03-12-2007, 08:50 PM
Pioneer, 13 March 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Celestial choreography
Utpal K Banerjee
<b>Odissi: The Dance Divine, Ranjana Gauhar, Niyogi Books; Rs 2500</b>
Was the celestial danseuse Urvashi the world's first devadasi? <b>The author alludes to an endearing legend of the marathon churning of primordial seas by joint forces of the gods and demons in the mythic times that yielded, beside the coveted ambrosia, many wondrous beings and non-beings. There emerged the ethereal 'Parijat' flower; the ever-yielding fruit-tree 'Kalpataru'; fauna like the divine milk-cow 'Kamadhenu', horse 'Uchchaishrava', and elephant 'Airavat'; and, finally, goddess Lakshmi carrying the vessel of nectar. It is only the dancing apsaras and their performance in paradise that are cited by the author, where the prima donna Urvashi was momentarily distracted by the handsome son of Indra and faltered on a delicate footfall. The blemish did not go unnoticed, however, and Urvashi was cursed to be born on earth as devadasi.</b>
Nearer history, <b>the cave-sculptures of the Udayagiri and Khandagiri hills near Bhuvaneswar bear testimony to dancing damsels, with a multitude of panels that celebrate the artistic lifestyle of King Kharavela's time in the early millennium. First inscriptional records of the devadasi dancing tradition are from Kesari temples of the 10th century where devadasis were temple-maids with the sole duty to dance at rituals and ceremonies for the deity within the temple-premises and outside. Their's was an unbroken lineage: From the aesthetic awareness of Buddhists to the yogini dancers of Tantrik cult (akin to the esoteric Charya Nritya, the Buddhist Tantrik dance of Nepal) up to the glory of the Shiva-temple dancing girls, with the dance-tradition profoundly influencing physical manifestation and religious association during every stage of Orissa's early history.</b>
Celebrated for devotion to Vishnu in the Ganga dynasty, the monumental temple of Jagannath in Puri and the sun temple in Konark continued patronage of the devadasi dance tradition to the first few centuries of second millennium.
While Lord Jagannath is an excellent instance of a Hindu-tribal dichotomy - with Daitas (former tribals) and Vedic Brahmins among his priests in Puri - the author glosses over the historicity of Jayadeva, the court-poet of the 12th century Bengal of the Sen dynasty, and places him squarely - with his dance-wife Padmavati - in Puri. This is evidence of bringing Jayadeva's lyrical work of Gita Govinda to Puri and its contiguous villages by Sri Chaitanya in the 15th-16th century and, under the guidance of his disciple Ray Ramananda, King Prataparudra Deva making the singing and dancing of Gita Govinda mandatory by the Maharis, the devadasis of Jagannath's sanctum sanctorum.
Ramananda, the vastly-talented governor, added the Jayadeva classic to the Mahari repertoire - enhancing their knowledge, talent and refinement, and making it an integral part of Odissi dance.
Maharis as devadasis, points out the author, were divided among Nachunis (dancing girls), Bhitara Gaunis (singers of the inner apartments), Bahara Gaunis (singers performing outside the temple) and Gaudasanis (those who fanned the lord). They were supported by male accompanists: Venakaras (veena-players) and Madelas (drum-players). By the 19th century, Maharis turned out to be so accomplished that "it was not considered seemly for ordinary women to learn to read, sing and dance", lest they might be mistaken for dancing girls!
After a prolonged period of precipitate decline in the British era, the revival began in the last 50 years primarily under guru Kelucharan Mohapatra - teacher, performer, choreographer and researcher - and Pankaj Charan Das, other than the seminal work done by Jayantika, the conclave of gurus and scholars that sought in the late 1950s to vitalise the Odissi form and fight for its recognition. It is to Jayantika that Odissi owes its refinement of methodology, definition of repertoire, and ornamentation along classical lines.
All classical dances need their source-text and Odissi draws from the 15th century Abhinaya Chandrika, beside the Nanadikeshwara tome Abhinaya Darpana of the earlier times. Although the author seems a little hazy on rasa and bhava that needed to derive clarity from Bharata's Natya Shastra, her delineation of the technical details is superbly done.
A few points that need be made are that Natya Shastra mentions eight rasas, with the ninth added later. In our time, Kelucharan's epic work in the sunset years of life to record in his cameras - both still and video - the remote temple-sculptures enriching the form so much and the painstaking ground-work being done by Odissi Research Centre in documenting and cataloguing Odissi style (analogous to the famous Laban Institute's work in London for the Western dance) under Kumkum Mohanty's able guidance in Bhuvaneswar seem overlooked.
Also, there is not a word on group choreography that has blossomed out of the essentially solo form and, beginning with Kelucharan's dance-drama Gita Govinda, flourished throughout the land and overseas, including Malaysia. These are, however, minor blemishes and can be overcome later.
The high point of the book is its gorgeous genre of illustrations and art-plates that enhances its appeal. In a carefully assembled photo-folio, the Kolkata guru Muralidhar Majhi and the established Odissi dancers from abroad like Ratna Roy, Ramli Ibrahim and Ananya Chatterjee seem to have escaped notice.
What remains, however, glaring is that, besides the author's own sumptuous pictures, there are umpteen others whose photos appear but who have remained totally nameless!
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Celestial choreography
Utpal K Banerjee
<b>Odissi: The Dance Divine, Ranjana Gauhar, Niyogi Books; Rs 2500</b>
Was the celestial danseuse Urvashi the world's first devadasi? <b>The author alludes to an endearing legend of the marathon churning of primordial seas by joint forces of the gods and demons in the mythic times that yielded, beside the coveted ambrosia, many wondrous beings and non-beings. There emerged the ethereal 'Parijat' flower; the ever-yielding fruit-tree 'Kalpataru'; fauna like the divine milk-cow 'Kamadhenu', horse 'Uchchaishrava', and elephant 'Airavat'; and, finally, goddess Lakshmi carrying the vessel of nectar. It is only the dancing apsaras and their performance in paradise that are cited by the author, where the prima donna Urvashi was momentarily distracted by the handsome son of Indra and faltered on a delicate footfall. The blemish did not go unnoticed, however, and Urvashi was cursed to be born on earth as devadasi.</b>
Nearer history, <b>the cave-sculptures of the Udayagiri and Khandagiri hills near Bhuvaneswar bear testimony to dancing damsels, with a multitude of panels that celebrate the artistic lifestyle of King Kharavela's time in the early millennium. First inscriptional records of the devadasi dancing tradition are from Kesari temples of the 10th century where devadasis were temple-maids with the sole duty to dance at rituals and ceremonies for the deity within the temple-premises and outside. Their's was an unbroken lineage: From the aesthetic awareness of Buddhists to the yogini dancers of Tantrik cult (akin to the esoteric Charya Nritya, the Buddhist Tantrik dance of Nepal) up to the glory of the Shiva-temple dancing girls, with the dance-tradition profoundly influencing physical manifestation and religious association during every stage of Orissa's early history.</b>
Celebrated for devotion to Vishnu in the Ganga dynasty, the monumental temple of Jagannath in Puri and the sun temple in Konark continued patronage of the devadasi dance tradition to the first few centuries of second millennium.
While Lord Jagannath is an excellent instance of a Hindu-tribal dichotomy - with Daitas (former tribals) and Vedic Brahmins among his priests in Puri - the author glosses over the historicity of Jayadeva, the court-poet of the 12th century Bengal of the Sen dynasty, and places him squarely - with his dance-wife Padmavati - in Puri. This is evidence of bringing Jayadeva's lyrical work of Gita Govinda to Puri and its contiguous villages by Sri Chaitanya in the 15th-16th century and, under the guidance of his disciple Ray Ramananda, King Prataparudra Deva making the singing and dancing of Gita Govinda mandatory by the Maharis, the devadasis of Jagannath's sanctum sanctorum.
Ramananda, the vastly-talented governor, added the Jayadeva classic to the Mahari repertoire - enhancing their knowledge, talent and refinement, and making it an integral part of Odissi dance.
Maharis as devadasis, points out the author, were divided among Nachunis (dancing girls), Bhitara Gaunis (singers of the inner apartments), Bahara Gaunis (singers performing outside the temple) and Gaudasanis (those who fanned the lord). They were supported by male accompanists: Venakaras (veena-players) and Madelas (drum-players). By the 19th century, Maharis turned out to be so accomplished that "it was not considered seemly for ordinary women to learn to read, sing and dance", lest they might be mistaken for dancing girls!
After a prolonged period of precipitate decline in the British era, the revival began in the last 50 years primarily under guru Kelucharan Mohapatra - teacher, performer, choreographer and researcher - and Pankaj Charan Das, other than the seminal work done by Jayantika, the conclave of gurus and scholars that sought in the late 1950s to vitalise the Odissi form and fight for its recognition. It is to Jayantika that Odissi owes its refinement of methodology, definition of repertoire, and ornamentation along classical lines.
All classical dances need their source-text and Odissi draws from the 15th century Abhinaya Chandrika, beside the Nanadikeshwara tome Abhinaya Darpana of the earlier times. Although the author seems a little hazy on rasa and bhava that needed to derive clarity from Bharata's Natya Shastra, her delineation of the technical details is superbly done.
A few points that need be made are that Natya Shastra mentions eight rasas, with the ninth added later. In our time, Kelucharan's epic work in the sunset years of life to record in his cameras - both still and video - the remote temple-sculptures enriching the form so much and the painstaking ground-work being done by Odissi Research Centre in documenting and cataloguing Odissi style (analogous to the famous Laban Institute's work in London for the Western dance) under Kumkum Mohanty's able guidance in Bhuvaneswar seem overlooked.
Also, there is not a word on group choreography that has blossomed out of the essentially solo form and, beginning with Kelucharan's dance-drama Gita Govinda, flourished throughout the land and overseas, including Malaysia. These are, however, minor blemishes and can be overcome later.
The high point of the book is its gorgeous genre of illustrations and art-plates that enhances its appeal. In a carefully assembled photo-folio, the Kolkata guru Muralidhar Majhi and the established Odissi dancers from abroad like Ratna Roy, Ramli Ibrahim and Ananya Chatterjee seem to have escaped notice.
What remains, however, glaring is that, besides the author's own sumptuous pictures, there are umpteen others whose photos appear but who have remained totally nameless!
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->