees. Hereagain you can see the symbol of male and female principles: thetriangle with its top down is the female principle, the triangle withits top up is the male principle. In ardhamandali these twoprinciples are balanced that gives psychological and bioenergeticsharmony.

The combination of triangles also remains in other legs positions,for instance on tiptoes position, when a dancer sits on toes withknees moved apart, and then out of this position she puts them onthe floor in turns or simultaneously.

The same principle of harmonization of male and female, of solarand lunar energy lies at the basis of work with energy canals inhatha yoga. The word hatha consists of a combination of twosyllables: ha that signifies the Sun and tha that signifies the Moon.

Generally, the possibilities of a spirit and body perfection found inIndian classic dance are hardly inferior to those inherent with yoga. Dance has its advantages incomparison with it. Quite a lot of people tried to practice asanas but gave up the idea because of itstediousness. Just as many women could not make themselves do physical exercises until aerobics andshaping appeared.

Padma Subramanyam disagrees that Indian classic dance requires a special inborn body flexibility orexhausting daily trainings. According to her words "the level of perfection in nritta (dance as it iswithout its subject component) directly depends on extent of a dancer's perception of his/her ownspiritual essence and this has nothing to do with physique or even mastery". One fine day the momentcomes when dance itself in a mysterious way starts to lead a person who sincerely desires to masterit. Dance as if becomes an invisible guru-instructor who gives body hints and helps it to stand incertain positions.

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Indian Classical DanceToday there are a great number of various dancingtraditions in India among which the following aremarked out:

1. Classical dances2. Semi-classical dances3. Folk dances4. Pop dances

The classical dance forms which trace back their rootsdeep into the Past, into the times of ritual temple divineservices undoubtedly arouse the greatest interest.Altogether 7 of such forms are marked out:

1. Kuchipudi2. Bharatanatyam3. Kathak4. Odissi5. Kathakali6. Manipuri7. Mohiniattam

The three aspects - the Nritta, the Nritya and the Natya lay at the heart of each of these forms.

The Nritta is a rhythmic sequence that ends in either singing or in lyrics reciting.The Nritya is a sum of rhythmic patterns each following a certain pantomimic interpretation (orabhinaya)The Natya is a complete dance drama with a story-line and various characters.

Each dance form is a unique combination of these three aspects, each one possesses its ownpeculiarity, but Kuchipudi fully deserves its reputation of being the most beautiful and the mostcomplex one among the above mentioned dance forms.

What is Kuchipudi? This is a unique charm that you get from subtle blending of unsurpassed techniquewith The Art of Drama that gets its inspiration in scriptures and mythology. Energetic jumps andturns, brave and sense full play of eyes, the vortex of uncommonly quick and skilled motions followedby a cascade of statuesque poses, that what Kuchipudi is!

A Kuchipudi dancer is required to possess not only perfect calisthenics but also perfect plasticity anddeveloped sense of rhythm, be competent in mudras (hand-gestures with sacral meaning) andpossess a thorough mastery of abhinaya (the art of pantomime). A combination of all these qualitiesin the presence of enormous inner energy and ability to instantly transform oneself into differentcharacters allows the audience to perceive the dance art of Kuchipudi as light, igniting and bewitchingact. Performing dances on the edges of a brass plate, executing complicated rhythmic patterns withdexterity, while sometimes also balancing a pot of water on the head is considered to be the highestlevel of mastery.

The Kuchipudi dance form developed in what is now known as the state of Andhra Pradesh in southernIndia. Kuchipudi derives its name from the village Kuchelapuram on the bank of the river Krishna.According to a legend, sultan Mohamed Kuli Kutab-Shahs' elder nephew Abdul Tana-Shah was sent tothe village Kuchipudi to supply it with water. A well was dug out by the order of Tana-Shah. The joy ofthe village dwellers knew no limits and in order to express their gratitude they organized a grandperformance where they demonstrated their art of dancing. Being a great connoisseur of art, AbdulTana-Shah was so impressed by the dance drama that he granted the village of Kuchipudi to theartists with the promise that they would continue the tradition of performing. From that day onwardsthis dance form became known as Kuchipudi.

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But Kuchipudi provides to have been popular long before Tana-Shah.

Over 3000 years ago Bharata Muni the author ofNatyashastra (a holy writ dedicated to the Artof Drama) explained some aspects of dance referringto this particular dance form. Sculptural compositionsundoubtedly belonging to the same tradition werefound in ancient temples and Buddhist monasteriessuch as Nagarjunakonda, Amaravathi and Ghantsala.

Since the moment of its origin and up to the presentday Kuchipudi has undergone multiple changes.

By its origin Kuchipudi was a dance drama where eachcharacter was given one and strictly assigned part, butnow Kuchipudi is basically a solo dance form. Withinone performance and often within one item on the

programme a dancer transforms into several absolutely different characters.

In ancient times Kuchipudi could be performed only in temples, but nowadays performances can beset on stage as well as in the open air.

And, finally, the most important thing. Earlier Kuchipudicould be performed exclusively by menand women werenot permitted to perform this dance form because theirbeauty was believed to draw attention of spectators fromthe divine meaning of the drama. Moreover, men used toplay all female parts and not only put on women's dressbut also had to make themselves up as women. Changestouched Kuchipudi in 1950s when indeed a revolutionaryevent took place: women were at last permitted to dance!

In this Kuchipudi owes a debt to the Great Guru VempatiChinna Satyama who besides all other things holds themerit in spreading this style beyond India frontiers.

And we, a studio of classical Indian dance "Ananda Tandava" being followers of the Great MasterVempati Chinna Satyama, are happy to continue the glorious Kuchipudi tradition in Russia.

Kuchipudi Style

One of the brightest events in the history of India of the second half of the last century besidesachievement of its independence is the increased interest in the dancing tradition of Kuchipudi. It isamazing but this little known dance style practiced for many centuries by only Brahmans (i.e. thepeople belonging to the priests caste) from a small village in state Andhra-Pradesh could less then in100 years spread itself all around India and acquired a great number of followers. The Kuchipudi stylehas completely saved its Spirit, taking into account that the style has undergone essential changes incomparison with the antiquity, the feminization of the tradition being one of its most significantchanges.

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The history of the Kuchipudi style in its present form begins in about XVI century AD, though there areearlier historical evidences undoubtedly belonging to this dance tradition, for instance AmaravatiStupa a historical monument of the II century AD where you can see a whole group of dancers(pindibandha) carved in stone, and sculptures of Nagarjuna. Starting XI century records of Kuchipudiare mentioned in such treatises as "Sarasvati Hridayalankara" by Nandideva, "Manasolasa" bySomeshvara, "Sangita Chudamani" by Pratap Chakravarti and "Sangita Parijata" by Ahola. It isinteresting that "Nrittaratnavali" written by Jayappa Senani a commander-in-chief of the Army ofElephants under ruler Kakatya Ganapati Deva who is also considered a scientist and a big connoisseurof dance, contains a record of Brahmana Mela one of the traditional families of Kuchipudi dancers.Historical evidences relating to Kuchipudi can be also found in "Manchupali Kaifiat" 1502 AD when agroup of Bhagavatulus (traditional Kuchipudi dancers) had an audience with Immadi NarasimhiNayaka, the ruler of Vijayanagra, and with the help of dance drama they could pass a word ofoppressions from the local chief Sammit Guruva Raju from the place Siddhavatam, after that Raju wasimmediately banished.

Another interesting evidence dates back to the still not found brass plate which supposedly has anengraved inscription about the transfer of village Kuchipudi into the ownership of Bhagavatulu clanfrom the Golkonda nawob (ruler) Abdul Hasan Tani Shah who ruled from 1672 till 1687, as a sign ofhigh appraisal of their art of drama that he was a witness to during his visit of Machilipatnama. Thedisappearance of this plate alongside with the existence of several villages with the same nameKuchipudi makes it completely impossible to exactly identify the village which is the initial keeper ofthe Bhagavatulu dance tradition.

The document of division of property in Kuchipudi village dated back to 24 August 1763 AD mentions15 families, at least 12 of them are directly connected with dance today. The document also says thatcertain old records (sanadis) have been lost; but the document also keeps silence on which ofKuchipudi villages was after all presented to the dwellers by the nawob.

Near Vinukond there exists another Kuchipudi village famous for itsstrolling Brahmans players whospecialized in Kelika (game), Kirtana(musical performance) and the art of transformation. In the area ofTenali Telug near the Krishna river there is another Kuchipudi village thathas its own and quite bright dancing tradition. Two temples still standthere - Ramalingasvami and Gopalasvami which priests are the directdescendants of either Vedantam or Pasumarti families which are locatedin quite another area. The matter is that matrimonial alliances were acommon practice in old days and at some moment all activity connectedwith dancing could simply relocate into the area of Tenali Telug.

The term "Kuchipudi" now applied to women dancers etymologicallyderived from Potu Kuchi (literally a man dancer) and denoted simplyBrahmin-dancer. Pudi is a term applied to a village built on anembankment. There are other versions. For instance, Sanskritists thinkthe term "Kuchipudi" is a distortion of the word "Kuchelapuram", the

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village where according to an ancient Indian epic a poor Brahman, Lord Krishna’s friend lived.

The Bhakti movement ("devoted to God") has its most eloquent expression in the Natya Mela traditionwhen dance troupes known as Vedi Natakam (street theatre) showed musical plays based onVayshnavi’s themes (vaishnavis are Lord Vishnu admirers) on self-made stages. In order to recitepoems an actor was required to have erudition and a good knowledge of Sanskrit dictated byBrahmans’ authority. This circumstance left its mark upon the whole art. Bhagavatulus in Kuchipudispecialized not only in dance drama or Yakshagana but also in a certain kind of opera called Kalapam.

Kalapam is a "total" theater where plots related to the same theme were closely interwoven with thestructure of musical compositions called Daru or Daruvu. For instance, Bhama Kalapam that portraysunbelievably mobile and lively Satyabhama, Krishna’s spouse in her different moods, is a true "cornerstone" among operas. To distinguish oneself in this part is the supreme aim of any dancer.

Another popular opera, Golla Kalapam is a dialogue between a perspicacious gopi (a shepherdess) anda Brahman about from-the-cradle-to-the-grave philosophy of life including mutual exchange ofstatements, poems and humor with metaphysical meaning. All these operas as well as a dance dramaParijatapaharanam are ascribed to Siddhendra Yoga a legendary Kuchipudi instructor. Nevertheless,there are a lot of versions of these plays composed in different times by unknown authors. There areno historical evidences to unambiguously identify Siddhendra Yoga’s period of life; it is between XIVand XVII centuries AD. Some researchers found a record of him even in Mellatura in Tanjor area (stateTamilnadu) from where he supposedly migrated to Kuchipudi village. He is described as an orphanpicked up by kind neighbors. According to one of the legends, once returning from classes in Udipiwhere he took a training he tried to cross a suddenly overflowed river but got into a whirl and wouldnot escaped a sure death if not the Divine intervention. It was then that he made a vow to become anascetic singing and dancing ad gloriam Lord Vishnu who saved him from death.

Siddhendra Yoga is ascribed a merit for Abdul Tani Shah’s presenting the Kuchipudi village toBhagavatulu dancers. Nevertheless, even if Siddhendra Yoga made a great contribution tothe development of Kuchipudi dance which is mentioned in an ancientmanuscript Bhama Kalapam, he did not create the style. Suchpredecessors of the Kuchipudi dancing tradition as Bayntavesham andAatavesham were popular among the Bhagavatulus. Kalapam was alsoperformed by devadasis (temple female dancers) as a rule in templearea. They were called bhogamvaru or saanulu and the main theme ofmusical performances was the main heroin’s appeal to her beloved. TheNayaka-nayiki (hero-heroine) theme was closer to them then Vaishnavis’(Lord Vishnu’s worshippers) missionary message performed by theBhagavatulus.

Another form of performance, Yakshagana, goes back to the ancienttimes and is the source of origin for Mahanatakams or main plays writtenby rulers of Nayaka dynasty in Tanjor. For instance, the famousParijatapaharanam was written and staged by Vijayaraghava Nayaka(1633-1672). However, the Emperor Vijayanagara Krishnadeva Raya’scourt poet Mukka Timanna wrote a poem with a similar plot muchearlier.

Another great person in Kuchipudi history after Siddhendra Yoga was Narayana Tirtha who also wroteParijatam but this time for performers of the Bhagavata Mela Natakam tradition from Mellatur who area detached branch of the Bhagavatulus from Andhra Pradesh. They migrated to Tanjor (stateTamilnadu) after the battle at Talakota in 1565. Narayna Tirtha’s works clearly indicate that theBhagavatulus settled down in a Tanjor village Achyutapuram. Unlike its double from Kuchipudi theMela Natakam tradition was not a wandering one, but remained strictly localized in such villages asMellatur, Saliyamangalam, Othukadu and Solamangalam.The Narayana Tritha’s unusually long musical composition written in Sanskrit and called Krishna LeelaTarangini took the first place in the Kuchipudi repertoire. Including 153 Kirtanas (lyrical extracts ofspecific structure), 302 Shlokas (couplets glorifying God), 30 Daruvus (solo parts for main heroes) andinnumerable gadyas (prose citations) his work became a peculiar landmark in literature and art.

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Represented by a great number of rare melodic modulations Tarangini covered the whole period ofLord Krishna’s both child's plays and romantic flirtations with gopis (shepherdesses).

Daruvu or a composition of a certain specific structure used to define a character in a play is the mostimportant part of musical texts for Kuchipudi. Due to such poets as Virabhadraya, Kasinathaya andVenkatarama Shastri, the Kuchipudi repertoire started to include Natya Abhisheka Shabdam or poemsglorifying gods and kings’ deeds. As strolling artists, Kuchipudi dancers borrowed ideas andcompositions wherever they appeared. For instance, a famous XV century actor Hari Madhavya is saidto borrow a libretto from some Mellatur plays such as Prahlada Charitam to serve as a model for hisplays composed on the same theme for Kuchipudi. But notwithstanding the fact that both BhagavataMela and Kuchipudi dancers performed plays with similar plots, their interpretations let alone dancelanguage were completely different.

It is interesting that in Kuchipudi which is an exclusively male dancingtradition, such female parts asSatyabhama, Rukmini, Usha, Mohini etc.were the most outstanding. Strivesham with its transformation into aperson of opposite sex is highly influential, and men dressed as womenis the first and the most common association that comes to mind at themention of Kuchipudi. Such great dancer as Vedantam SatyanarayanaSharma famous for his Satyabhama role in drama Bhama Kalapam didnot allow his " female identification" be asleep even being engaged insuch a trivial activity as regulating a microphone position before acomment to a famous scene (lekha) from Bhama Kalapam.Satyabhama’s stage portrait when she writes a love letter to her spouseKrishna is the most poetical moment of the opera.

An actor’s role in Kuchipudi also included the uttering of excerpts fromdialogues and even singing certain quotations. This universal masteryof a Kuchipudi artist in singing, dancing and playing has nowadays beenreplaced mostly by a "dance oriented art". A singer in a group ofmusicians accompanying to a performance has taken upon himself

everything concerning singing. What concerns dialogue quotations in Telugus (the language of stateAndhra Pradesh) they have become very rare amidst urban dancers. Only in traditional Yakshaganarepresented by a troupe in Kuchipudi village a text "uttering" can be heard. The only exclusion amongmodern dancers is Svapnasundari who can sing, pronounce and dance Kalapam. She thoroughlystudied a solo devadasi tradition of Andhra Pradesh, worked over the renewal of dance called VelasiniNataym together with the now deceased Dr. Aruda a famous expert in dance.

Movements in Kuchipudi do not have common central position aroundwhich the technique is built. A semi-sitting position with knees bent andmoved apart is used most often, but it is not the most important stylisticcharacteristic of Kuchipudi as in Bharata Natyam style. But as in BharataNatyam, the movements in Kuchipudi are repeated from both sides ofthe body. There is an elegant and at the same time elastic up-and-downmovement in Kuchipudi when a dancer constantly shifts the centre ofgravity, feet contact with ground also changes constantly: at onemoment a straight leg touches the floor, at another a heel does thesame, now it is a toe, now a side surface of a foot slightly stamps on thefloor.

The movement forward with toes of both feet crossed is a typical gait forKuchipudi executed under a certain rhythm. Kuchipudi is a very vigorousand "jumpy" dance form. A piquant slowed down pace which can oftenbe found in other dance traditions is of rare occurrence in Kichipudi.Even abhinaya (excerpts of meaning) does not last in an unhurriedrhythm for long.

The rhythm of a song and the rhythmic pattern of lyrics are as a rule easy to remember and fill thedance with mighty and vibrating energy. The dance-music correlations are less structured then in

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other dance traditions, usually one line of a verse and music is repeated in various rhythmicvariations. For instance, in Krishna Shabdam and Tarangam (certain dance compositions) such arepeat provides a greater expression of dance mood, and a dancer in fact presents a whole storywoven out of pantomime and rhythm in a tala cycle (a unit of rhythm in Indian musical system).

A cheerful way a dancer walks into a stage and a graceful springy gait when she leaves the stageholding a long plait decorated with flowers in her left hand are characteristic features of Kuchipudi.When a traditional drama is performed, the main characters are presented in the following way: twopeople come out into the stage holding a curtain (tera) and a dancer hides behind it, only her plait isvisible and the spectators try to guess who there is. Only in a Bhama Kalapam solo performance themain characters are presented in such a way.

Since there are not many records left of the ancient Kuchipudi, we only know the names of some ofthe most popular dancers. They are Hari Madhavja (XV century), brothers Chinta Venkatratnam andChinta Ventkatramaya (1860-1949), Tadepalli Peraya Shastri (1886-1942) and VedantamLakshminarayana Shastri (1875-1957). Tadepalli Peraya Shastri is said to often act as Sutradhara (apresenter) and a Vidhushaka (a joker) in Atta Bhagavatams, a traditional devadasi Kuchipudiperformance, thus proving there is a cooperation of two parallel traditions.

Guru Vedantam Lakshminarayana Shastri was the first to starttraining devadasis. Thus, his is the merit that women were againpermitted to dance Kuchipudi. Solo numbers in Kuchipudi alsoappeared due to Guru Vedantam Lakshminarayana Shastri.Nowadays a solo performance in Kuchipudi contains elements notconnected with each other, some of them being independent partsfrom long plays. For concert programs of single dancers all theseelements (numbers) are grouped according to the theme of theperformance.

The name of Guru Vedantam Lakshminarayana Shastri is known not only to Kuchipudi dancers, amonghis pupils were many acknowledged dancers from other schools: Balasarasvati, Gouri Ammal, RamGopal and Tara Choudhuri, all of them in their time sought his teaching in Chennai (former Madras).He was the main guru of Vempati Chinna Satyam who later on achieved recognition for Kuchipudi notonly in India but also all around the world. Guru Vedantam Lakshminarayana Shastri also tought S.R.Acharyala who became a Kuchipudi teacher in Mrinalini Sarabhai Academy in Ahmedabad. NatarajRamakrishna who renewed several old devadasi dance traditions such as Janardhana Parijatambelonging to Andhra Natyam tradition, also studied at Lakshminarayana Shastri. His outstandingcontribution to the preserving of the Kuchipudi cultural tradition was highly appraised and he wasawarded with Simhatalamu (a chased golden bracelet) when he was68 years old already. The eminent cultural workers of Chennai gavehim the Balagopala Tarangama performed by a female dancerSamrajama as a present. In its time Tarangam for the first timestaged by Guru Vedantam Lakshminarayana Shastri surprisedspectators. This dance is a measure of high level of mastery for aKuchipudu dancer because it is executed on the edges of a brassplate while beating complex and tangled rhythm with feet.

In spite of the fact that such Gurus as Chinta Narayanamurti,Yelesvarupa Narayanappa, Vedantam Raghvaya, ChintaVenkatramaya and Lakshminarayana Shastri were experts inStrivesham (the art of performing female roles), starting 1950sfemale dancers began firmly taking their place in the Kuchipuditradition. In his article on Guru Lakshminarayana Shastri’s award,Mohan Khokar wrote that the Minister of Finance of India B. GoppalaReddi said in his speech that Kuchipudi would have no future ifwomen were not allowed to dance performance.

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The caste barrier was also broken. In Nuzvida, S.R. Acharyala trained Korada Narasimha Rao who didnot belong to traditional Kuchipudi families. Korada Narasimha Rao who later studied at greatguru Lakshminarayana Shastri became famous for his bright and convincing performance of demonBhasmasura. Besides, Korada was the first partner of the acknowledged Bharata Natyam femaledancer Indrani Rehman. This duo marked the beginning of the "pair" trend in Kuchipudi which is stillpopular today. The examples of such pairs are such famous dancers as Radja and Radha Reddi,Narasimhachari and Vasantha Lakshmi, Vanashri and Jarayama Rao and many other tandava-lasyaduos which participants are not necessary married.

For the first time in 1955 two female dancers Mohana and Samanti presented two numbers in theKuchipudi style at the National Dance Festival in Sangit Natak Academy in Mumbai (former Bombay).At that time Kuchipudi was not acknowledged as a true classic dance tradition that’s why theirnumbers were announced as "Kuchipudi-Bharata Natyam" compositions. Even in 1958 at Sangit NatalAcademy Festival there still was not a special place for Kuchipudi and the only Kuchipudi dancer wasKanchamala who demonstrated a small fragment of dance. Only in 1959 The Music Academy inAndhra Pradesh with support from Bandhi Kanakalingeshvara Rao, Ayanka Tandava, LankaSuryanarana Shastri and Ramakottai organized a seminar in support of the idea to recognizeKuchipudi as an independent dance form equally with other classic styles of dance. This resulted in theopening of Siddhendra Kalakshetra Kuchipudi’s branches in Elluru and Gudivat. Yakshagana named"Abhijnana Shakuntalam" presented at the seminar by Sampatkumar and Kumar Sambhavamconvinced such connoisseurs of dance as E. Krishna Iyer, Damayanti Josti and Nayna Jhaveri thatKuchipudi quite deserved to be considered a classic dance tradition.

Later the famous Raja and Radha Reddi who bythe way did not belong among thetraditional Kuchipudi families either, foundedseveral quite prosperous dance schools. The greatYamini Krishnamurti demonstrated the art ofKuchipudi almost in every corner of the world byvirtuosic performing Bhama Kalapam and KrishnaShabdam. Her teacher Guru Chinta Krishnamurtisaid not without pride that Kuchipudi had seen itsnew "star" hour thanks to Yamini. As a result of allthese events the village of Kuchipudi proved not tobe able to accommodate the dance tradition thatacquired new perspectives, that’s why many

teachers fixed their eyes on Chinnai, the cultural capital of India and the place of flourishing of the filmindustry. Dancers were mostly women then. They paced proudly with moustaches on portrayingtypical male characters of Yakshagana: demons Hiranyakashipa, Jarasandhi, Bali and evenBhasmasura everywhere besides village Kuchipudi. But the city demanded new roles and spectatorssaw the images of Divine Rama, Krishna and Shrinivasa performed in a soft and delicate way due tothe new interpretation by female dancers. Thus Kuchipudi has drawn a full circle in its development.

Today men playing female parts are very rare. Even such Kuchipudiveteran as Vedantam Satyanarayana prefers demonstrating strivesham inusual male clothes limiting him with the make-up necessary for the role.Vedantam Venkatachalapati, the son of the deceased Guru VedantamRattaya Sharma, while playing male and female parts allowed himself awider scope for creative self-realization than his uncle SatyanarayanaSharma who specialized exclusively on female parts. Only Pasumarthi andYelesvarupa Shrinisvan still dance exclusively female parts, but todaythere are so many female Kuchipudi dancers that necessity for men to takeon woman appearance has almost fallen away. In spite of the fact that themost part of traditional Kuchipudi training takes place in towns,Siddhendra Kalakshetra located in Kuchipudi village still works and theprocess of study there requires greater efforts of teachers andstudents.The appearance of a more sophisticated version of dance in theKuchipudi tradition owes a debt to Guru Vempati Chinna Satyam and hisKuchipudi Art Academy in Chennai within the walls of which the most part

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of modern dancers of this style "grew up". Many of the Kuchipudi Art Academy graduates later onfounded their own schools in India as well as abroad, for instance: Shobha Naidu, Ratna Kumar,Kamala Reddi, Sasikala, Kalpalatika, Anuradha Neru, Anuradha Jonnalageda, Manju Bhargavi andGuru Vempatti Chinna Satyama’s son Vempati Ravi.

The result of close cooperation of several years' standing among Vempati Chinna Satyam and poetBhujanga Sharma and composer P. Sangita Rao was the staging of a great number of dance dramasfirst in India and then abroad. Thus, Guru Vempati Chinna Sayam holds the merit of spreading theKuchipudi dancing tradition all over the world.

Vempati was an innovator in everything. He unconditionally supported female dancers playing maleparts, because he felt that men playing female parts had lost its actuality. For the first time in theKuchipudi history he started to use such beautiful ragas (musical compositions) as Mohan, Muhari,Bhayaravi and Kamboji and also some ragas not belonging to Karnatik tradition as a musicalaccompaniment to his dance dramas. Besides he brought many elements of the technique toperfection due to which the complexity of their executing has increased. It was Guru Vempati whoinsisted on using vachika-abhinaya in dance (synchronization of a dancer’s lips with lyrics), which is acharacteristic feature of Kuchipudi today and distinguishes it from other classic dance forms. If beforeVempati Chinna Satyam satvika-abhinaya was mostly used when a dancer had to take full possessionof his emotions and express them in minimal but rather intensive motions, then due to Vempati itbecame possible to use angika-abhinaya when all body serves for expressing emotions.

Many experts in the field of the art of dance still treat Vempati Chinna Satyam’s phenomenonambiguously, ones honour him beyond all measure and the others on the contrary criticize him. Butnevertheless, everyone recognizes that without him Kuchipudi would not exist in the form it is knowntoday.

Bharatanatyam Style

Bharata Natyam is a subtle and complex form of dance art from state Tamilnad. This is a dynamic,earthly and very clear dance style. Its distinctive features are variety of motions with emphasis onfoot stamping, jumps and turns. The main figures are balanced poses with stretched hands and legsthat add certain linearity to the dance. Beauty and power, slow-downs and speed-ups, pure dance andpantomime are equally felt in this dance. This style is equally good both for solo and groupperformance.

Professional dancers deeply understand theideological and philosophical content of Indianmyths and legends, and besides they possess aperfect command of the technique. The ability totransfer various forms of a poetical text is a realtest for a dancer's mastery. She/he plays the roleof the main heroine of the play and portrays hervarious states. A dancer must be a really creativeand inspired person to be able to express thefinest nuances of feelings. A dancer's mastery inrendering the dance contents on differentsemantic levels attracts the audience attention.In a solo performance the individuality ofinterpretation depends on a dancer's age,training level, artistic taste, experience,knowledge and talent.

There is a widely spread opinion that the name Bharata Natyam means "Indian dance". Thismisunderstanding originates in how this style from state Tamilnad is generally accepted in both Indiaand abroad. However, the devoted admirers of this style notice that the name appeared not longerthan fifty years ago. Earlier it was first known as sadir kacheri (sadir stands for a dancer, kacheri

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stands for spectators), then as chinnamela (a small audience in contrast to periyamela - a largeaudience), and then as dasiatta that derived from devadasis (female dancers) who performed thedance. The more probable version says that Bharata consists of the first syllables of the followingwords: bhava (feeling), raga (melody) and tala (rhythm) and quasi unites the three pillars on whichthe style is based. There is another version according to which Bharata Natyam that firmly sticks tothe behests of Natya Shastra got its name after sage Bharata the author of this ancient book.

Bharata Natyam traces its roots back to Hinduism and morespecifically to Hindu myths and rituals. This especially manifestsitself in the texts chosen for performance, in sculptural portrayalsof dancers in ancient Hindu temples and in the very philosophy ofthis dance style. The sculptures in the south Indian temples tell usthat both music and dance were given to people by Gods andGoddesses.

That's why it is quite obvious that the spiritual meaning of BharataNatyam can not be ignored. Hinduism is called "a live religion". Inevery myth there is a moral that simply teaches the ethics ofeveryday life and its connection with the transcendental. Eventsdevelop on a very simple human level that has led to a certainsimplification in dance performance. Under such interpretation thesublime may seem quite materially-minded.

Up to the beginning of the XX century the dance had been theintegral part of a temple ceremony. According to a tradition a localruler or highest officials patronized the temple. A dancer, her guruand their musicians were highly respected and supported by thetemple. During religious processions a dancer walked in front of ahorse-drawn vehicle with the idol of a deity. She was perfectlyacquainted with the temple ritual, the rules of offerings and prayersand played a significant role of tributes carrier to the image of adeity.

A female dancer was revered as the god's wife and her most important duty was the participation inceremonies connected with his cult. That reminded the status of high priestesses in temples of AncientGreece. She was called a devadasi, a maidservant. The dance itself besides complex ritual ceremoniesused to be also performed on other occasions in the right time under favorable circumstances for

instance on occasion of a festival, the crowning and marriageceremonies, birth of a son or entering a new town or a house.Territories around temples were considered the only comfortable placewhere people could gather to see the dance. A dancer herself was a richand respected person.

During the British reign the dance starts to lose its ritual purpose.Devadasis started to dance at princes' courts and in the houses of richlandlords. Poets in their flowery style glorified the greatness of theirpatrons and dancers danced to the lyrics. A temple dancer turned into acourt dancer and often used to have a bad reputation. The complicatedpolitical situation in the country and the new understanding of socialand cultural values presented by educated and prosperous Indiansadversely affected their attitude to the art of dance. The social status ofa dancer declined, the shadow was cast upon the very art and for manyyears the public was deprived of the pleasure to enjoy Bharata Natyam.

Perhaps it the threat of Bharata Natyam's complete disappearance thatcaused the scope of the movement for the revival of the dance and thereturning of its one-time glory. Balasarasvati and Rajalakshmi'sinitiative was taken up by Rukmini Devi and I. Krishna. The musicacademy in Madras made the major contribution to the cause of the

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dance revival and put the area for public performances at Balasarasvati' disposal. The excessive eroticbias was soon equalized, good taste and aesthetic delicacy returned to Bharata Natyam performance.The first public Rukmini Devi's performance in 1935 marked the irreversibility of return to the past.

Bharata Natyam is a many-facet kind of art. It includes music, poetry, the art of drama andpantomime. While considering the most important aspect of dance, nritta (pure dance), first andforemost the body and hands positions and a dancer's movements in combination with the musicalcontext must be taken into account. Rhythm, the main constituent part of the dance, interweaves withmelody, that's why it is important to know what music and what rhythms accompany nritta. Nritta isthe heart of the dance style while nritya is its soul. Melody, rhythm and lyrics are its constantaccompaniment and the source of inspiration.

According to "Abhinaya Darpana" which Bharata Natyam's followers still firmly stick to, there are tenbasic body positions. However, nattuvanaras (dance teachers) do not often use Sanskrit terms andprefer to use simpler Tamil terminology in class. That's why instead of ayata they use araimandi thatsimply means "semi-sitting" in Tamil language. Just the same muramandi means "fully sitting"; this isthe squatting position when a dancer sits on tiptoes with her knees moved apart. Out of this position adancer moves into motita when knees touch the floor in turns or into parshvasuchi when one kneerests against the floor, or into samasuchi when both knees rest against the floor. Guru and dancerscan interpret and execute these positions in different ways. However, merely visual perception of thebasic positions gives a clear idea of the stylistic limits of this dance. This is the main structure withinwhich a dancer works.

The system of arranging adavas, a row of static poses connected with each other in a certain waytocreate a motion, was for the first time legibly formulated about forty years ago. Teaching them wascasual, the things still remaining as they are in some schools. Dancers often studied the subject as awhole considering each motion separately only when they cameacross in choreography. The absence of well written manuals andteachers' excessive haste to finish the course now leads to thesituation when students master the ABC of the style insufficiently.As a result dancers often have a rather vague idea of the structureof the dance style. Fortunately, nowadays gurus have started tosystematize their syllabuses thus allowing the students of variousschools using them.

Rukmini Devi was the first classifier in Bharata Natyam training. Sheworked out her own system of "developing adavu" so that a studentwas able to move from simple movements to more complex onesgradually: from static figures to the ones performed in motion; fromthe motions performed in araimandi to the motions in more complexpositions, then move to turns and jumps and finally to the figureswith a very complex combination of hands' and legs' positions. Hercontribution to Bharata Natyam training is immeasurably great; thevariety of motions and figures in this dance style owes a lot to hertalent and creative genius.

During the process of study it is very important to stick to the system when a student masters everymotion by going through three speeds in its performance. It gives her the feeling of balance andallows mastering the basic rhythm on the initial phase of study.

The combination of figures in dance allows quick changing of the direction in body motion. Somefigures seem dynamic, the others seem soft; some figures are performed on-site in the rhythm ofdance, the others fall out of it; some positions provide more freedom to move asides, the others areperformed with a certain purpose of moving into the front from the back of the stage. Jumps andturns allow carrying out the motions on the floor and the whole stage space. All this giveschoreographer rich opportunities for arranging various compositions. A good dancer is able toeffectively dance even a short nritta combination. A performance of longer combinations does notprove a dancer's mastery but rather is the evidence of her stamina and self-control.

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Bharata Natyam is based on the karnatak musical system and itsrhythmic cycles or talas. Musicalaccompaniment must contain rhythmicpotential for the pure dance and the corresponding literary content forthe plot dance. Mridangam, the main percussion instrument in southIndia has one body unlike the northern tabla that consists of twoseparate parts, with lower and higher registers; each one is played onwith one hand. Syllables or rhythmic sounds of mridangam aredistinctive characteristics of Bharata Natyam; they are pronounced orsung as an accompaniment to dance parts - nritta.

Like the notes in music have their names "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni", sothe dance has its drumming syllables: tat-dhita, taka-dhimi, naka-djham, tadhin-djina etc. Various combinations of these phrases duringtheir sounding add savour and expressiveness to the fragments of puredance, nritta. Combinations of these phrases are called jatis. In everydance performance the virtuosity and mastery of nattuvanar areestimated by the correct arrangement of jatis into complex rhythmicfigures in a certain timing loop.

The word tala derives from the word denoting "palm surface" by which the rhythm is beaten. There isa version about the word tala according to which it consists of the first syllables of two words: tandavaand lasya that romantically means the junction of male and female principles or rhythm forms. Thereare seven talas. Each can use any of the five variants of jati that gives the total of 35 various talas.

In the past a dancer was accompanied by an orchestra placed behind her on stage. It consisted of oneor two nattuvanars who played cymbals and sang songs, a boy whose only task was keeping up themonotonous sound or shruti (tone pitch) with the help of a small box, and a clarinetist. Clarinet oncebeing rather popular was later replaced by flute. This was demanded by "Abhinaya Darpana" and thissituation had preserved up to the 1920s when stage conditionality changed. In today's concertsmusicians sit to the dancer's right closer to the front edge of the stage. The orchestra consists of anattuvanar, a female singer, a tanpur player that replaced the primitive box shruti, a flutist, a violinistand a vina player.

Performers of Indian classic dances are very effective in their outward appearance. A Bharata Natyamdancer is not exclusion. She wears a bright costume and so many jewels that you hardly understandhow she simply moves let alone dancing enthusiastically.

A dancer's hair is plaited with entwined flowers and ornaments. Thetraditional headdress consists of a long and flat hoop that envelopesthe head and edges the face and two big hairpins on top of thehead on both sides of the middle hair parting that symbolize the sunand the moon. These red and golden decorations look extremelyadvantageous against black hair. A dancer also puts on goldenbracelets, small chains on hands, a necklace with a big pendant inthe middle, a belt, foot bracelets and small bells. Similar decorationscan be found with performers of other Indian classic dance forms.The metal used for decorations may vary depending on the dancestyle as well as the tracery and the stones used. In Bharata Natyamthey use red, white and green gemstones framed in gold or gildedsilver.

A dancer's costume is a rich sari from Kanchipuram. Kanchipuram isthe town famous for its wonderful silk saris with a traditionalornamentation embroidered with golden thread along the edges. Forstage performances contrasting colours are preferable so that thecolour of the ornamentation could stand out against the backgroundof a sari. Mustard-yellow, green and red colours are usuallyassociated with Bharata Natyam dance.

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A sari is worn in different ways; its length is as a rule a little below calves. Costumes imitating sari arein fashion now. Thanks to the costume a dancer looks neat and gets rid of the necessity to wind sixyards of thick material around her.

Odissi Style

Odissi, the classic dance from state Orissa developed in the temple atmosphere. This is a lyrical dancestyle; it has rules of body motions completely different from other dance forms. Its main quality iselegance; its aesthetics is built on close connection of poetry and music.

The state of Orissa can fully be proud of having experiencednumerous cultural influences. In differentperiods of its historyrepresentatives of various races and beliefs conquered this land andcontributed to the blending of ideas, notions and religions. Thelocation of state on the eastern coast of the central India was thereason for the waves of cultural and historical influence which intheir turn caused the appearance of a completely unique philosophyof Jagannath. Like in other regions of India, religious philosophydetermined the development of arts; the dance initially took refugein the cult complex. Even today all celebrations in Orissa cannot dowithout dance and music.

The temples of Orissa dedicated to Shiva store numerous complexesin tracery and wonderfully manufactured carved panels whichcontents are indicative of the strong wave of shivaism thatoverflowed Orissa in times of Shankaracharya’s mission. Facades ofmany monuments of this period are decorated with images ofNataraja and other incarnations of Shiva and his son Ganesha. InMukteshvar temple you can see Shiva’s image in the tandavaposition. There also occur images of musicians but not in staticposes: you feel rhythm and joy in their motions. These images areconnected with the plasticity of modern Odissi by perceptible threads.

Kings who ruled Orissa in the period between VIII and XI centurieswere called gandharva Kesari and nritya Kesari. They quiteobviously considered it a matter of honor to reach the heights in thearts of dance and music. It is in this period that the writings aboutdevadasis or women dedicated to serve a deity were carved inBhubaneshvar temple. Apparently devadasis played an importantrole in a temple ritual. During bhog they were to dance since thefirst twilight till god Jagannath, the Puri temple deity, went to bed.

Jagannath’s temple in Puri, Odissi’s stronghold, was built by thekings of Gang dynasty who ruled for more than four centuries andacted as mighty patrons of art, architecture and religion. By thattime the Vishnuist philosophic system of Ramanudji had spread allaround the country. Nevertheless, the shivaist ceremonies were notforgotten.

Jagannatha’s dharma absorbs all the differences. It is believed to bea mixture of more than fifteen religious and cultural trends. Perhapsit was Chodaganga himself who built Jagannath’s temple and invitedmaharis, experienced dancers, to perform in the temple. He isfamous in Orissi for his passion for fine arts. It is important to know

that Nataraja and the dancing Ganesha neighbor with the numerous images narrating about Krishna’slife. This acknowledges the point of view that the cult of Jagannath admitted such synthesis of vishnuitand shivaist traditions.

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In the wonderful Temple of the Sun in Konarak built in XIIIcentury with its Nata Mandapa or the Dance Hall, probably themost complex in implementation in all India series of sculpturespicturing dance is preserved. This is the place of pilgrimage for alldancers and art lovers. Apparently the Hall was used for dancingperformances in gods’ honor; the temple in Konarak is believed tohave invited a great number of dancers. The whole templecomplex is built in the shape of the sun god’s chariot harnessedwith seven wonderful horses. Sculptures dedicated to dance areespecially numerous in Nata Mandapa; its proximity to the seaemphasizes the unearthly beauty of the Dance Hall.

In about XV century in the reign of the Surya dynasty, abhinaya or dramatically expressive danceappeared in Orissa. It was then that Orissa reached the top of glory in the fields of art and literature.Ray Ramamand a minister at the court of Prataparudradeva was himself busy in training devadasis.He saw that dances based on "Gita-Govinda" be performed carefully and emotionally.

In XV century Maheshvar Mohapatra being at court of Narayanadeva wrote his book "AbhinayaChandrika". This laborious research paper of Odissi even today is considered necessary for studyingthis dance style.

By XVI century there had been three types of dancers in Orissi:maharis in temples, nachuni at royal court and gotipuas in akhadas(halls) who performed before public. Only maharis were admitted tothe inner sacred chambers of a temple. Their tradition was strictlyobserved, there existed tough rules of behavior and etiquette forthem. They entered a simple marriage with a "deity" and thus theirservice to it began. Their ritual dances were performed in theatmosphere of a lofty devotion. However, later lust of the rulingcircles and British powers led to degeneration of this kind of art, itsreligious elements lost their meaning, it turned into a mere meansof entertainment for the royal court. Many temples were completelyabandoned.

In the period of religious revival in XVII century temples againstarted to be patrons of art. But maharis were graduallydisappearing; they were replaced by gotipuas, boys dressed as girlswith the necessary physical training in akhadas. They performedBandha Nritya consisted of complex statuesque poses and bows.Rich landlords favored gotipua companies who traveled across thestate in groups and entertained the public. Their virtuosity wasbased on the flexibility of their almost gymnastic style. However,later the simplicity of their dance was stained by the wave ofvulgarization that touched both their costumes and stage manner.As soon as they started making compromise their social statusreduced and gradually they became a tribe of dying out artists. But

for justice' sake it should be noted that they had always been good singers and dancers and in spite ofsocial and political storms of the XVII century when stagnation reigned in all fields of art, it wasgotipuas who saved the basis for the future revival of the ancient tradition.

By the beginning of the ХVII century the mahari tradition had significantly weakened and hadcompletely disappeared by the 1940s of the last century. Nachunis disappeared in the XIX century.Only gotipuas left and it was their reconstituted repertoire that became the background for the newstyle. The followers of the revival considered the refined variant of gotipua’s repertoire, "AbhinayaChandrika" and numerous poses of dancers in Odissi temples as a yardstick to authenticity.

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It is better not to compare styles of Indian classic dancewith each other. Each has its own charm and beauty. Theyhave different techniques, different history, differentmanner of plot presenting, different emotional colors, theyinfluence views in different ways, but in spite of all thatsome scientists and writers can’t wait to start comparingthem. Its own unusual charm, the harmony of movementlines are inherent with Odissi, it is a very "sculptural"dance style.

The Odissi technique is based on chouka, a position whenhands and legs are bent at right angles, with elbows andknees moved apart. It is a male position by its character;the body weight is distributed equally between both legs.You can see the same pose in the image of Jagannath inPuri temple; perhaps it reflects the balanced,overwhelming and universal nature of god Jagannath’sdharma. This is samabhanga or a balanced position.

The second important position is abhanga when the body weight isshifted on one leg, the other leg is bent in a knee in a standing orsemi-sitting position.

The next position is tribhanga when a body is bent three times insuch a way that lines of arms and legs form triangles. The body lineis broken in knees, waist and neck. Hands, ankles and legs formtriangles of different sizes. This is the most interesting pose inOdissi. This is the unbalanced figure which is not only hard toachieve but also requires of a dancer to have great self-restrain andself-control if she wants to execute it in a beautiful and nice way.There is something airy about it and unlike chouka it is veryfeminine. When tribhanga is performed without proper attention itproduces a terrible impression for it emphasizes the forms of afemale body exaggeratedly up to the extent of ugliness. Tribhangais represented in sculptural portrayals of female figures and likesculpture is based on Hinduism conception of iconography. Music inOdissi is very lyrical, tribhanga as if naturally flows into its mood ormelodic pattern. In most other dance styles the shifting of bodyweight from one leg upon another is forbidden, but this triple bendsare the very essence of the style.

Then come padabhedas or the leg positions: sama, kumbha, dhanu, maha, eka, lolita, nupura, suchi,ashrita, trasya and rekha. Combinations of body and legs positions give birth to a variety of basicpositions exceeding the ordinary supply of other styles. What is unusual about legs position is that adancer sometimes touches the floor with only a heel or a toe. Chali or gait is the way of movement onstage. Every chali is pretty complex; they differ in speed of performance and meaning. The danceportrays numerous variants of a female gait; it is compared with the gait of different animals moreoften with that of a swan, a peacock, a deer and an elephant.

Bhumi, the way of movement on stage is closely connected with padabheda or legs positions, andbhangi - body poses that were mentioned above. Bhumi is also a part of the stage around a dancer.Legs move in a certain way and draw a circle, a square or a semicircle. Legs step forth out of thecentral point and asides so that the drawn circle becomes larger. There was an opinion that drawingcircles and squares in a dancer’s movements goes back to Tantric cults that were once strong inOrissa. A circle and a square have a great meaning in Tantra. However, future dancers studying Odissido not meditate on the bhumi meaning aiming only at learning the movements and often do notsuspect of the possible explanation.

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In Odissi legs also have several unusual movements. First of all there are certain points on the flooraround the dancer where he/she puts his/her foot on. Legs move sideways, the knees are moved farapart. Before placing a foot on the floor a dancer often raises it a little with a toe pulled down or raisesit up high without bending. A circular movement is possible when a foot is put on the floor from oneside and the body follows it in the same wavy way. This is an especially thrilling moment in dance. Adancer often puts a leg forth then raises it and carries it backwards in a spiral movement. A dancersometimes switches to heels with toes raised and goes backwards in this position while makingcircular movements with arms.

Brahmaris are turns or circular movements around a vertical axis.Ekapada brahmari is a special figure when a dancer makes a fullturn on one leg in chouka or tribhanga positions with a foot of oneleg raised to the knee level of the other leg, in the front or in theback. This turn is performed clockwise or counterclockwise.

The peculiarity of Odissi is in the direct correspondence of bodymovements with the positions and movements of the lower parts ofbody. Legs hold the moving body firmly, hips are motionless. Theupper part of the body makes soft wavy movements in a verticalposition; the head is inclined to the side opposite to the body all thetime thus producing a very beautiful, lyrical and spectacular effect.The meaning of this movement in Odissi is often underestimated, avery reserved movement of the upper part of body, especially itsback turns into the movement of hips that is highly unaestheticthough easier to perform. It is this body movement that gives Odissiits special nuance. It is only in brahmari or during turns that thebody moves horizontally.

In nritya or Odissi plot dance, hastas render songs’ meaning anddecorate fragments of pure dance. In every classic dance especiallyin Kathakali, Bharata Natyam and Odissi the hastas described in"Abhinaya Darpana" are widely spread. However, dancers of eachstyle and especially in Kathakali and Odissi also stick to their ownapocryphal texts and an Odissi dancer follows "Abhinaya Chandrika"by Maheshvar Mohapatra.

In Odissi they use several hastas described in "Abhinaya Chandrika", and the hastas completelydifferent from those that occur in Bharata Natyam or Kathakali. These hastas still exist today and arepassed down orally from generation to generation.

Natya or the dramatic element of the dance existed in Orissa in thetimes when gotipuas played in jatra troupes. These troupes weresupported by a local zemindar or a landlord. Their programmes weremore like dramatized performances with dances where the plot wasplayed by several dancers. Tradition of these dance dramasdeveloped unevenly. Within last thirty years the most interest isshown in solo performances on stage. However, some gurus whohad a lot of shishyas or pupils nevertheless found the way topreserve the tradition. Among them Guru Kelucharan Mohapatrashould be noted who acted as choreographer of some numbers andalso dance dramas "Kanchi Vidjai", "Gita Govinda", "KishorChandrananda Champu" and "Konarak Vidjai" where he used theclassic technique, the respective orchestral accompaniment, severalpersonages, costumes and change of decorations.

An Odissi dancer’s costume is a practical silk sari. Perhaps maharisused to wear it in a slightly different way, one cannot exclude thattheir clothes were decorated with multicoloured stones, butnowadays dancers have refused all this. Only the dancers who guard

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the tradition make very little changes in costume. Ornaments are made of silver, though perhaps goldwas used with the same purpose. A dancer’s head is decorated with mathamani, ears with kapas,wrists with bahichudi or tayita, there is a belt of fine work on her waist; small bells strung on onesmall strap are ringing on her ankles; on her neck there is a padaka-tilaka a necklace with a locket.

Besides, Odissi dancers erect themselves a quite complex hair bundecorated with tahiya, a miniature portrayal of temple gopura(tower); garlands of flowers are entwined into hair. Besides astandard make-up that performers of classic dance use, an Odissidancer applies gorachan on her brows, a line that is drawn along abrow down to a cheek-bone with chandan (sandal paste). Andfinally, red liquid alta is sprayed on palms and feet.

Nowadays an Odissi dancer is usually accompanied by a musicianplaying mardala or pakhawaj, a flutist and a singer. Mardala is atraditional drum played by a guru who beats bolas and pronouncesdrum syllable formulae out loud accompanying to the fragments ofthe pure dance. Manjiras or small brass cymbals used to keep thesubtle nuances of the rhythmic accompaniment are also usedeffectively. According to tradition maharis used to sing bythemselves, but as a result of the dance moving on stage and intobig halls this mission was taken upon by a professional singer.Nowadays an Odissi dancer is sometimes accompanied by a sitaristinstead of a more customary in the past violinist, who appeared as aresult of the influence of the neighbouring Karnatak. However, moreoften among all instrumentalists a flutist is invited.

The dance is the expression of a person’s joy by means of movement. When this pure expression andthe liberated freedom are enclosed into classic frames, they must firmly stick to certain technicalrules. The richest means of this technique lie at the basis of Odissi, there are a lot of rules written intexts or passed down orally. Legs positions, foot standing on a heel or a toe, the body position, thebody bending, the plasticity of movement and the gait all together form a splendid sight. These arevery stylized, subtle and elegant movements making an impression that a dancer constantly makesposes to bring joy to eyes and cause aesthetic pleasure.

Kathak Style

'Katha kahey so kathak kahaye', which means one who tells a story in adance form is a Kathak. In India the heroes and heroines of both folkand classic art are gods and goddesses, kings and queens. Since ancienttimes stage performances of legends with their participation have beenthe most popular form of public entertainment. A narrator or actor soonbecame a real artist who constantly improved his mastery in recitation,singing and dance. Occupation in these kinds of art was handed downfrom generation to generation and could win fame and respect forperformer and his family.

With time the art of narration assumed various spectacular shapes anddeveloped into folk and classic dramas, both being the expression ofjoys and troubles in life. A classic drama, submitted to the laws of theconventional sign language portrayed different sides of human characterwith deep understanding. A professional narrator was a big connoisseurof scriptures and mythology, of beliefs and customs, of country legendsand local stories. He enlivened his art with poetry and songs thatexpressed passion growing into abhinaya, a performance of an episodein a vivid and thrilling manner by using facial expression. Quite naturally

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out of this a new art form sprung out and soon Kathaks became known as experienced musicians anddancers.

According to a legend they were so skillful in their art that at times a Kathak actor could keep a wholevillage in suspense by telling a story and using a scarf as the only accessory. By winding the scarfaround his head he became a brave hero of the narration; by changing a pose and tying the scarfaround his waist he turned into a treacherous malefactor; when he gracefully covered his head with ithe became a beautiful young heroine; if he waved the scarf over his head it looked like he really rodea black stallion.

Narration was the basic element; celebrations with music and dances were organized on a villagesquare or in a temple on such occasions as marriage, birth of a child or a festival. With time thetemple ceased to serve as the main dance center. Social-economic factors always influenced thedevelopment of all art forms and it is especially noticeable on Kathak example.

The flowering of the cult of Vishnu in the northern India in XV centuryand the religious movement of Bhakti that followed it, led to theappearance of brand new poetical and musical forms. Bhakti isthe religious movement with deep social meaning. It reflected thecommon people’s rejection of the Brahmans’ Hinduism with itsexclusive rituals, obscure sacred texts written in Sanskrit and its stricthierarchy. The movement gave life to a new school in poetry andmusic. For instance, Mirabai and Surdas wrote religiously inspired lyricsabout melancholy and partings that expressed desire of a human soulfor unity with God. A theme of Radha’s love for Krishna served as ametaphor for transmitting the meaning. The Radha-Krishna’s themeindeed became more and more popular and a rich constellation of itssymbols penetrated into different dialects and languages. Thus in theplace known as "Bradj" (Mathura in the western part of state Uttar-Pradesh) there appeared Raasleela as the combination of music, danceand narration which served to perform legends about Krishna,especially the Radha-Krishna theme and stories of Krishna’s roguerieswith gopis or shepherdesses.

Although Kathak was a strong tradition of worshipping a deity in the Vishnu era, the Moguls’ invasiongave it a new impulse. A dancer moved from a temple patio into a palace hall and this entailedchanges in the performance manner. The literary content gave its dominating role to the moreattractive body motions. Drawing attention to erotic elements of dance was similar to a typicalsensuality of new musical forms that also developed at that time to satisfy tastes of the royal court.

During the era of Mogul emperors’ reign khayal and dhrupad becamethe most popular musical forms. As it cleared out, thumri, gazel andbhadjan suited well for transmitting emotions. Kathak traces its rootsback to kirtanas, i.e. musical compositions used in Raas-lila, and alsoto the kirtanas of Dhruvapad School which were performed by singersas a part of a religious ritual in temples. The fact that these traditionsstill exist today is the eloquent evidence of the atmosphere ofunderstanding and tolerance during the Mogul reign.

The era of the great flowering of Kathak falls on the years of Vadjid AliShah’s reign, the last nabob of Avadha. Being a poet, a dancer and amusician himself, Vadjid Ali Shah was a subtly feeling person whoseMuslim education did not prevent him in any way from appreciatingproperly the Krishna’s theme in the art. It was under his patronagethat the Lucknow gharana school of Kathak style was established.

Graceful motions, subtle bhava (expressiveness) and the use of themost complex rhythmic patterns are characteristics of Lucknowgharana. Technical virtuosity and splendor combine with refinement in

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portraying moods and emotions. With time gharana was enriched with numerous compositions createdby masters of the school. Bols or rhythmic words of percussion instruments (tabla and pakhawaj) arerendered in dance motions most thoroughly, but the main peculiarity of the school is the use of theexpressive means of dance.

Another patron king of Kathak was Rajah Chakradhar Singh from Reigarh (state Madhya-Pradesh). Hefavored the development of different gharanas including schools in Lucknow and Jaipur. Jaipurgharana is notable for its bewitching rhythms; all masters of this school were the most skillfulperformers on tabla and pakhawaj. The basis of motions of Kathak dancers laid in tempo and rhythmiccomplexity of such a degree that they often overshadowed the beauty of the motion. In spite of theheightened interest in the unbelievably fast and complex pure dance with elements of rivalry (inopposition to expressive dance) Jaipur gharana gave life to an important angh or a constituent part ofthe Kathak narrative tradition – kavittoda which is lyrics in the form of a stylized singing alternatingwith rhythmic drum insertions. Among the followers of Jaipur gharana are Hari Prasad and HanumanPrasad, the latter’s performance of bhadjanas (religious poems) became a legend.

Although the successors to the two main Kathak traditions keep the distinctive features of thedirections there are no strict borders among gharanas. The creative works of great masters influencedboth schools. One shouldn’t wonder if only a real Kathak connoisseur is able to notice the difference instyles and interpretations.

The third important Kathak School is Banaras Gharana which is also called Janakiprasad gharananamed after its founder. The basis of Banaras Gharana is in dance syllable formulae (eitherpronounced orally or beaten on tabla). They are used for the scenes of pure dance performed in a midtempo with emphasis on accuracy and elegancy. The absence of such zealous keepers of traditions astemples, led to a strong dependence of each generation on the personality of one guru or a certainfamily. This caused the periods of quick growing and swift declines of the style.

Thus by the end of the XIX century Kathak had firmly rooted itself as the only dance form in thenorthern India. Covering the states of Madhja-Pradesh, Kashmir, Bihar and Gujarat, its popularitywent far beyond the boarders of Uttar-Pradesh and Rajasthan where it appeared. The royal courtdeprived the temple of the privilege to be the center of art patronage what meant the liberation fromthe frames of temple rituals, and this in its turn favored the development of Kathak into a relativelyflexible style of classic dance.

A Kathak female dancer appeals directly to the audience. In anevening show she performs a series of traditional numbers eachrequiring high technique and self-control. What amazes you is themasterly performance of slow and elegant motions which aresometimes so insignificant that an inattentive onlooker may notnotice them, and as a contrast you are also amazed by unbelievablyfast and vigorous footwork and pirouettes. On the one hand there ispeace and harmony; on the other hand there is vortex and magic ofthe style.

Pure dance plays the main part in Kathak. Unlike in other classicIndian dances a Kathak dancer does not move her bent knees outforth or asides, and there are no deep body bows. In Kathak theNritta or pure dance is the expression of pure joy from motion andan easily recognizable self-abandonment in rhythm. With small bellsor ghunghrus on his/her ankles a dancer starts to beat a whole rowof rhythmic sounds and variations with feet. This ability is thefundamental part of the style.

In Kathak there is no strict order of representing a theme. During the performance improvisationsusually appear with the changes in mood or subject. However, there exists an established set ofcompositions out of which a dancer can choose. They are arranged not in a certain order but accordingto a dancer’s desire.

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In aamada (a Persian word literary meaning "to arrive") a dancerwho sticks to the tradition performsslightly visible motions withhands and torso only under the accompaniment of tabla syllablestaa thei thei tat-aa thei thei tat. Although aamad can be performedboth fast and slow, it can be called a prelude to the following andmore complex dances. At some moment in the past pakhawaj bols –dha taka thungaa were inserted into Kathak, and the motions undertheir accompaniment became more vigorous and perhaps a littlemore in a Tandava style, or male in its mood. The sounds of bols, orsyllables of these different drums have the direct influence onTandava or Lasya (male or female) dance styles, achieved bymotions of a dancer’s feet.

The most thrilling moment in Kathak is the tremendous dancers’virtuosity in executing paranas, tods and tukada, rhythmicalcompositions that require quickness, mobility and self-control.Paranas are pieces of pure dance performed in dhruta or fast tempounder the accompaniment of pakhawaja bols. They are harmoniousand accurate compositions where quicksilver motions correspondwith their mood. The terms toda and tukada are used to denote

short fragments of rhythmic compositions which are usually ascribed to some great guru oracknowledged master of the style. They form a changeable pattern of a dance that ends in tihai, thecycle repeated for three times so that the final step and beat of the composition lands on the 'sam'. Toapproach sam and to mark it out as the main point of the cycle is a complex task that requiresmathematical accuracy, and for students these numbers are the main subject of study. To understandand perform them is the achievement in itself. To perform them brilliantly one must work hard, betalented and have a deep understanding of rhythmic variety and meaning.

Toda and tukada form the most part of an evening show. The mastery of a good dancer is estimatedby complexity and skillfulness of such compositions and by a dancer’s ability to effectively performthem. Tihai enters into a composition without being noticed, the way it is achieved is also the measureof mastery. A dancer ends tihai and stops the rotary motions on certain tact and in accurate pose. It isnot easy to do that, taking into account the previous vortical movements. But at the same time, ifmotions are performed on a high level one will see a soft elegancy and triumph, rejoicing and joy.

Quicksilver footwork in paran, tukada and toda alternate with chakkara (rotation). A female dancermust perform repeated rotary movements in a fasttempo around the vertical axis. Outwardly this slightlyreminds ballet's pirouettes. The Kathak technique alsorequires to place one foot along the central line of thebody and to slightly raise the other one while executingthe turns. Rich riyaz (experience) and mastery arerequired to perform these chakkaras. One can easily tella good dancer from a bad one by the speed of turns, bycontinuation of the motions started in turns and by thefeeling of balance necessary for the quick stop in theend. There can be a lot of pirouettes and a dancer oftenstarts performing them on one place and then movesaround the stage circle without stops. However,spectators are mostly impressed not by the quantity ofturns but how at the end of a complex number of puredance a dancer impeccably makes exactly three chakkaras and immediately freezes in a beautifulpose.

The word tatkaar is used to denote a motion when a dancer stamps his/her foot on the floor producinga sound that reminds "tat". A Kathak dancer improvises only with feet, it being known that no otherstyle besides perhaps Spanish flamenco has ever reached such perfection. But even flamenco canhardly be compared with Kathak in terms of mathematical and rhythmical mastery.

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Nowadays the complex footwork obviously distinguishes as the strongest and the most developedelement of the style. However, it would be untrue to say that the art of pantomime is absent or limitedin Kathak.

Facial expression in Kathak is the wonderful opposition to such south-Indian styles as Kathakali andBharata Natyam where mimicry is stronger and more expressive. Refined manners characteristic ofKathak are its distinctive feature, though one must not consider them as the evidence that abhinaya isinsignificant or is absent at all.

The method of "associative ideas" is widely spread in Kathak. Whenportraying a certain action a dancer only outlines the situation connectedwith it. The style has many interesting examples of using this method. Forinstance Shravan, the rain season, is portrayed by means of motionsassociated with the rainy weather. To completely understand this, aspectator must be acquainted with the customs and the landscape of thearea where the idea was taken from. To portray the season of rains afemale dancer looks in the sky as if she is frightened by dark clouds andlightning; she shows how it starts and keeps on raining, how a peacockdances happily; she plays a scene where a maiden who was rushing tomeet her sweetheart gets wet and hides from the rain in a fright, and thena hero comes and tries to comfort her. The main idea is the same – thebeginning of rain, but with the help of the associative ideas and motions adancer pictures a row of actions and events from people’s lives.

The rhythm is the richest and the most expressive element in Kathak. Some of its fine points requiregreat attention of a spectator. One may say that Layakari or a rhythmical virtuosity has developedinto an extremely complex kind of art. Requirements claimed to a Kathak dancer are extremely high.New horizons are open, a change of ideas is undergoing, dancers have opened the riches of othergharanas, all this has gradually lead to the enrichment of the arsenal of their expressive means andwidened frames for their creativity. Ways and methods of Jaipura and Lucknow gharanas can be foundwith the dancers of both traditions, this was impossible earlier. There is an impression that theblending of various elements in Kathak is taking place on every level. The mixture of Hindu andMuslim cultures in this style as if blessed Kathak and endowed it with a balanced approach and madeit the most "natural" of all the Indian classic dances. Other classical styles either lack the Muslimcultural character or see its weaker manifestation. Self-abandonment and at the same time restraintare characteristic of Kathak. This underlines the brightness of the style and adds irresistible charm toit.

Kathakali Style

Kathakali is a bright dancing performance from the rich and fertilesouthern state of Kerala. It is the most colorful, sincere and passionatedance form in India. As an art of unique depth and human warmth itincludes humorous comments that miss none of aspects of human life.It is far from being just a drama. Even when a Kathakali dancer plays ascene alone his poetical art creates imaginary space that acquires realboarders and stretches to the farthest horizons of the emotional.

Although in its present form Kathakali appeared in about XVII centuryits roots go back to various folk and dramatized forms of entertainmentthat appeared much earlier. Among them Chakiar Kothu, Kudiyattam,Krishnattam and Ramanattam had the most direct influence uponKathakali. The sources of inspiration for it also were the ancient forms ofhand-to-hand combat and folk traditions of Kerala.

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Chakiar Kothu was a dramatized kind of art performed by only one caste – chakiaras. Their right toperform in temples of Malabar was passed down from generation to generation and only elite publicwas admitted to these strictly canonized performances to be sure take place on temple territory. Achakiar was a witty imitator; he played scenes from epic poems and puranas. He was accompanied bya namizhava, a big brass drum with a relatively small membrane, and by cymbals played on by awoman.

In state Kerala the drama was born in the form of Kudiyattam. A popular legend was performed byseveral actors together, one plot could be played for several days at that, and the art of mukhaabhinaya (drama art) developed into a complex technique. Performances took place by night. Definitemake-up colors and costumes started to be appointed to every character. The ruling Perumalas andlater Kulashekhara, the king of Chera, patronized this kind of art.

Training and teaching in hand-to-hand combat in Kerala had thepurpose of charging body and mind with energy by means ofphysical perfection. A beautiful military caste of nayaras devotedthemselves to this. Like in the countries of the Far East battlemethods were used here. But in spite that tools were used duringtrainings the purpose was physical training and self-defense. Youngnayaras many of whom later reached the heights of mastery weretrained in ksharis (gymnasiums) in a scientific method of bodymassage and vigorous exercises.

The rite of Krishnattam was developed in XVII century by a zamorin(a ruler) of Calcutta as an offering to Krishna. It used to beperformed in Guruvayur temple or in zamorin’s temple. The text ofthe performance lasted for eight nights and was performed inSanskrit. They say it was written under the influence of popular atthat time "Gita-Govinda" by Jayadeva.

Soon after that Ramanattam a story about Rama appeared. It wascomposed by Raja Kottarakkara a commander from the southernKerala. A legend says that he once asked a zamorin to lend him histroupe that performed Krishnattam but was refused. Being insulted he made up his mind to create asimilar eight-day performance based on Krishna’s story of life. As far as it was performed not inSanskrit as Krishnattam but in the Malayalam language, it soon left Krishnattam far behind inpopularity. Pantomime and gesticulation were used in Ramanattam. The art of complex make-updeveloped, musicians were invited for the accompaniment, certain conditions for characterization ofpersonages appeared. Soon plots started to include stories from "Mahabharata" and Puranas. Thisform of dance drama grew up, developed and got the name of Kathakali, literally a story-play.

Local kings and the land aristocracy were proud of being able to supporttheir own troupes and generously helped to develop the new style.Among them the following can be marked out: Thampurana fromKottayama and some rulers from the Travankur dynasty such asBalarama Varma, Asvati Tirunal and Svati Tirunal Gama Varma. A poetIraiman Thampi also made great contribution to the development of thegenre in both his literary talent and monetary contributions. With asupport like this the style flourished and widened its frames. Later withthe gradual decline of the might of royal families, Kathakali began togive its way to more popular forms of entertainment; Kathakali actorscould not support themselves any longer. Performances continued totake place in some areas but without the former scope. This kind of artwas saved from a threatening and complete disappearance by a greatpoet Vallathol Narayana Menon who in 1930 founded the Center forpreparation and training in Kathakali named Kerala Kala Mandalam.

It is impossible to overestimate Vallathol’s foresight. He invited manyeminent teachers and actors to Mandalam among whom were such

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leading figures as Ravunni Menon and Kunju Kurup. Thus Kathakali survived, got stronger and turnedinto a force one cannot but count with.

While watching Kathakali sometimes there is an impression that a dancer knows no oral language, sofreely he possesses the sign language. This language together with quite complex and figurative useof mimicry is the essence of the style. A performer interrupts a dialogue with movements drawn fromthe pure dance but can also lead a ceaseless conversation with the help of gesticulation. Even when ahero thinks, plans or remembers something a dancer translates all this into gestures thus initiatingspectators into a train of thought of a personage. A part of a dialogue may include lyrics writtenespecially for the given hero or for the scene performed. The lyrics are sung by two singers in turn. Adancer interprets lyrics very thoroughly, first translating each word in a line for word into gestures andthen varies the interpretation of the same line in order to include the situation, a reaction to thesituation, possible consequences or results of this situation etc. Thus a relatively short poetic fragmentis interpreted by a dancer in a rather wide way.

In order to freely transmit thoughts with the help of gestures andmimicry a Kathakali dancer must go through exhausting training that willteach him to creatively use body and mind abilities, will give him theskills necessary for the future work. Boys begin to study in gurukul (aschool) at the age of ten and learn from sunrise till sunset. Every dayprofessional masseurs massage the boys using special oils for musclesand joints relaxation, giving them elasticity necessary for dances of thisstyle. This firstly painful massage followed by a bath taking is done dailyduring the whole period of learning that usually lasts till the boys aretwenty years old. A dancer lies down on the floor and a masseurmassages with his feet counting every muscle, joint or nerve. Legs, armsand in particular toes as well as all other parts of body are massaged. Asa result a dancer senses every part of his body independently from otherparts, and in the future he will be able to manage and use them on hisown accord.

In the main Kathakali position knees must be moved apart to give body a wide basis. The back isarched and supports the body weight in free movements that are characteristic of the style, and alsothe weight of a heavy headdress. When a dancer stands in this position it looks like he sits on a stool.Out of this position a dancer moves forward and backwards, sits down on the floor, jumps andstretches himself on the floor. Knees are not often joined together only in case an actor standsstraight what happens when he is motionless or simply listens to another hero of the action.

Not only body is subject to systematic exercises but also every part of a face especially eyes. It is asexhausting as training other parts of body and requires great concentration. A dancer sits on the floorwith his legs crossed and arms folded on his chest or on laps. He presses chin to his chest and openshis eyes wide. Then he starts to move his pupils horizontally, vertically and circle-wise. He drawseights with his eyes first slowly then faster until it becomes hard to watch their movements. Itreminds meditation because thoughts calm down, only the muscles around eyes move.

It is not allowed to move during this exercise, while eyes work a dancer’s head and body must beabsolutely motionless. Then brows, chin, cheeks, mouth, neck and head are trained at first separately,then in various combinations. The purpose of these exercises is to teach a dancer to control facialmuscles and be able to completely manage its different parts. This emphasizes the elegancy ofmimicry elements during a performance.

The performance of nrytta or pure dance is based on strict adherence to the system of basic figuresand jumps from the semi sitting position. It is uneasy in itself to learn a great number of motions andfigures by heart, but the main thing is to understand their meaning in characters and moods ofvarious personages. A finished fragment of a pure dance is called kalasam. It would be untrue toexpect every dancer to interpret a given kalasam in the same way. A dialogue of actors alternateswith kalasams, that’s why the interpretation and performance depend on the song rhythm in thescene, on the mood of the episode and first of all on the portrayed personage. A dancer may win theaudience approval by performing kalasams vigorously, gracefully or excitedly or cut them short

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sharply, all that depends on the preceding dialogue. For instance, for personages like Hanuman thereare traditional compositions performed by experienced dancers who are guided by their temperament,age and reputation.

Kathakali dancers use a complicated sign language. It is based onthe book "Hasta Lakshana Deepica" that contains the developedrules of 24 most important hastas. However, because of the greatnumber of their combinations it is impossible to say for sure thatthere is any complete list of them. So much depends on the masteryand imagination of a dancer that true leading figures of Kathakaliand other styles eventually raise high over the instructions oftechnique and resort to fewer hastas or to any other motions andfigures regulated by rules.

Hastas are visual portrayal of lyrics. A musician adds melody tolyrics thus shading their meaning. By mimicry, motions andgesticulation a dancer introduces sense and life into poems, turningacoustic images into visual ones.

A Kathakali dancer widely uses metaphors. It is believed that all theliving things can be correlated with the nature, and hastas are built

on such correlations. Besides, hastas in Kathakali may denote such notions as "the same", "even","but", "with" etc., what is of rare occurrence in the dance. Every language has its phraseology, itsrhythm, its consequence of words. Kathakali seems wonderfully correlates with sanskritized Malayalamthat serves as a means of its oral expression.

In a narrative episode an actor may choose one of the following variants. He may describe physicalnotions such as a mountain, a palace, a forest, a garden, fire; on the other hand he may portray awoman, an elephant, a bee, a lotus, an enemy etc. Or he may remain himself and react to a situationby playing rage, despair, greed, humbleness, arrogance, passion or contempt.

While developing his idea an actor chooses the corresponding comparison and quite visibly renders themeaning of what he wants to say in detail description of what he compares. For instance, in portrayinga bashful woman, this trick may turn out very effective for it shifts the audience attention from awoman’s personality upon the main idea of a dancer. A hero may look at his beloved, shy and silentbut full of love and passion. He compares her with liana and says: "You are so tender and shy; youremind me a liana that winds around the tree and cannot grow on her own". Then an actor developsthis idea for quite a long time, first portraying his beloved by showing in details how shy and fragileshe is, then he demonstrates how she stands with her head bowed and eyes down; after that he looksat the imaginary liana and shows how it grows winding around a tree etc.

In this is the difference of Kathakali from other styles, this is anabsolutely visual form of art. This is "the absolute theatre" both on thelevel of one performer and in a wider meaning as a theatre action. Thepurpose of an actor is to create a character that probably was notdeveloped in a play. And not just to create the character of a mightyBhima whose part he may play but to show to the audience the flowersgrowing on his way, a woman he loves, the depths of the forest hemakes his way through, arrogance of his enemies and his oath ofrevenge. All his emotional sorrows and joys are reflected in hisbehavior and the way he walks. Different opportunities are hidden inhim, both trivial and supernatural ones. While watching him a spectatorcannot but admire the strong portrayal of the superhuman and thehonest portrayal of the human.

According to tradition a Kathakali has always been performed by nighton a simple open platform without decorations, side-scenes, curtainand backstage. The only "properties" was and still is a traditional stoolthat actor may use on his own accord as a throne to sit solemnly on, as

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a tree to climb up or just a chair to rest on while another actor plays in proscenium or in the stagecenter. He may place it anywhere and move from place to place if the development of plot requiresthis. Therassila or screen is used very effectively to hide the appearance of a new personage. Twomen hold the screen in front of an actor in such a way that the audience can only see his legs and theheaddress. The true symbolism of his costume is hidden from them and every new personage beginshis performance with exclamations from behind the screen thus creating a strained anticipation withthe audience. By the time the screen is taken away he already becomes a full participant of the actionand is completely associated with the role he plays.

A big lamp is placed in the front part of the platform; oil is added in it from time to time. It givesbeautiful natural yellow light waving to the wind in contrast to stable rays of modern projectors. Thelevel of illumination naturally singles out a rather small circle where the action takes place, andattracts the audience attention to it. When an experienced actor wants to emphasize the smallest(finest) changes in mimicry he may take a sit under the lamp and then every movement of his eyes,neck, chin and brows will become brightly outlined and reflected on his face because a flickering flameas if "highlights" it properly and at the same time makes waves of light across the face in contrast tomodern projectors that make light and shade freeze on place.

The term Aharja abhinaya is used in relation to costumes and make-up. In Kathakali more than in anyother style of Indian dance these two elements serve as a necessary link for understanding charactersof dance drama. The heroes and plots in Kathakali tell about supermen. Legends about gods anddemons are transferred upon the stage, and each personage possesses supernatural and sometimesdivine forces. Traditions of make-up originate from the ancient forms of folk art of Kerala and also inKudiyattama and Krishnattama. In time the costumes grew better and the whole performance makesthe impression of a complete splendour. Dancers have large skirts, shirts and various beautifulornaments on: bracelets, ribbons on wrists, chest plates, several rows of bells on ankles and calves, avery heavy and painted headdress and long artificial hair. Costume, ornaments and make-up are socomplicated that it is hard to imagine how actors can dance so vigorously with such a load.

Personages of the Kathakali drama are divided into three big dramatic types: sattvik, rajasik andtamasik.

Sattvik: noble, heroic, generous and refined heroes. Their make-up is puton a bright green background which is called pachkha in the malaylamlanguage. A white chutti is drawn from jaws to ears. It serves as aboarder sharply outlining face, on which background a complicated make-up stands out especially brightly.

Lips are painted with a glittering pink colour, two little circles are drawn inthe corners of the mouth. Eyes are penciled with sharp black strokes fromthe internal sides of eyes near nose up to the hair line. A complicatedreligious sign naman is drawn on the forehead. The heroes with pachkha(green make-up) have fine, elegant and aristocratic appearance. Amongthem are Bhima and Indra.

Krishna has green make-up on his face too, but his headdress (muti)is not so big, with fewer spangles and on the top it is decorated with asemicircle made of peacock feathers. Other personages with pachkha havemulticoloured headdresses, kiridas, they are much larger than mutis andare brightly decorated with green, white and reddish spangles. The heroeswith green make-up usually have white skirts and red jackets on; Krishnawears a blue one. The actors playing Shiva and Brahma put their make-upon a pale orange background, pajuppa, the rest of the make-up, costumeand headdress is similar to the personages with pachkha.

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Rajasik is an antihero like Ravana, Duryodhana and Kichaka. Their make-up is called katthi. The greencolour of the background remains because the heroes with katthi possess positive qualities too:generosity, devotion, nobleness and love. However, the green background is crossed out by bright redlines across forehead, nose and cheeks by which they can immediately be identified.

However, what immediately marks these heroes out is two chuttipos, whiteballs made of plant pulp that are fixed on the forehead and the tip of thenose. The same balls can be found with very wicked and mean "beardedheroes". A hero with katthi, with his costumes and headdresses reminds thepersonages with pachkha. His character is arrogant and aggressive. He doesnot stand rivalry and will not miss the opportunity to boast of his virtues andvalour. He gets angry easily; he does not listen to the voice of reason andresponds sharply to reproaches. In the presence of his beloved who usually

comes in his dreams, the impudent and arrogant hero with katthi becomes sentimental and humble.He is quite often the most memorable among the personages and frequently is the audience favorite.At his will a hero with katthi exposes a pair of fangs to demonstrate his rage. The roles of antiheroesare very popular and serve as a test for dramatic talent of an actor. A dancer utters various soundsstarting with a sweet and tender cooing during the conversation with a beloved or while praising her,up to long and loud howls and roar when meeting an enemy. These heroes are the decoration of theevening performance.

Personages with tamasic features are called thadi or "the beardedmen". They are cruel and malicious to the bone. Among themchavanda thadi or the red beard especially distinguishes. Thesemean and demonic roles are embodied by such personages asBakasura and Dushasana. They have a completely different make-up. There is no white chutti across jaws and chin. The basic colourof make-up is black and covers the eyes area and the most offorehead instead of usual red signs outlined by a white line. Theseheroes are easy to recognize by huge moustaches visible fromunder a complicated tracery made of paper and painted red onwhich background black lips are sharply distinguished. An actoroften shows two white fangs in the corners of a mouth. White ballson nose and forehead on the background of black and red face arethe symbols of fierceness, and they are much bigger than theheroes with the katthi have. Actors playing thadi are usually tall andstrong men with mighty figures capable of holding extremely heavyand massive headdress. A red bearded (chavandu thadi) is a strongearthly personality; he is uneducated and depresses everyone withhis presence. He walks arrogantly and constantly uses foullanguage.

Besides him the black bearded or karutta thadi take part in theperformance. These are primitive and ungovernable types embodyingthe lowest of the human qualities. They are wild especially in comparisonwith the more refined heroes of the drama. Their faces are totallypainted black with a little of red and white around eyes and with brightred lips. A chuttipo on nose is not a ball but rather reminds an openflower. The headdress is not flat and round but long and cylindrical, ofblack colour, opening or broadening on top. Karutta thadi is representedby a katala or a hunter, and by a kirata or Shiva dressed as a hunter.Another important representative of thadi is Kali, an evil personage whoalso has black beard.

The monkey-kings of Bali and Sugriva possess certain animal qualitiescharacteristic of the monkey tribe, but it is Hanuman the divine monkeyfrom "Ramayana" who takes a special place in the hearts of people. Hisbeard and a fur jacket are white; his make-up is quite colourfulespecially on cheeks, on the forehead and nose. The background of the

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make-up is red and black, but a complex white tracery softens the strictness of these paints giving itin general a rather calm and neutral character. Hanuman’s headdress consists of a domelike crown; itsflat basis rests on the head. Hanuman is one of the most favourite heroes of the Kathakali drama, thisrole is usually given to a sincere and experienced actor.

Karis are the black personages, the background of their make-up is blackand they have black costumes on. This vesham (costume) is put onby rakshasas or demonesses like Purpanakha, Ravana’s evil sister. She alsowears two false breasts that emphasize her ugliness.

Besides the heroes with the make-up background like pachkhi, katthi, thadiand kari there are minor personages like minnaku that embody women and sages. The colour of theirfaces is supposed to be natural but in fact the background of their make-up is glittering and orange-yellow. Eyes and brows are penciled in a natural way; their costumes are simple and realistic. Thesepersonages, be it a woman or a sage, behave in a restrain and full of dignity manner. Sages areobligatory to have a beard, hair is gathered in a knot and clothes are made of fine material. Unlikemajor characters of the play, the minakku personages are rather fragile people and this at timescreates quite funny situations which actors bring to their logical ends in order to slightly relieve thestress.

Female parts are traditionally played by men. That’s why their costumes are made in such a way tohide their belonging to male sex. An actor exaggerates female features in walking and behaving,

special attention is paid to kalasamas be performed lightly and elegantly.

Before the performance a Kathakali dancer puts a small seed in his eye.It absorbs moisture and gives red hue to an eye. It balances the coloursolution of the rest of the make-up. Unlike the followers of other dancestyles who are identified with the style they belong to, Kathakali actorsachieve individual popularity as actors playing certain roles. It oftenhappens that an actor specializes in playing a role of one personagewhich he is eventually identified with.

There are two singers and two drummers in the Kathakali Theater.Besides, singers play instruments that keep up the rhythm and managethe musical accompaniment in a certain way. Each drum has its definitelyexpressed sound. Maddalam is a two-piece drum lake a mridangam,though larger. A performer wears it on a belt and while playing he holdsit low on hips. The fingertips on the drummer’s right hand are coveredwith rice paste which hardens like plaster and allows not only strikemembrane without hurting fingers but also touch it lightly when thedevelopment of the plot demands it. The other drum is of a cylindershape and is called chenda and is played in a standing position. It hangson a drummer’s shoulder and is played on with a palm of one hand and athin stick in the other hand or with two sticks one in each hand. In mostcases a drummer beats on chenda from one side.

This instrument accompanies only to male heroes. Aedakka is a drum of a smaller size in the shape ofa sand glass and is played when a female personage appears on stage. It has a softer tone than amale chenda that sounds loud and sonorous during the performance. The main singer keeps up therhythm by striking a heavy metal gong chengala with a thick and short stick. The second singer beatsthe rhythm with a pair of heavy cymbals ilattalam. The singing style of Kathak is close to that ofKarnatak classic music but is called sopanam, the style of performance that corresponds to expressivedance.

Kathakali is an absolute theatre. Singers sing text; actors render it with gestures, pantomime, motionsand dramatic playing. An actor’s mind, body and heart simultaneously take part in the disclosing of atheme. He cooperates with other personages and goes beyond the limits of a formal theatre, with thehelp of gestures and pantomime creating an atmosphere in which he wishes to stand in front of theaudience. He "plays" the properties necessary for the role. He creates a forest and goes through it. He

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portrays his beloved and then comes close to her. He discloses his secret plan and then fulfills it. Aspectator is influenced on two levels: the belief in the world created by an actor fights with theworship to the great mastery of actor playing.

A performance starts after the dark; drums beat fanciful rhythmic patterns calling spectators to theperformance. Evening turns into night gradually; the characters appear on stage in the same gradualway. Time does not fetter them. Wonderful actors play and demonstrate the unique virtuosity. At onemoment of this magic night the audience is immersed into sleepiness, at another moment it is held ina restraint suspense. The climax of the night performance is the fight. The noise becomes almostdeafening. The audience waits for the dénouement anxiously. Onstage a wild activity is going; avortex of costumes and swords raised high.

This is the great world of theatre. The reality comes with the dawn.

Manipuri Style

Manipur is a green, fertile and mountains surrounded land ofunusual beauty. This is the valley of the Serpent God inhabited bythe people considering human life and nature God’s gifts, dance andmusic being the most beautiful and the most natural ways ofexpressing gratitude. Every event, be it birth, wedding or death isthe reason for a beautiful ceremony and gives men, women andchildren the opportunity to become witnesses to and participants ofa professional dancing and musical ritual.

Manipur is the land where myths and legends coexist with almostscientific explanations of phenomena, where a complex system ofprophecies is a neighbor to wide knowledge and the deepestphilosophy. These different influences are united in harmony ineveryday life. Rituals are not just formal ceremonies detached fromsimple people’s needs. In the same house you can see both sacredobjects that are the evidence of spiritual aspirations and a loom tosatisfy purely economic needs. But the most important thing is thatevery man feels his unity with nature, dances and songs being theproof of it.

A beautiful legend of Nongpokningthu and Panthoibi, the deities similar to Shiva, explains the meaningof the name Manipur. When Krishna and gopis (shepherdesses) performed Raaslila, Krishna invitedShiva to see that nobody bothers them. Shiva was very eager to see their ecstatic dance but Krishnadid not allow and only let him to stand near the gates to the dancing ground and Shiva swore that hewould stand with his back to the dancing all the time. Shiva kept his word but the intoxicating soundsof Krishna’s divine flute and gopis’ foot bells did not give him a moment’s peace.

He shared this with Parvati and together they decided to create their own Raaslila. Coming down fromtheir Himalayan dwelling place they found a fairy-tale valley full of water. Shiva threw his mightytrident into the slope of the mountain. The water poured out through the outlet and then Shiva andParvati started to dance in joy, and Ananta the divine serpent took jewels off his hood and with theirhelp lit the valley. The shining of those jewels gave the name to the valley under which it is knowntoday – "Manipur" or the land of precious stones.

The gods and goddesses’ creative work is the basis of another legend. It tells how the Almightyrubbed his right hand and created nine gods, and then he rubbed his left hand and createdseven goddesses. Gods and goddesses started to dance and with their motions they created thematter and then created piles of ground. After creating seven piles they took a rest and refreshedthemselves with food and water. Sixty of such piles were created; gods and goddesses took rest aftereach eighth pile. At the same time they measured units of time that still exist today. Pung that means

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"a pile of earth" is both a measure of time and a drum that beats thetemporal cycle. The people of Manipuir’s cosmic conceptions and thelaws of existence are interwoven into this myth. Up to the present dayno foreign influences could bury the tradition of ritual playing of thestory of the world creation. The chain of traditions in Manipur isunbreakable and unchangeable.

The cult of Vishnu became dominant in Manipur in the period of thephilosopher-king Bhagya Chandra’s reign (1759-1798). This is anextremely important period in the history of Manipur culture. BhagyaChandra left memories of himself as of an enlightened king deeplydevoted to God. He was called Bhakta Rajarishi or the king-ascetic.There are records that he succeeded in poetry, dance, music andphilosophy as well as in the arts of governing, war and administering.These qualities combined in him with humbleness, compassion andgenerosity. It is not surprising that folk legends ascribe to him allhuman virtues.

During Bhagya Chandra’s reign Manipur undergone the attack of theBurmese. Notwithstanding the fact that Manipur offered the fierceresistance the might and the overcoming forces of the Burmese were decisive and Bhagya Chandrawas made to escape and seek refuge with Svargadeva the king of the neighboring state Tekhow.According to legends, leaving Manipur after his defeat Bhagya Chandra danced a ritual dance with aspear (thengao) on a rock that dangerously hung over a high precipice. Because of the strong windraging in the valley it was not easy even to stand on the rock. Bhagya Chandra’s dance wasinterpreted as a divine blessing and an omen of his return to his kingdom.

Kings and queens of Manipur traditionally were competent in dance and music. A queen could danceon the same ground with simple people. Dance was not just a form of entertainment. That was anoffering to gods and there were no castes and barriers of social position on a dancing ground. Kingswere supposed to embody the subtlety of aesthetic taste; the rulers rivaled with their predecessorsand encouraged the development of oratory, poetry, dance and music. That’s why talas are stillidentified with the rule of separate kings that helps to arrange them chronologically and watch theirdevelopment.

A legend says that King Bhagya Chandra was sanctified by the grace of God and Lord Krishna himselfis said to appear before him in a vision and wished that dancers and musicians of Manipur performedRaaslila. Inspired by Krishna’s image Bhagya Chandra learned that there is a banyan tree out of whichthe god’s image must be carved. The king and the elders headed for the search of the tree but could

not find it for a long time; they were almost desperate when all of asudden they heard a boy playing flute in the wood. Considering thisa god’s sign the king kept on searching until he met a poor familyliving in an old house in the far corner of the wood. They found thehuge banyan tree near the house. When they began to cut it thetree started bleeding. The tree was delivered to the capital andKrishna’s image was cut out and sanctified amongst prayers andcommon rejoicing. This image became sacred for the vishnuit cult inManipur.

Organizations that grouped around Krishna’s temple and the royalcourt were the keepers of artistic, administrative, religious andliterature traditions in Manipur. Their role continues to be vital forthey form a supreme organ that keeps up the highest level ofstudying, interpretation and practical use of everything that is basedon traditions. These organizations are respected by the mostoutstanding learned men and performers who consult for examplebrahma sabha on arguable religious questions, pandit loysankh onarguable tradition matters and pala loysankh on dance and musicquestions. Even the kings of Manipur have always respected these

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organizations for their decision was final. Their jurisdiction covered protocol and ceremonies in relationof kinds of art, they observed the correctness in rituals.

Tantric influence is strong in the culture of Manipur. It finds its expression in a shivaist legend ofthe world creation. The process of creation was called Ley tai nongtai jagoy or "the marriage ofheaven and earth". There is a popular belief that dance and its origin are closely connected with thecreation of the world. A performance based on this legend is a constituent part of Lai haraoba athoroughly thought-out festival of dance and music. Laipou, the dance of creation is still performed onevery Lai haroba festival in its primordial form. Annoyrol, a ritual dance described in ancient Manipurtexts is performed on this festival too. This allows to trace the origins of dance that goes back to satyayuga or the legendary age of piety, and to hayichika or the period when according to a belief theworshipping of fire, of this purest and the most ancient among all known forms of deity, started.

The Lai haraoba ritual reproducing the process of the creation of universe begins with the proclaimingof the primordial Nothing or the Void. Then appears "water": men dressed in white and women inclothes with pink stripes carry offerings and cloths down to the river. These men and women, maibaand maibi, according to tradition are the high priests and priestesses of Manipur. As greatconnoisseurs of sacred texts and the ones who mastered the art of prophets they are the maincharacters in all ceremonies. Golden and silver things embodying earth and heaven are sacrificed towater. The people of Manipur summon its divine energy with music.

When a deity becomes implanted in a maibi’s body it starts to speak with her mouth. It is solemnlyfollowed back to the temple under the loud accompaniment of trumpets sounds. On the way dancersdemonstrate their art in honor of the deity three times. The next days of ceremonies, dance and musicgo according to a strictly prescribed ritual. Winding lines are drawn on the ground, various danceceremonies take place, and they are believed to bring prosperity to village.

Hicham hirao, a ceremony with a boat is another important ritualthat also includes dance. A boat is a symbol of life, god and travelthrough life. A tantric dance thengao is inserted in some places ofLai haraoba. Performers are required to go through exhaustingtrainings. Since a wonderful possession of body, balance, power andconcentration are generally claimed of dancers, thengao isconsidered the highest form of dance art among the experiencedperformers. Their reputation often depends on how they masterthengao.

Sankirtan is an ancient tradition in dance and music, the storage ofrasa bhava, classic ragas and talas. Thematically it is based on alegend about Krishna though its prototype araibapala sankirtan wasdedicated to Rama. In the reign of Bhagya Chandra a number ofcompositions in honor of Krishna greatly increased, this period isconsidered the resurrection of sankirtan tradition. Nata sankirtanliterally means "singing and dancing in honor of Hari". Itsperformance is considered the highest form of worshipping. Peopleapproaching the place of sankirtana first bow down before it andthen before spectators. Sankirtan is performed even during awedding ceremony, since according to a tradition it replaces fire usual for other regions of India. Itdepends on a ceremony and occasions what sarkitan to perform.

In sarkitan any of 64 rasas can be used, all just being Shringara rasa variations after all. A legend ofKrishna and Radha is often played and each performance must include rajamel or the divine unity ofKrishna and Radha. This is the symbol of unity of purusha and prakriti (male and female energies) andthe creation of the world. During the performance of rajamel the cymbals which dancers hold in handsare never completely parted from each other.

Raaslila is a theatrical action dedicated to Krishna’s deeds. There are five kinds of it: Maharaas,Vasantraas, Kunjaraas, Nityaraas and Divaraas. Some of them can be performed only in a certainseason, others at any time.

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Before any Raaslila there is a sankirtan. Actors greet arangpham (Master of Ceremonies) and afterreceiving his permission they start the performance. Arangpham embodies Paurnimasi, Radha’s friendwho performed the first lila in Vrindavan. Drummers usually take their shirts off, bow down to thedeity and then to all the present: elders, teachers and all the rest. Singers and other musicians do thesame. The drummers begin arranging a raga and then they are joined by singers and musiciansplaying on a shell. The singers sing about Vrindavan, the place, the time, and the circumstances thatare reconstructed in the performance. When they get down to description of Krishna an actor playingthis part begins abhisaar or trip to meet his beloved (a child usually plays Krishna and his part beginsnot long before 9 o’clock in the evening). He comes out into the middle of the ground, dances andmoves towards the temple under the north gates. The whole Raas must be over till the first ray of thesun.

All parents want their children to take part in Raas and it is desirable for the children to play Krishnaor Radha. Parents are ready to bear expenses. The main part of expenses is taken by parents ofKrishna, then Radha’s, Paurnamasi’s and Chandravali’s parents, then by the parents of the four girlsnear Radha and finally by the parents of other gopis who probably only pay for the costumes of theirchildren. These monetary contributions are spent on decorations and ornaments for mandapa (dancingground) on paying to professional actors and musicians and guru with his pupils who had beenpreparing children for their parts for several months. It is a hard task to teach little children. A teacherwho prepares a boy chosen to play Krishna’s part must teach him such difficult songs and dances asabhisaar, krishnattan, a duo with Radha and how to speak with gopis. He must also prepare him forbhangi paren with participation of other dancers and singers. Ojkha or the main guru conducts ageneral management: he devotes himself to children by walking from one classroom to anotherbecause everybody needs him. Thus children of various ages are taught to play corresponding partsand those who have inclinations for that continue to perfect their playing all their lives through. Intime they become professional dancers.

A day before Raas begins the organizers gather the participants for gopibhojan. During this ceremonythe teachers receive clothes, money, food and kheer (sweet dish). This is a touching gathering of allthose who had worked together to achieve the common goal for almost half a year. Perhaps a guruwas very strict to children during teaching and sometimes even gave beating to the boy playingKrishna. But now the honourable guru is the example of faith and humbleness, he bows down lowbefore Krishna-child and says: "You have taken upon you the image of the God I honor. Forgive mefor the pain I have given you". For all the participants the day of Raas is special. Children are bathedcarefully and dressed for the evening performance. They are treated as little gods and goddesses.

It is necessary to note that a Manipuri dancer must keep the uniquelightness in motions and strictrestraint whatever difficult the danceis and whatever physical efforts it demands. Perhaps in this is thekey for understanding the style. There are no sharp motions. Onemotion transforms into another creating a sensation of endlessness.A soft change of scenes leads to smoothness and continuity in bodymovement what is so characteristic of this style. In Manipuri thedifference between tandava and lasya is very visible.

Female performances of this dance are exclusively lyrical, tenderand soft. Though at first sight the motions of male dancers do notclaim special efforts, supplies of great physical strength are hiddenbehind the exterior endurance. Even when men perform fast danceswith swords and spears that claim maximum energy, a dancer’sstrength can be felt in only stylized and restraint motions.

So, outwardly Manipuri is a non-effective style. All figures form asingle whole transforming one into another, the harmony of bodymotions renders the spirit of dance. Only maibis’ dances slightlydiffer from the others as there are more swaying motions andjumps.

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Manipuri is never aggressive but tender and restraint. The exaggerated use of pantomime contradictsits norms. All motions both horizontal and vertical are circular and transform one into another, formingspiral combinations. Arms and hands must be incredibly flexible. Not a single motion, mood or thoughtcontains completeness. Body motions are not fixed and rendered by a slight hint. One is claimed topossess strain and training to give Manipuri its seeming shape of lightness. Great efforts hide behindevery move. That’s why an accident spectator may not understand this dance.

There are certain compositions in Manipuri which are traditionally passed down from generation togeneration. They are called parenas and contain almost all possible motions and figures of the style.They are considered unshakable. Parenas only come across in the part of the dance called jagoi as forinstance in Raaslila or in Goshtalila.

The whole specter of the dance is divided into jagoi, cholom and thangta. Jagoi is performed bydancers of both sexes as for instance in Raaslila or in Lai haraoba. Choloms are performed underthe accompaniment of drums and cymbals. They may be extremely vigorous and tender.

For the ceremony to be a success every dancer’s specialization in acertain aspect of dance is extremely important. A dancer, a singer,a drummer, a cymbals player, everyone has his specific role andeach of them needs serious training.

There are no specialized schools so ojkha or guru teaches childrenat home. If a child makes progress and needs further specializationhis guru asks another guru to take it upon himself. The approach toteaching is informal. In the very beginning ojkha does not clarify orexplain the details of the dance and does not recommend anymanuals. The ceremony of dedication is held on the first day ofclasses or later when the most important ragis are explained to apupil. Students acquire subtleties by watching carefully. The mostimportant thing is to give them the right mood rather than the righttechnique which they will get acquainted with later.

The connection between motions of dancer’s legs and tala orrhythmic cycle is extremely important. There is no necessity to beatthe rhythm with foot. Rhythm is often only outlined. At the sametime the main rhythmic points are strongly emphasized. Dancers donot have bells on ankles because the jump may finish when theremust be no sound. Rhythmic points can be marked by a movementof a foot, an ankle, a knee and a hip or even by a jump. Masters ofdance may consider foot stomping in a rhythmic point tooelementary.

In Manipuri’s nata sankirtan about 100 talas are known. Only 60 of themare widely used. They are not just rhythmic cycles but also the mainmusical accompaniment. Beating complex rhythmic patterns on variousdrums, cymbals and even by hands is an important element of Manipuri.Male singers playing cymbals perform palacholom by bending theirknees. They slightly bow forward without bending backbone and movinglegs apart. This is an important element of a male style. A dancer savesthe position even performing complex motions when he raises his leg orexecutes turns and jumps.

The manner of singing and the vocal culture of Manipuri differ fromother styles. A singer usually has high and clear voice. Manipuri singershave never needed microphones for their voices are loud enough to beheard by 3000 people.

There are four types of percussions: pung (drum), dholak and dhol(also kinds of drums) and khandjuri (a small one-piece drum). Claps ofhands play important role in the rhythmic accompaniment. Variousdances or choloms require various techniques of performance.

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Children taking part in sankirtan put on pink clothes with black narrow stripes on the edges andwhitescarves. Men put on white dhotis and two kinds of turbans. The drummers have small turbans(koyetmachi) on made of especially thin muslin. They are carefully washed and starched. The singershave extremely complex turbans koiechubas. Tying them is a complex art in itself and respectedprofessionals devote themselves to this. The sankirtan performers must be irreproachably neat. Theyput on sacred threads or beads on their naked chests. The drums are wrapped in the muslin similar tothat the turbans are made of, because drums are believed to be live creatures and thus need clothes.

Manipuri uses simple decorations but they create fantastic atmosphere. A round dancing ground doesnot allow using backstage or large decorations that would cover the action from the audience at leastfrom one side. However, using the principles of the perspective and the dance technique allowtransferring the impression of the depth, distance and sizes to the audience.

Today Manipuri is performed by single dancers and by small groups beyond the state boarders whereit was born. It has turned into the kind of art with professional performers ready to perform both intheir own country as well as in front of a foreign audience. Even though Manipur dwellers are veryjealous about traditions and the heritage, they were able to satisfy the increased interest in this styleby playing excerpts from ancient ceremonial dances and various performances. Famous gurusdeveloped choreography for new compositions where the traditional dance technique is preserved.

Manipuri is a lively tradition; the dance style is in the close connection with the everyday life. Becauseof the fact that Manipur is surrounded by mountains, it has been relatively unavailable till recently, itsculture did not meet full understanding. But the truth is that on the earliest phases of its developmentthe arts of Manipur achieved high level of complexity, every historical period made its considerablecontribution to the development of arts. Just like the literature of Manipur, the traditions of its dancemeet the highest standards of classicism and elegancy.

Mohiniattam Style

The history of origin of the Mohiniattam dance tradition (literary"Dance of a Charmer") traces back into the deep past of Kerala, thestate in the south-west of India. Its modern form performedexclusively by women, however appeared not so long ago and wascalled up by the creative works of such dancing companies asKaykottikali, Tiruvatirakali and Nanjyar Kutu performing theircompositions at various public celebrations. Nanjyar Kutu is avariant of female performance of a rather stylized Kutiyattam whichin its turn is a survived successor to the so-called Sanskrit theatre.The Mohiniattam’s repertoire that does not reveal any traces withthe temple tradition nevertheless bears a certain element ofinitiation. The scientists of Kerala say that no traces of women-devadasis have been found in the history of this region, anyevidences disproving this point of view supposedly come from thestate of Tamilnadu that once was historically connected with Kerala.

There is a row of historical evidences proving the existence of TaliNanjyar or female performers of solo dance (literary: Tali-temple,Nanjayr – woman). The records of Chollur (932 AD) and NedumparTali (934 AD) mention a certain Chittarayil Nanjayr who granted thetemple lands and money to Nanjayr and Nattuvanar. In ManipravalaChampu Sukhasandesam relating to XIII century AD a performancein Trikkanamatikalam temple is described. In a treatise named

Manipravala Kavjas there is a mention of a female dancer who danced under names Unni, Unniyadi,Unnicherutevi, Cherukara Kuttati and Uniyachi. Female dancers usually served only in Suchindram andTripunitura temples mainly performing dances to Tamil lyrics.

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There were three kinds of Tali Nanjyar (dancers): Uttama or a noble woman mainly of aristocraticorigin who was made to give a vow of chastity; Madhyama serving to tantrists during a kriya ritual;and Dasis destined for rough daily work. A pure religious dance Avayavam was performed as a rule ina sitting position under the reading of a short poem Pann or a chanting and included little footworkunder the rhythm of one bell. According to historians Tali Nanjyars were never tied to any deity likedevadasis. Unfortunately by the beginning of XIV century there had little left from the conservativeand isolated Tali Nanjyar style. By XVI-XVII centuries such dramatized dance styles as Krishnattam,Ramanattam and later Kathakali that glorified male dancers had slightly pressed female soloperformance. Some historians think this happened because practically nobody was allowed to see TaliNanjyar dance. The only female tradition Nanjyar Kutu could survive only because Kutiyattamacquired protection of the temple.

For the first time the word Mohini appears in the Malayalama commentary of the XVII century in"Vyavaharamala" that was composed two centuries later by Majamangalam Narayann Nambudiri.Much later in his work "Goshayatra", Kunjan Nambiyar the creator of Ottam Tullal also mentionsMohiniattam. Such names as Mohinilaye and Mohinistana can be found with Maharaja Kartik TirunalMalarama Verma (1724-1798) in "Balaramabharatea" one of the most significant treatises on the artof performance of XVIII century Kerala. None of these texts gives an idea of the form of the dancemost widely spread in that period.

Due to a public custom of Kerala for men-Nambudiri (Sanskrit cultural tradition) and women-Nairis (a military tradition of Keral) to enter into analliance, the assimilation of their cultures led to theappearance of various kinds of art. Tampuranasborn from the marriages of Kshatri princes withNambudiri women became the sole rulers of Keralaprincedoms. But by the beginning of the XIIIcentury there had left only 3 main royal houses:Zamorin in Calcutta, Raja in Kochin and Travankorand they became the last of the royal familieswhere succession down the female line can betraced. In the end of XVII century the regent’sgrandson Asvati Tirunal Umayamma Rani a famousvayshnav Martanda Verma proclaimed that hissuccessors from that time on would rule as deputies of Lord Vishnu in the image of Padmanabha (asovereign ruler of lands). Since then the worshipping of Lord Vishnu has become the characteristicfeature of this region. But besides Vishnu they also worship Bhagavati a mighty female deity whosecult has a strong tantric hue, and Hariharaputra Ayyapp born as an alliance of Shiva and Vishnu whoput upon himself the image of a beauty Mohini. In fact nayika (a heroine) in Mohiniattam is alwaysportrayed as longing for Lord Padmanabha.

As a symbol of calm energy Lord Vishnu lies on rings-twined serpent Shesh and embodies the powerof steadiness and the unity of the Universe. There is a legend according to which Vishnu put uponhimself the image of a charmer Mohini when gods and demons churned the Causal Ocean hoping toobtain Amrita (elixir of immortality) and could not decide who it will go to. Then Mohini charmed thedemons, took the vessel with the elixir from them and gave it to the gods. She also came to the aid ofLord Shiva who was chased by demon Bhasmasura. This demon got a gift from Shiva to destroyanyone he puts his hand on. And he wanted to use this gift against Shiva himself. But Mohini drewhim from the chasing by promising he would own her if he only exceeds her in a dance contest. Bymaking Bhasmasura repeat her every move Mohini finally made the demon put his hand on his ownhead thus turning him into ashes.

The murals of Padmanabhapurama and Mattancheri palaces prove the popularity of myths aboutMohini. Thus the word combination Mohiniattam denotes either a dancer-charmer or dance-magic.According to experts, the dance tradition of Mohiniattam being the embodiment of the magic ofenchantment makes a stress exactly on dance by means of which a male deity transforms into afemale one.

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A reformer Vallatol found traces of the dance long before theappearance of Silappadikaram due to the mention of Chakyaras ofKerala(a royal dynasty) while such explorers as Pisharoti stated thatthe dance had 600 years of history. A dancer Kanak Rele insists thatthe aspects of female dance discussed in Balaramabharatam mustbe referred to Mohiniattam because the hastas described there differfrom the descriptions of Hastalakshanadipika, another importanttreatise related to the Kathakali tradition. One cannot excludeDasiattama’s influence. Ullur Parameshvara Iyer notices in hisMalayalama commentary that Maharaja Svati Tirunal beingabsorbed by the art of Dasiattama ordered his courtier KarutedattaChomatiri to popularize this style under the name Mohiniattam.

Two brothers from Tanjor quartet, Vadivelu and Shivanandam, afterthe fall of the Maratha kingdom in Tanjor moved to Maharaj Tirunalpalace following dancers Nirajakshi and Satyabhama. Maharaja issaid to marry a dancer Sugandhavalli. Being a poet and composerhimself Tirunal created compositions for the female dancingtradition. A Tajor musician Parameshvara Bhagavatar was also adecoration of his palace. That’s why it is not surprising that

excluding Cholketta that included nrytta (rhythmic not subject dance) and reminded Shabdam inDasiattama with its stress on lyrics dedicated to God and which was performed instead of Alaripa (adance-greeting), the character of performing dances was similar to Bgaratanatyam especially in suchcompositions as Jatisvaram, Varnam, Padam and Tillana. Music was also Karnatik. After Tirunal’sdeath the British authorities sent in haste everything that left from the tradition of solo female danceart to the Central Kerala.

That’s why when Vallatol and Mukunda Raja began to reconstruct the Kerala dance, the solo femaledance did not correspond to their high cultural standards. Such existing dances as Mukutti based onsong "Aendamukkutti kandatundo" ("Have you seen my nose ringlet?") and Kalabham Kutu, ratherprimitive in edited versions, seemed more suited for entertainment. In these dances a dancer firstcame to one man then to another in search of her ring as if asking by gestures: "Have you seen mynose ringlet?" It was improper to come so close to a spectator. But in spite of rather defiant gesturessome witnesses state that both movements and abhinaya of dancers were not without artistic skills. Inanother composition, Kalabham kutu, a dancer playing the role of a nayika (a heroine in love) whilepreparing to meet her beloved praised the cooling effect of sandal paste that is put on body toassuage the fever of unshared love. When the British came, the Great Britain’s diplomaticrepresentative colonel Monroe imposed an official ban on Mohiniattam in states Travankor and Kochin.

Kavalam Narayana Panikar and other authors worked hard on creating modern music for Mohiniattamwith the purpose to give it a completely local sound. Neither excessive slow theater music ofKathakali, nor stylized ritual music of traditions like Mudiyettu that appealed to the awe inspiringaspect of goddess Bhagavati, did not correspond to the music of Mohiniattam, the dance of seduction.

The local music Sopanam reminded the hymns Taveramthat were performed in Tamilnadu temples. According toLeela Omcheri, the term Sopanam denoting "step" (padi)in Sanskrit relates to a stepped musical structure whereevery note of ascending or descending scale becomes apause, and a singer’s voice as if vibrates around thisnote till it passes to another. Starting with a free scale orshaj, Sopanam in its resurrected form is performed in aslowly increasing tempo.

The geometry of motions and the basic technique ofMohiniattam reflect the unforgettable images of Keralanature: coco palm leaveswaving in the wind, boatsrocking on water and creating patterns from radiatingcircles. This is the endless source of energy unrolling

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spirally like gradually awoken Kundalini Shakti (sleeping energy) crawling up the spinal column. Thereis no point to symbolize the beginning or the end in circular vortexes. This is the churning of the oceanresulted in Mohini’s appearance, she came out of the same waters where Lord Vishnu laid on his bedof serpent rings. All these images seem to unite in Mohiniattam in smooth circular body movementsforming the central element of the dance. Flexibility of waist, shoulders, elbows and wrists isdeveloped within the frames of andolika and cannot go beyond the limits of stated norms. The motionstarts from the center of body and shifts to limbs or on the contrary starts in limbs and shifts to thecenter. Simultaneously with the rocking body the lower part of it is in the semi-plíe position with kneesmoved asides forming rather a square than a triangle. To tell the truth there is no common opinion asto the distance between feet. Eye movements are not as subtle as in Kathakali but are lively enough.Elegancy and nobleness emphasize the snow white costume with a golden edging, the speciallymodeled attire that replaced 9 meter sari that was in fashion 35-40 years ago.

The temples of Keral also absorbed the elements of a circle, and are rich in rounded kerbs unlike theterrifying verticality and engraved lines of Tamilnadu temples. The same aesthetics is reflected inediting of dances. In Mohiniattam it is the body movements, andolika, that echo the curls of musicalpatterns. Aedekka, a percussion instrument used in Mohiniattam is also called "a singing drum". Acertain rounded softness is inherent with it, the softness that is different from the chiseled accuracy ofSollukattas in Bharatanatyam or bolas in Kathak.

Modern Mohiniattam is a polished version of the style that has undergone significant changes. Initiallythe teachers of Mohiniattam were men. When the famous school Kalamandalam just headed for itscreative flight in Mohiniattam, Guru Krishna Panikkar had already had in his repertoire shortenedVarnam, Padam and such compositions as Rasakrida and Gopi-vastrapaharanam that are similar inmany ways to Krishnattam tradition and group dances of Kaykottikali and Tiruvadirakkali. Footwork(steps) included the elements of Tullala, Padayanis and Ardjunanryttam. Kalyani Amma one of theearliest Kalamandalam teachers (about 1933-34) offered the number similar to Tarana and called itHindustani. Kalpuratte Kunjukuttyamma who was trained under the guidance of a whole pleiad ofteachers – Gopal Pannikar, Kunjan Panikkar, Krishna Menon and Puliyankotte Aschyutan Nair-performed a sari-dance as a prelude to Vernam. Famous for their elegance Tottacheri ChinnammuAmma, Thankamani (who later became Guru Mohiniattam Gopinath’s wife) and many other femaledancers performed their dances without stylistic coordination.

When Vallattol persuaded the now deceased Kalyanikuttyama to goin for Mohiniattam, the social prejudices against this danceformwere very strong. When she joined the Kerala troupe ofKalamandalam School in 1930s, Kalyanikuttyama even abstainedfrom visiting her sister’s wedding so that bridegroom’s relatives didnot have wrong impression of the bride’s family. In 1940 after ahumble wedding ceremony with a Kathakali maestro Krishnan Vair,Kalyanikuttyama settled in Tripunitura where afterwards in 1958together with her husband she founded a school. With her reservedandolika and original expression Kalyanikuttyama perhapsunconsciously gave Mohiniattam the accuracy of Bharatnatyam forboth her daughters, Shridaevi and Kaladaevi studied Bharatnatyamwith Guru Bhackar Rao from Tanjavur.

Today Mohiniattam dancers have rather accurate views upon the artthat is reflected in their manner of dancing. Kerala Kalamandalamstaying in strict isolation from other schools recognizes no otherstyle besides its own even rejecting Kalyanikuttyama’s approach.Perhaps that’s why such graduates of Kerala Kalamandalam asKshemavati, Sugandi, Himavati, Sarasvati and K. Satyabhama are

known only in Kerala.

Kanak Rele a performer from Mumbai states that it was she who managed to give the aestheticcompleteness to the dance due to her work with such scientists and dancers as Kujukuttiyamma andChinnamuamma whom she met when their flourishing years had been over. Kanak Rele is the head ofthe Research Center of Nalanda where the dance teaching goes equally with the mastering of strict

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academic background, and upon graduation a student receives a postgraduate or a doctor’s diploma.However, her statements remain questionable taking into account the fact that Guru Madhaviammaand Guru Krishna Panikkar are considered the acknowledged professionals that taught in KeralaKalamandalam in 1930s.

In principle, the dancing tradition of Mohiniattam could not be deprived of aesthetic value at leastbecause it enchanted Shanta Rao, the first discoverer of the style, so much that she became a followerof Guru Krishna Panikkara, and Kalyaniamma upon Rabindranat Tagor’s request even came toSantiniketan to teach this style where she stayed till the end of her life. But this by no means belittlesKanak Rele’s contribution to Mohiniattam especially taking into account her scientific researches whilecreating libretto and music for Kavalam Narayana Paniker. A Mohiniattam performed by Kanak Relebears the trace of a Kathakali for she has come through the severe training of Guru Panchali Panikar.She herself proves this by the fact that Panchali Panikar who became famous for his strivesham wasnotable for his soft femininity in Kathakali performance, and that his dance in no way contradicts theattractive elegancy of Mohiniattam.

Bharati Shivaji, a Dehii Mohiniattam dancer famous for her elegancehad danced Bharatanatyam for many years before devotingherselfto this style. With the support from Guru Kavalam NarayanaPanikar she significantly widened the range of expressive means ofthe style by borrowing motions from such traditions as Tullal,Kaykottikali, Tayambakam and Krishnattam. Bharati Shivaji thinksthat Mohiniattam owes its appearance more to such source asHastalakshanadipika, while Kanak Rele is sure that it isBalarambharatam that contains earlier mentions of this dancingtradition. It is very remarkable how on the Guru Kavalam NarayanaPaniker’ founded basis have appeared two of his followers’expressions different in interpretation.

Today’s repertoire of Mohiniattam consists of such subject parts asJiva, Tyanis, padamas Svati Tirunala, compositions by IrayamanTampi, Cholkettu, Dandakam and also some literature works ofKerala recently found by Leela Omcheri. Guru Kavelam helped totake from the dance all the remaining features of Dasiattama’sinfluence.

Dipti Omcheri Balla from Delhi a daughter of a famous music expert Leela Omcheri, being a student ofthe great Guru Kalyanikuttyamm who gave the incredible greatness and aesthetic completeness toMohiniattam, added a lot of unusual compositions to her repertoire. Thus, excluding Gita GovindamAshtapadi, the number that is obligatory for any Mohiniattam dancer, her repertoire is completelydifferent from the traditional one. In general every dancer interprets compositions in her own way.Dipti, in search of new ideas, tries to study the history of Tali Nanjyar deeper, for she believes that theorigins of Mohiniattam can be found in temple dances of Kerala.

A dance that is fully based on the charming grace incombination with the virtuosity of rhythmic motions mayturn out to be difficult to perceive by the modern publicnot able to concentrate its attention for long periods oftime. Just for a change modern dancers experiment withsuch themes as Kubja (a hedge backed woman) andGandhari, a story of an evil princess from Mahabharatawho was married to a blind prince. In general thesethemes are more attractive for Kanak Rele. The staging ofdrama that combines Mohiniattama and Kalaripayatta andtells about a legendary princess Unniarchi who became aconnoisseur of martial art is much more interesting forBharati Shivaji and her daughter Vijayalakshmi.

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In Kerala where the dance is looked upon from the point of view of repertoire development thegovernment has put into practice holding Mohiniattam competitions in schools and colleges. Thisresulted in the increasing of the number of performers but unfortunately did not improve the level ofperformance. But Kerala seems to be the only state where the classic repertoire of Padams is recordedwith the help of simple but effective system of notions invented by a scientist J. Venu.

In order to come to consent as to stylistic peculiarities of the dance various organizations such asKerala Sunjit Natal Academy (1968) and Kalyanikuttiamma (1989) organized in 1990 in Tishur the all-Indian seminar and a number of conferences, but this did not bring special changes, all leadingperformers kept to their opinions. However, one should not criticize such multi-level view upon thedance, for the existence of so many ideas and views keeps the tradition from uniformity andstereotypes.

Mohiniattam has achieved the access to the international stage. Already in 1959 an American BettiJones came to Kalamandalam to study the dance. Her monogram written for the University ofPennsylvania is one of the earliest works dedicated to the studying of Mohiniattam. Tara Rajkumar, aKathakali and Mohiniattam dancer who studied at such gurus as Krishnam Nair and Kalyanikuttiamahas been successfully running an enterprise Natya Sudha in Melbourne (Australia) where the Hinduand the Australians study both styles together.

Theory of the dance. Hastas and Abhinaya

The Kuchipudi style has a rather extensive and well developedtheoretical foundation. Each aspect ofAbhinaya, or the expressivemeans available to people, is given a detailed description in suchcompetent treatise as Natyashastra written by the greatBharatamuni. The Kuchipudi style follows Natyashastra more thanany other dance form in India.

There are four kinds of abhinaya (means of expression):

1. Angika Abhinaya - the expression through various parts ofbody.2. Vachika Abhinaya - the expression through voice, speechand song.3. Sattvika Abhinaya - the expression through bhavas, i.e.feelings and emotions.4. Aharya Abhinaya - the expression through costumes, make-up and ornaments.

Every person's life becomes apparent by means of three aspects:1. Manas - mind2. Vak - speech3. Karna - action

These three aspects altogether are called karanas. In dance they are realized as sattvika, vachika andangika abhinayas respectively.

Sattvika Abhinaya dominates mainly in Nataka (drama), Angika abhinaya is expressed in Nritta (puredance, technique) and they are both equally strong in Nritya (solo dance).

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There are three groups in Angika abhinaya:

1. Angas:- shiras (head)- hastas (gestures)- vaksha (chest)- parshva (side)- kati (hips)- padas (feet)

2. Pratyangas:- skadhae (shoulders)- bahu (hands)- prshtam (back)- udaram (belly)- uru (the external part of a hip)- jangha (the upper part of a leg)

3. Upangas:- drshti (eyes)- bhru (brows)- putta (eyelids)- kapola (cheeks)- nasaka (nose)- hanu (jaw)- adhara (the lower lip)- dasana (teeth)- jihva (tongue)- vadana (face)- gulbha (ankle)- angulya (fingers)

The movements of Pratyangas and Upangas always depend on Angas.

Hastas (hand gestures) are the part of AngikaAbhinaya and include the ways of expressionthrough the physical body (head, eyes, nose,hands etc.). In spite of the fact that theexpression through gestures constitutes theminor part of Angika Abhinaya, their role isvery important. Their meaning is not onlydecorative but they are also indicative of thespecificity of communication and action inrelation to things.

With all that one should distinguish the notionsof hastas and mudras. Although both of themare hand gestures we will call them hastaswhile speaking of a technical aspect of the dance and mudras if it is a necessary to distinguish acertain gesture in the dance that has a certain meaning.

There are three kinds of hastas:

1. Asamyuta Hastas - gestures of one hand carrying a certain semantic load.2. Samyuta Hastas - gestures of two hands also having certain meaning.3. Nritta Hastas - decorative gestures without a certain meaning and which are the pure dance(technique).

Among the texts on the theory of dance two most competent sources are distinguished: Natyashastraand Abhinaya Darpana. There are some differences between them in either the number of hastas or inthe number of their meanings.

Thus Natyashastra mentions the following number ofhastas: Asamyuta Hastas - 24, Samyuta Hastas - 13 andNritta Hastas - 27. Abhinaya Darpana mentions 28, 23and 13 respectively.

According to Natyashastra, Nritta Hastas are ofindependent origin while in Abhinaya Darpana theyoriginate from Asamyuta and Samyuta Hastas.

This is how some differences in using hastas areexplained for example between Kuchipudi andBharatanatyam, these styles are simply based on

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different sources.

The same holds true for viniyogas i.e. the meaning of hastas. Thus for example in Natyashastra theymention circa 35 different meanings for Pataka hasta while in Abhinaya Darpana there are more than40 of them.

Besides, the meanings of hastas are divided into three groups:

1. Natural - the hastas expressing simple movements: to go, to stop, to eat, to sleep etc.2. Interpretive - the gestures imitating the most characteristic features of an object: to take waterfrom a well, to ride a chariot, animal actions etc.3. Symbolical - the gestures destined to portray such notions as beauty, power, opinion, male orfemale sex etc.

One can express almost everything in dance with the help of hastas, but their usage must not beisolated from the body movements and the meaning must necessarily be supported by expressions offace and eyes.

The origin of Indian classical danceOnce Gods called a council and were surprised tofind out that they had nothing to do. There wasabsolutely nothing to occupy their minds with ordraw their attention to. They realized that theymust put an end to such situation and after takingcouncil with each other they decided to retellstories with the help of gestures and motions. Sothe art of dance and drama came into being.

All this happened approximately in the era whichis called the Golden Age or Krita Yuga in Indianmythology. No one heard anything about the artof neither dance nor drama then. The Golden Agelasted for hundreds of thousands of years andthen according to cosmic laws Krita Yuga wasreplaced by Treta Yuga and everything in the world underwent great changes. Ideals, morals, ethicswere distorted. People were unsatisfied and bored.

And then Indra, after calling the council of Gods suggested that theymade a request to Brahma to create such an art that would bepleasant for both eyes and ears like the most beautiful things in theworld, the art for the highest castes and at the same time availableeven to the lowest castes which were forbidden to study Vedas.

The Lord Brahma heeded their request and went into the state ofmeditation. In his mind he called for the four sacred Vedas, theembodiment of "the eternal truths" in Hinduism, and took the veryessence from each of the four.

He took music from the Samaveda,And words from the Rigveda,And the law of gestures from the Yajurveda,And the element of sentimentality (rasa) from the Atharvaveda.

He united all these components into a harmonious form and added alittle of his divine talent. He created a brand new art, the art of drama

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or Natyaveda.

Now it was necessary to put all this into practice. To do that Brahma called for assistance to his loyalhelper sage Bharata. Bharata had 100 sons and with their help he started the work. But soon herealized that his work would be too monotonous if he used only men in his project. Brahma solved theproblem immediately by embracing his fingers to materialize 23 apsaras (nymphs) whom he gave toBharata to successfully make the art of Natya come true.

Initially Bharata could use only 3 Vritis (ways of expression):-Bharati -speech-Arabhati-expression of manhood-Sattwati-expression of emotions

These proved to be not enough and then Brahma, upon Bharata's request, created the 4th way:-Kaisiki -gracefulness

Sage Narada and gandharwas (celestial musicians) provided musical accompaniment, and the divineensemble called Natya Brindam was formed.

Time flew fast and everyone waited for the performance impatiently. It was decided that "IndraDwajamaha" (or festival of Indra's banner) would be the suitable event. When all preparations wereover and the great day came, the art of Natya was introduced to the audience of Devas (gods) andDanavas (demons).

It happened so that the theme of the first drama called "Asuraparajyam" was the conflict betweenGods and Demons, where Gods were victorious. Seeing this, the Demons became furious and startedto weave magic spells to stop the performance and paralyze the dancers.

But Brahma stopped them and explained that it was just entertainment aimed at showing the idea ofsuperiority of one creature over another in war or peace. A group of people only pretended to be thosewhom they wanted to portray and reproduced events from the past. However, the aim of theperformance is not only entertainment but also the enlightenment.

Brahma said: "Do know that what I have created reflects life of three worlds - worlds of gods, demonsand men and is destined equally for the High and the Low. The art of Natya will show you the value ofthe Good and vices of the Evil, it has absorbed the essence of all arts of all the three worlds and isgoing to be the never ending source of rest and enlightenment from which each one will get whathe/she is looking for".

So the first performance of Natya took place.

Then Brahma offered to show the art of Natya to the great Shiva.

Shiva gladly agreed. It was decided that two dramas "AmritaManthana" (The Churning of the Ocean) and "Tripura Daha" (TheBurning of Three Palaces) would be staged in the Himalayas. Shivasurrounded by bhuts and gans enjoyed the wonderful performance.He congratulated Brahma and noted that while he was watchingthe drama he unintentionally remembered of his cosmic danceNritta (or its other name - Tandava). Shiva said that it would be agreat idea to unite Tandava and Natya into a single whole.

Brahma supported this idea enthusiastically and asked Shiva totrain Bharata in dance technique. Shiva in his turn ordered hisdisciple Tanda to train Bharata. So the dance united with the art ofNatya and became its integral part. The written sourceNatyashastra written by sage Bharata became the climax.

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They say that while Tanda was training Bharata in Tandava, Shiva's spouse the goddess Parvatioffered her own dance style - Lasya. Later she trained the demon Banu's daughter Ushu in this style,who in her turn passed this knowledge down to the women of Saurashtra (western India).

So two main lines in Indian dance, Tandava and Lasya, spread all around the world.

In spite of the fact that the art of Natya was created by Brahma as a source of entertainment andenlightenment it is important to remember that it is also a sacrament. That's why Brahma gaveinstructions to all dancers that before performance they are sure to do Puja (or Puravangaram Vriti -rituals of worshipping the Deity before performance; there are 19 of them, 9 are performed behind thescenes, the other 10 are performed on stage after curtain rise).

It is believed that if Puravangaram Vriti is ignored or performed incorrectly by performers or theirteachers, such people will be in woe. Their performance will be Nicha Natyam (vulgar) and those whowatch such a performance will be reincarnated as animals in next lives.

Whereas performing Puja according to all rules and with proper respect will let even mortal dancersget grace and place in heaven from Gods.

Thus the art of dance is the incarnation of the highest form of deity. That's why classical dance inIndia has been considered to be worthy of Gods' view for so many centuries.

Main deities and the cosmological theoryHinduism is one of the most extraordinary religions of the world wherepolytheism reaches the unbelievable degree. The innumerous number ofgods and goddesses decorate niches of the pantheon.

There are three supreme deities: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

They constitute the concept of Trimurti i.e. the triple image which unitesBrahma the Creator, Vishnu the Almighty and Shiva the Destroyer.

Besides the three Supreme Deities the Hindus also worship a greatnumber of other gods, the most known of them are the following:

Indra: the god of war, the king of demigods, the ruler of Amaravati,one of the lower skies. He is considered to guard the Eastern part of theworld.

Varuna: the all-seeing god of the Vedas who descended from hiscelestial palace to become the god of waters. At the same time he isthe keeper of the Western part of the Universe.

Yama: the guardian of the Southern part of the world, the god ofdeath who reigns in the Purgatory where sinners suffer until the nextbirth.

Kubera: the god of precious metals, stones, minerals and wealth ingeneral, the lord of the Northern part of the world. His residence is thewonderful town of Alaka not far from the mountainKaylasa. Innumerous armies of dwarves (guhyakas) and mountainspirits (yakshas) are subordinate to him.

Ganesha (Ganapati): the god with the elephant head, Shiva and

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Parvati's second son, the leader of ganas (demigods, Shiva's servants). He is The Obstacles Removerand the patron of all who goes in for different studies. He is the most favorite deity among the Hindusand is frequently portrayed dancing. His attributes are one broken tusk and a fat abdomen; hesolemnly sits upon a rat.

Hanuman: the monkey god, son of Vayu (the god of wind), friend and true servant of Rama. In hishonor monkeys are considered sacred.

Kama: the Indian god of love. Just like his European colleague he is portrayed as a handsome youtharmed with a bow and arrows with a slight difference that his bow is made of sugarcane and flowersare his arrows. He has apsaras (nymphs) in his service.

Besides, all gods and demigods had wives who as a rule wore the namessimilar to the male names only with female endings, for instanceIndrani.

Similar to the three Supreme Deities, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva's wivesare the Supreme among the great number of female deities of theIndian pantheon and are highly revered by the Hindus.

Sarasvati: Lord Brahma's wife, the patroness of art, music andliterature. She is portrayed as a young beautiful white-skinned womanwith a vina (an Indian lute) and a book in her hand; she is escorted by aswan. According to a legend it was Sarasvati who invented Sanskrit.

Lakshmi: the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lord Vishnu's wife.According to a legend she appeared from the waters of the churnedCausal Ocean. She is usually portrayed as a wonderful woman in her prime who sits or stands on alotus, often with a lotus in her hand. They believe that as Vishnu's wife she becomes a wife of hisevery incarnation. Thus she is worshipped as Goddess Sita, Rama's spouse (see below); Rukmini, thefirst Krishna's queen, and Radha, Lord Krishna's eternal sweetheart.

Parvati: Lord Shiva's wife in her benevolent aspect. In her awesome aspect she is worshipped asDurga or Kali. In her hostile aspect Parvati is portrayed as a terrible multi-handed witch armed withvarious weapons, with her fangs bared, with a bloody tongue and a necklace of skulls around herneck.

VISHNU

Vishnu is usually portrayed as a four-handed man with dark blue skin anda crown on his head who holds symbolical attributes in his hands: a shell,a disc sudarshanu, a rod and a lotus. There is a sacred precious stonekaustubha on his neck. He rides Garuda, a gigantic eagle with a semi-human face. The Hindus worship Vishnu as "an all-embracing deity"meaning that all other gods are either hisemanations or reflect his separate aspects.

According to a Hindu cosmogonical mythVishnu is the eternal ruler on the planetsof "the spiritual sky" - Vaikunthah (here heis called Narayana). A spiritual cloudsometimes darkens the edge of thespiritual sky brahmajiyoti. The darkenedpart is called mahat-tattva.

Then Lord Narayana assumes the shape of Maha-Vishnu and lies on thewaters of the Causal Ocean. At the same time he stays in a meditationsleep yoga-nidra. The moment he exhales the innumerous numbers

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ofuniverses come out of the pores of his body. They float on the surface of the Causal Ocean likebubbles in foam. All these universes only exist during a single Visnu's exhalation.

The same Maha-Vishnu enters each of these universes as Garbhodakashayi-Visnu and in GarbhaOcean he lies upon serpent Shesha who is also one of the Narayana's aspects.

Out of Garbhodakashayi-Visnu's omphalos a stem of lotus grows upand on this lotus Brahma, the Lord of the specific Universe, is born.Out of his mind and body Brahma creates various forms of livingcreatures which give the Individual Souls (atme) the opportunity tobecome apparent in the material world. He also creates the Sun, theMoon and all the planets of"the material sky" and all the demigodswho rule these planets i.e. in fact he creates his own Universe.

The life time of a universe equals Brahma's life period and makes up100 "Brahma years" that exactly equals Maha-Vishnu's length ofexhalation. When Maha-Vishnu inhales, all the myriads of universeseach one with its own Brahma, return into the non-developed stateand wait for the new Maha-Vishnu's exhalation.

In Hinduism the main cosmological cycle is kalpa, "a day of Brahma"that consists of 14 manvantaras or secondary cycles with durationof 306 720 thousand years each with big intervals between them.360 of such days and nights make up "a year of Brahma". Every"cosmic day" Brahma creates the Universe and every "cosmic night"

he absorbs it; and while he sleeps the whole universe stays in his body as a pure potency. Everymanvantara contains 71 mahayugas and each mahayuga in its turn is divided into four yugas (eras):Krita (other name Satya), Treta, Dvapara and Kali. Their duration equals respectively:

Satya Yuga - 1 728 thousand human yearsTreta Yuga - 1 296 thousand yearsDvapara Yuga - 864 thousand yearsKali Yuga - 432 thousand years

Every Yuga is the further decline of religiousness, morals, power,growth and duration of human life and his happiness in comparisonwith the previous Yugas. It is believed we live in the era of Kali Yugathat began 5000 years ago.

Thus if one counts up the whole life time of a single Universe it willequal 311 040 000 million of human years.

While the whole multitude of universes stays revealed, the InitialVishnu watches how the things go in each of them and from time totime he incarnates in this or that form entirely or partially tointroduce the proper order. According to the most spreadclassification there has been 10 Vishnu's avatars (incarnations) onthe Earth.

1. Fish (matsya). When the Earth was under the waters of theFlood, Vishnu assumed the aspect of a fish which was the first towarn Manu (the forefather of the mankind, Brahma's son) of thecoming danger. Then it took Manu, his family and seven sages(rishis) out of the Flood on a ship tied to a horn on its head.

2. Turtle (kurma). Many divine treasures were lost during the flood including ambrosia (amrita)that helped gods to preserve their eternal youth. Vishnu assumed the aspect of a gigantic turtle andwent to the bottom of the cosmic ocean. The gods placed mountain Mandara on its back and wrappedthe divine serpent Vasuka around the mountain. Then they pulled the serpent and thus untwisted the

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mountain shaking the ocean up the way an ordinary Indian milkman churns butter. Amrita and manyother treasures including goddess Lakshmi came to the surface of the foamed ocean.

3. Wild boar (varaha). Demon Hiranyaksha again immersed the Earth into the depths of thecosmic ocean. Vishnu assumed the image of a gigantic wild boar, killed the demon and put the Earthback in its place by raising it on its fang.

4. Lion Man (narasimha). Another demon Hiranyakashipu received the magic ability to becomeinvulnerable as a gift from Brahma. Neither animal nor man, nor god could kill him neither by day norby night. Using his safety he started to pursue gods and men and even his pious son Prahlada. ThenPrahlada turned to Vishnu for help. At sunset i.e. neither by day nor by night the god suddenlyappeared out of a column in the demon's palace and killed the demon in the image of half-man andhalf-lion.

5. Dwarf (vamana). Demon Bali seized power over the world and after performing a number ofascetic feats he acquired the supernatural might and even started to threaten gods. Vishnu appearedbefore him in the image of a dwarf and asked to give him as a present as much land as he couldmeasure in three steps. When the present was promised the god turned into a giant and made twosteps which covered the earth, the sky and the space between them. But he generously abstainedfrom the third step leaving the underworld in the demon's domain.

6. Parashurama ("Rama with an axe"). Vishnu assumed ahuman image as a Brahman Jamadagni's son.When wicked tsarKartavirya robbed his father, Parashurama killed him. Kartavirya's sons intheir turn killed Jamadagni, after that angry Parashurama 21 timesexterminated all the men from the kshatriy(warriors) estate.

7. Rama, the prince of Ayodhy, a hero of the epic drama"Ramayana". Vishna assumed his image to save the world from theoppressions of demon Ravana. Rama is usually portrayed as a man withdark skin often armed with a bow and arrows. He is followed by his lovingspouse Sita, the embodiment of feminine loyalty, his three devotedbrothers: Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna, and by Hanuman, theking of monkeys, his loyal friend and companion-in-arms. Rama isrevered as the embodiment of an ideal husband, commander and amonarch.

8. Krishna, the most significant of Vishnu's incarnations. The stories fromthe life of this deity are most often referred to in dance. The most favoritescenes are his child's roguery as for instance stealing butter from Yashoda(his foster mother) or his love affairs withgopis (shepherdesses) among whomthe beauty Radha was the most beloved.

The more detailed description of Krishna's life can befound in the most famous epic work Mahabharata.

In short his story is the following. Krishna was bornin Mathur in the tribe of yadavas. His father wasVasudeva, his mother - Devaki, the cousin sister ofking Kansa who reigned at that time. There was a

prophecy that Kansa would perish from the hand of Devaki's eighth son,that's why he intended to destroy all her children. But Krishna and his elderbrother Balarama escaped the massacre. They were adopted and brought upby a shepherd Nanda and his wife Yashoda from Vrindavana. On knowing thatthe brothers escaped the death prepared for them, Kansa made multipleattempts to destroy the children. But as the incarnation of the God, Krishnaworked a great number of wonders and performed feats: he would kill demons sent by Kansa, wouldcover the dwellers of Vrindavana from the storm by raising the mountain Govardhana on his little

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finger over their heads etc. When he was free from performing feats he grazed cows, played the flutefor gopies and gave himself to his child's roguery.

When he grew up and bid farewell to his idyllic shepherd life he headedfor Mathura to fight the malevolent cousin of his mother. He killed Kansaand became the ruler of the kingdom of Mathura; but being pressed bythe ruler Magadhi, Kansa's father-in-law from the one side, and from theother side by the nameless king of yavanas from the north-west, he leftthe kingdom and established a new capital in Dvarak in Saurashtra.There he married Rukmini and made her his main wife among his 16,108wives who gave birth to his 180,000 sons. In the main "Mahabharata"story throughout the whole history of the fight among royal clans heappears as a devoted friend and councilor of the five Pandavas brothersand before the battle at Kurukshetra which is the culmination of"Mahabharata" while addressing to one of his brothers Arjuna, hepronounced his great sermon stated in "Bhagavadgita".

9. Buddha, the latest Vishnu's incarnation in the past. According to "Gitagovinda" written by thegreat poet Jayadeva, Vishnu assumed the image of Buddha out of compassion to animals in order toput an end to the bloody offerings.

10. Kalki - the future incarnation. The Hindus believe that in the end of our morbid era Vishnu willappear as a man riding on a white horse with a blazing sword in his hand. He will condemn sinners,reward the virtuous ones and revive Satya Yuga ("the golden age").

SHIVA

In the Hindus' view all classical arts are inseparably linked with the divinity. They believe that Shiva isthe source of dance - Nataraja. He dances and destroys the Universe when the due time comes. ButShiva is also a great ascetic. He sits immersed in meditation on the mountain Kaylasa in theHimalayas. There is a legend that Parvati had to follow Shiva's example and became a hermit so thatShiva took notice of her and married her.

In his Nataraja aspect Shiva is usually portrayed four-handed. In his upper left hand he holds Damara,a small drum which he uses while dancing Tandava. Vibrations of vital force come from Damara thatputs the first step towards the Evolution of the Universe. Besides, the birth of the initial sound "OM" isidentified with this drum. The other left hand lowered in the direction of the toes of a raisedlegembodies liberation and deliverance.

The upper right hand holds a plate with fire or a trident, the symbol ofpurification and destruction, and the lower right hand with stretchedfingers and omkara on the palm symbolizes protection.

The right foot that treads on a dwarf breaks the chains which embrace asoul and lead it into the world of ignorance and illusion. The raised leftleg is the symbol of liberation from Samsara (chain of reincarnations).

There is an image of Shiva with loose and flying hair decorated withstars. This is the example of Rhythm in space. Two eyes of Shiva arethe Sun and the Moon, and "the third eye" is the symbol of his supremewisdom and insight. The three eyes altogether embody the Past, thePresent and the Future.

Shiva is sometimes portrayed as Ardhanarishvara with one part of thefigure being the male aspect the other is the female aspect. This is thesymbol of the god's unity with his shakti (inner energy).

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The river Ganga streaming out of his head confirms his immortality. And, finally, Shiva's dance overthe prostrate dwarf symbolizes the complete victory over the evil in the whole world.

Generally speaking Shiva's dance is known as Tandava and takes one of the main places in Indianmythology. They believe that Shiva performed 108 kinds of Tandava though only 64 of them have adetailed description in literature.

The seven basic types of Tandava are called respectively: Kalika, Gauri, Sandhya, Samhara, Tripura,Urdhava and Ananda.

Shiva performed the most famous Ananda Tandava in the place Tillai (modern Chitambaram, 150miles far from Madras).

The story is the following. Shiva learned that several thousands of heretics settled down in the forestnot far from Tillai. Having decided to finish with them he headed there followed by Vishnu whoassumed the image of a beautiful woman as a blind. But rishis (sages) sensed the danger andimmediately prepared for defense. They lit sacrificial bonfires and started to read magic spells thatresulted in the appearance of a tiger, a serpent and a dwarf.

Shiva neutralized the tiger and the serpent by putting them on as ornaments and started to dance onthe dwarf. The heretics realized the uselessness of their efforts and when Shiva opened his third eyethey prostrated themselves as one before him. Among those who saw dancing Shiva was Adi Shesha,a thousand-headed serpent upon which Vishnu lies. He was so enchanted by what he saw that heappealed to Shiva with a prayer to give him the opportunity of admiring the dance once more. Shivatold him to stay in Tillai until his next arrival. Transforming himself into half-man, half-serpent AdiShesha stayed in Tillai for many thousands of years and was known there as Patanjali.

The second Shiva's visit to Tillai happened under the following circumstances.

At that time there were two sacred places in Tillai: one was a place of worshipping Shiva, the otherbelonged to Kali. When Shiva decided to head for Tillai to make his devoted people happy, Kaliopposed to it and refused to let him pass. Shiva got into difficulties. In order to solve this problem heoffered Kali to hold a dance contest, according to the rules the defeated would have to abandon thesacred place and the town forever.

In the presence of many disciples and demigods Shiva performed a lot of dances but Kali was veryaccurate in imitating and was not inferior to Shiva in this respect. The confrontation lasted for a longtime. Shiva felt more and more irritating. In his persistence to win he resorted to cunning: he raisedhis right leg up to the head level and started to dance in this position. Perhaps Kali would be able togive her rival the adequate response but the feminine intuition gave her a hint that she was to yield.Leaving the place of contest Kali abandoned the town for good and settled down in its outskirts. ThisShiva's dance is known as Urdhava.

Two divine dances in Tillai became a very important event for his worshippers. As a result of theirbelief and in honor of Shiva as the Supreme Dancer they erected a wonderful Nataraja statue in atemple in Chitambaram.

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The structure of human “subtle body”According to Indian philosophical tradition alongside with thebranchy nervous system responsible for the perceiving ofthe physical world, in human body there also exists the so-called "subtle system" that regulates emotional,psychological and spiritual existence of people.

This energy system (or "subtle body") consists of threechannels called nadis and seven basic energy centers -chakras. Each chakra is responsible for realization of certainspiritual qualities which remain non-manifested in mostpeople.

In India the aim of human life is believed to be in achievingSelf-realization what means the awakening of Kundalinienergy that stays asleep during many reincarnations. Whileawoken, Kundalini rises up along the central energy channel(spinal column being its physical realization) and fills all theseven centers (chakras) with pure energy that makes itpossible for all the human spiritual qualities to manifestthemselves spontaneously.

Regular meditations allow strengthening of the "subtle body" without any mental efforts. As a result aperson becomes calm, satisfied, and at the same time active and creative. With all this, in the processof meditation an individual gets the opportunity to exactly diagnose the condition of his/her "subtlesystem" by means of vibrations (sensations) which manifest themselves on palms of hands.

The matter is that the projections of all the seven chakras are found on palms. The right palm isresponsible for diagnosing the right aspect of each chakra, and the left palm is responsible for the leftaspect respectively. Cool vibrations (breeze) on any of the projections indicate that a chakra is allright; warm or hot vibrations, pricking, numbness, feeling of heaviness and burning pain indicate thata person's credo, his/her philosophy of life or his/her deeds lead to problems in subtle body andeventually develop into psychological and physical problems.

Chakras

0. SacrumA three cornered bone at the base of the spinal column is the residence of Kundalini. Sacrum means"sacred" in Latin.

1. MuladharaLocated at the base of the spinal column on its exterior side.Element - Earth.It has four thin petals.Qualities: innocence, purity, chastity, wisdom, spontaneous knowledge of Truth(as with a child). It is connected with genitals and organs of secretion.Problems in this center are caused by moral unscrupulousness, too excessive orperverted sexual life, unnecessary asceticism, adultery, aggressiveness, andnegative actions against children.Diagnosis - sensations at the base of palms.

2. SwadhisthanaLocated at the appendix level (a palm's width lower than umbilicus).It has 6 energy petals.Element - Fire.

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Qualities: abilities for creative work and for acquiring knowledge, knowledge of Truth. It controlsfunctions of kidneys, lower part of liver, pancreas, spleen and bowels.Problems in this center are caused by intense future planning, a habit to live on the future, excessivelearning and work, magic, witchcraft and occult practices.Diagnosis - sensations on thumbs.

3. NabiNabi-chakra (other name Manipura) regulates the level of prosperity, success in business, relationswith partner in marriage, ability to fulfill Dharma (inner moral and spiritual duty).It has 10 energy petals.Element - Water.Qualities: the enlightened Nabi grants a person a feeling of satisfaction, endowswith generosity and hospitality, shifts attention from material consumption uponspiritual life, gives support in spiritual ascension. Physically this chakra is connectedwith stomach, upper part of liver, bowels.Problems in this center are caused by stinginess, passion for material consumption,moral unscrupulousness, adultery, disrespect to partner in marriage, stealing, illegal money income,alcohol and medicinal chemistry.Diagnosis - sensations in middle fingers.

Nabi is surrounded by the Void which is figuratively called "the ocean of illusions".In this area the central channel suffers a break and Kundalini energy cannot risehigher than Swadhistana if the Void is not filled with vibrations of a true spiritualleader whom a person accepted as his/her mentor.

Bhawasagara is the other name for the Void. This aspect is connected with theprogress of personality, through it we are influenced by stars, planets and forcesof gravitation.

Problems in this center are caused by cruel and egoistic behavior, moralunscrupulousness, non-observance of Dharma, following pseudo-teachers and pseudo-doctrines, andalso by all the factors that strike Nabi-chakra.Diagnosis - sensations on palms except for their centers.

4. AnahataLocated at the heart level.Element - Fire.Physically it regulates heart, lungs and bronchi functions.Qualities: in normal condition it endows a person with fearlessness, a feeling ofconfidence and security, good immunity, ability to love without affection, favorablerelations with parents.It has 12 energy petals-valencies.Problems in this center are caused by unhealthy emotional affections, fear, smoking,disrespect for parents, spiritually deprived life, cruelty, egoism, moral unscrupulousness, excessivephysical work.Diagnosis - sensations on little fingers.

5. VishuddhaLocated at the jugular cavity level at the neck base.It has 16 energy petals.Element - Air (sky, ether).Physically it is responsible for throat, neck, face, teeth, ears, tongue, nose, eyes andabilities to speak and sing.

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Qualities: good Vishuddha grants a person pleasant mimicry, splendid speech, ear for music andvoice, ability to be a loose witness to everything that happens around and the ability to easily adapt inany team.Problems in this center are caused by foul and abusive language, rudeness, dominance over others viaspeech (shouts, rough instructions etc.), talkativeness, rumours, disdain of those who surround you,smoking, flirtation and impure thoughts towards opposite sex, feeling of guilt.Diagnosis - sensations in forefingers.

6. AjnaLocated on the level of the middle of forehead in the place where optic nervesintersect.Element - Light.It has 2 energy petals.Physically connected with frontal, temporal and end lobes of the brain.Qualities: grants a person the ability for higher forms of thinking and sensation ofSelf (self as Pure Spirit), estimates the opportunity of visual perception.Problems in this center are caused by unforgiveness, yearning for vengeance, impure eyes andthoughts, construction of bulky mental conceptions, intensive thinking, egoism, illusions about one'spersonal might, conditionality and strict following the rules.Diagnosis - sensation in third fingers.

7. SahasraraSahasrara-chakra ("Thousand petal lotus") is located in the upper part of thehead in the area of sinciput. It is connected with limbic nerve plexus.

It has 1000 energy petals-valencies. Fully combines all the principles of all the othersubtle centers.

When Kundalini reaches Sahasrara-chakra and goes through it a person feels thestate of unity with the Deity and acquires the initial Truth by merging with it into asingle whole.Problems in this center are caused by doubts in God's existence, atheism, activity against God.Diagnosis - sensations in the palm centers.

ChannelsThe so called "autonomous nerve system" is said to be functioning in human organism. According toIndian philosophical tradition it consists of three channels.

The left channel is called Ida Nadi.It is connected with the right and hind side of the brain. The left channel nourishes the leftsympathetic nerve system; it is responsible for a person's emotional life and his/her past. One maysay that this channel stores the past. Everything that is the present today will become the pasttomorrow. The Unconscious draws information and images out of this channel. Besides, theunconscious mind of every person is connected to the centuries-old collective unconscious mind. Allevents that have taken place since the world was created stay dormant in the collective unconsciousthat accumulates and keeps everything that happened during the process of evolution.

The right channel is called Pingala Nadi.It is connected with the left and front side of the brain and intersects with Ida Nadi on the Ajna-chakralevel. This channel nourishes the right sympathetic nerve system. On the right side there is aconscious mind that creates our future. Everything that a person thinks of the future is recorded onthe right side which has access to the collective overconscious. The collective overconscious storesaggressive species of animals and plants and also all information that is placed there by excessivelyambitious and extremely future-oriented individuals.

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The central channel is called Sushumna Nadi.Kundalini goes through it in order to further go through the fontanel area (Brahmarandhra) and unitewith the All-Penetrating Cosmic Energy (or World Mind). Sushumna Nadi is the channel of the present.A person whose Kundalini has risen up this channel can perceive the reality objectively while stayingin a state of a loose witness and being in permanent contact with God.

Ornaments in Indian classical danceMake-up and ornamentations relate to AharyaAbhinaya as Rangabhusa aspect. Although Aharya isof minor importance in comparison with the aspects ofAngika, Sattvika and Vachika Abhinayas, it acts as anadditional means for intensifying the visualperformance of the aesthetical aspect. At the sametime the use of make-up and ornamentations as wellas the use of stage scenery and flowers variesdepending on vritti (type) and dharmi (form of aperformance). For instance, Natyashastra, a treatiseon the art of drama, ascribes certain ornamentationsfor men and women.

Women Siddhi must perform in yellow saris and ornamentations madeof pearls and emeralds. Actors playing Apsars (celestial dancers) useornamentations as ornamental patterns made of jewels and arrangetheir hair in a high coiffure.

Dancers portraying Gandharvas (celestial musicians) decoratethemselves with rubies and perform in bright red costumes. In theirhands they must hold Vina (the Goddess' Sarasvati's string musicalinstrument).

Vidyadharis must appear before theaudience in white costumes decoratedwith pearls. Dark garments and bluestones serve as the decoration fordancers playing demonesses. Thecostumes made of green silk andornamentations made of pearls aretypical for portraying goddesses. Thecostumes of milk carriers must be of bluecolor and their hair must be plaid.

Color gamut is used to tell one personages from the others. So theKshatriys (warriors) perform in reddish and rust-colored shades, theVayshyas (merchants) and the Shudras (servants) perform in darkershades.

The impeccable white is destined for the Brahmans.

The symbolism of color, costumes, make-up and ornamentations is theadditional external means for dancers to resort to in order to portray thisor that image, a hero or a heroine or a character.

Ornamentations play a special role. Dancers of classic styles Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, andMohiniattam wear the so-called temple ornamentations made of gold and jewels. Nowadays jewels are

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replaced with artificial stones. The traditionality of a temple set of ornamentation remains up to now.Every element of ornamentation has its name and symbolism.

Chandra-prabha (the Moon) and Surya-prabha (the Sun) which are fixed on the left (the Moon) andthe right (the Sun) sides of the hair parting with the purpose of endowing a dancer with their beautyand shining.

Talay-saaman or Chutti emphasize the line of forehead and hair parting.

Talay-saaman with Surya and Chandra

Chutti

Maatal (pendants) are fixed to the ear lobes and hair in order to cover cochleae. They protect adancer's hearing from the loud sound of drums.

Maatal

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A long necklace is called differently depending on style and tradition: Maanga-malay, Muthu-malay,Tanmani and Kantha-haaram in the Kuchipudi tradition. Its purpose is to balance a dancer'sbreathing.

Tanmani (long necklace)

Addikai (short necklace)

A belt around the waist supports the spinal column and also has different names: Oddiyanam,Kamar-patta, Vaddanamu in Kuchipudi.

Kamar-patta

Bracelets Valayal protect wrists and add elegance and grace to them.

Valayal

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Chalang or a ring in a nose also plays a special role. A full set consists ofthree kinds: a small nail or a clip for the right nostril, a ring decorated withjewels for the left nostril (in Kuchipudi it is called Mukkera) and a pendantthat is fixed on the lower part of the nasal septum.

In the Kuchipudi tradition a certain dance episodefrom the drama Bhama Kalapam is dedicated tothis type of ornamentation. The central personageof the drama, Satyabhama, treated her collectionof ornamentations with the great awe because shehad a separate set for each day of the week. Themost precious among them was a ring Mukkera.Once after the quarrel her beloved Lord Krishnaleft Satyabhama. She turned to her friend Madhavifor help in returning Krishna's love. Satyabhama

offered to give all her ornamentations but did not desire to part withMukkera. Madhavi kept on insisting that Satyabhama gave her the ring.Her intention was not to take possession of the ring but to make her friend part with her mostprecious treasure. Here Satyabhama's ornamentation is compared with ego. By giving the ring she asif gets rid of the ego's heavy bonds. It is easy to give what belongs to you but the giving will be fullonly when you step over your ego. The drama finishes in Satyabhama's giving the ring to Madhavi andKrishna returns to her after getting the proof of her complete devotion to him. The ring's purpose is toprotect innocence.

Other ornamentations:

Jimmiki (earrings) or Kundalu in Kuchipudi.

Bells - Gunghru, Gajjelu or Kinkini. They help to beat the rhythm and protectankles.

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Flowers of jasmine (white) and orange Kanakambaram

Raakodi - an ornamentation for the false hair decorated with a broche and a braid.

Kunjalam - an ornamentation entwined with a plait with pompons or tassels onedges.

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