Sharon Lowen
Sharon Lowen is a renowned artist, choreographer, teacher of Odissi, Chhau and Manipuri. She has bridged cultures performing on every continent as well as for television and film. Sharon has made her home in India since 1973 to dedicate herself to her work as an artist and to promote excellence in Indian performing arts. She first came to India as a Fulbright Scholar with B.A. and M.A. degrees in Humanities, Fine Arts, Asian Studies and Dance from the University of Michigan. Sharon received her training in Odissi from Padma Vibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra, the undisputed master and architect of the contemporary Odissi repertoire. Sharon Lowen, although an American by birth, has now been considered as a dancer “who has shown with total conviction how dance is a language away and above any barrier of race and nationality.” Her performances are spiritually rich and of a high aesthetic order, praised for grace and superb abhinaya.
Sharon has performed throughout India and the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Kuwait, Dubai, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Poland, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, and Japan. She has choreographed and performed Odissi dance in Telegu, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Dogra, Kashmiri, as well as Sanskrit and Oriya for performances and festivals around the country and for Doordarshan and international television channels. In Swarna Kamalam directed by K. Viswanath, Sharon was featured as herself to inspire the heroine to value her own Indian dance heritage.
Sharon has received several awards and honors, including the Government of India's Acharya Narendra Dev Sarokar Samajic Samman presented by the Prime Minister of India in 1991, the Delhi Sahitya Kala Parishad's Parishad Samman '92 for her Outstanding Individual Contribution to Indian Arts, the Rashtiya Ekta Award of the All India National Unity Conference, Delhi Ratan, All India Conference of Intellectuals, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Bharat Nirman Award for "Role of Women in Nation Building" in the field of Art and Dance, Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad and most recently, a lifetime achievement award from the International Congress of Women.
A scholar, teacher and performing artist, Sharon has taught at colleges and universities throughout the United States and India. Her books include, Odissi Dance, The Dancing Phenomenon: Kelucharan Mohapatra, and The Performing Arts of India –Development and Spread Across the Globe.
She served on the board of the Fulbright –Nehru US Educational Foundation in India, the initial board which set up Central University, Hyderabad’s Sarojini Naidu School of Visual and Performing Arts and Communication and currently on the FICCI Art and Culture Committee for Smart Cities, Art Cities. She is also active in several N.G.O.'s working with children. In addition to Odissi, Sharon is trained in Manipuri Dance, Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chhau and is the founder of Manasa - Art Without Frontiers.
Phone: +919810178072
Address: K-60 2ND FLOOR RiGHT SIDE
JANGPURA EXT
New Delhi India 110014
Sharon has performed throughout India and the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Kuwait, Dubai, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Poland, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, and Japan. She has choreographed and performed Odissi dance in Telegu, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Dogra, Kashmiri, as well as Sanskrit and Oriya for performances and festivals around the country and for Doordarshan and international television channels. In Swarna Kamalam directed by K. Viswanath, Sharon was featured as herself to inspire the heroine to value her own Indian dance heritage.
Sharon has received several awards and honors, including the Government of India's Acharya Narendra Dev Sarokar Samajic Samman presented by the Prime Minister of India in 1991, the Delhi Sahitya Kala Parishad's Parishad Samman '92 for her Outstanding Individual Contribution to Indian Arts, the Rashtiya Ekta Award of the All India National Unity Conference, Delhi Ratan, All India Conference of Intellectuals, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Bharat Nirman Award for "Role of Women in Nation Building" in the field of Art and Dance, Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad and most recently, a lifetime achievement award from the International Congress of Women.
A scholar, teacher and performing artist, Sharon has taught at colleges and universities throughout the United States and India. Her books include, Odissi Dance, The Dancing Phenomenon: Kelucharan Mohapatra, and The Performing Arts of India –Development and Spread Across the Globe.
She served on the board of the Fulbright –Nehru US Educational Foundation in India, the initial board which set up Central University, Hyderabad’s Sarojini Naidu School of Visual and Performing Arts and Communication and currently on the FICCI Art and Culture Committee for Smart Cities, Art Cities. She is also active in several N.G.O.'s working with children. In addition to Odissi, Sharon is trained in Manipuri Dance, Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chhau and is the founder of Manasa - Art Without Frontiers.
Phone: +919810178072
Address: K-60 2ND FLOOR RiGHT SIDE
JANGPURA EXT
New Delhi India 110014
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The wedding night and morning of Lord Shiva, God of Dissolution and his consort, Parvati, is described in the 2000 year old epic by the great Sanskrit poet/dramatist Kalidas. Shiva reclines as Parvati glances at him with curiosity and mischief. He slowly opens his eyes as she is dazzled as though by lightning. covering Shiva's eyes with her hands in shyness, Parvati sees his third eye open and is bewildered by the futility of effort to hide her shyness. Next morning, in Parvati's concern that her friends will arrive and tease her about the telltale signs of love, she checks herself in her mirror. Shiva is reflected and she cannot answer his questions in shyness.
Papers by Sharon Lowen
The Ramayana transcends its geographical and cultural origins, finding profound resonance across Southeast Asia. From Cambodia and Thailand to Vietnam, Indonesia, Bali, and Java, the story of Rama, Sita, and their allies and adversaries has been woven into the fabric of literature, performing arts, ritual, and daily life. Over centuries, this epic has been adapted into their cultural and artistic heritage.
This chapter delves into the Ramayana's multifaceted presence in these regions, exploring its manifestations in literature, dance, music, puppetry, theatre, sculpture, and more.
Ramayana in Indonesia
The story of Rama took root in Indonesia since at least the first millennium CE and its enactment in literature, dance, theatre, and puppetry continues today. The country of Indonesia includes over 17,504 islands and the archipelago covers almost two million square miles. The Ramayana has become deeply ingrained in the culture, particularly among the Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese people. Serving as a source of moral and spiritual guidance, as well as aesthetic expression and entertainment. Here the focus here will be on the traditions of Java and Bali with which I became familiar during performance tours in the early 1980’s, as well as seeing in the 1960’s and 70’s in the USA and India.
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Java
• Wayan Kulit, Wayang Klitik, and Wayang Golek
• Wayang Wong
• Topeng masked dance
• Gamelan
• Ketoprak
• Contemporary Interpretations
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Bali
Balinese dance is renowned for its intricate movements, expressive gestures, and dynamic choreography. In Bali, the Ramayana transcends its origins as an ancient Indian epic and has evolved into a living, breathing tradition, woven into the fabric of daily life. In Ramayana performances, traditional Balinese dance forms such as the Barong dance and the Kecak dance are often used to depict key scenes from the epic.
• Barong Dance
• Kecak Dance
• Balinese Wayang
Ramayana in Cambodia
In Cambodia, the Ramayana is known as the Reamker, a literary adaptation that incorporates local myths, legends, and religious beliefs, creating a uniquely Cambodian version of the epic. The earliest mention of this epic's manuscript in Cambodia dates back to the 7th century while the surviving text of Reamker dates from 16th century.
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Cambodia
In the royal courts of Cambodia, performances of the Reamker have historically been integral to royal ceremonies, emphasizing the virtues of righteous leadership and moral integrity. It is traditionally the only story performed by all-male masked dance-drama and large shadow puppet play troupes.
• Lakhon Khol-This dance drama genre is also known as Khmer masked theatre
• Royal Ballet of Cambodia Khmer classical dance, Robam Preah Reach Trop, literally means. 'Dance of Royal Wealth.’ Ninety percent of all Cambodian classical artists perished between 1975 and 1979 due to execution, torture, starvation, and exhaustion during the khmer Rouge regime
• Khmer shadow theatre - Lakhaon Nang Sbek
Ramayana in Thailand
The Thai version of the Ramayana, the Ramakien, is similar to the Indian epic but has its own unique variations and additions.
• Ramayana/ Ramakien in Art and Architecture in Thailand
o Scenes from the Ramakien were frequently immortalized in Thai temple murals, paintings, and sculptures. These artworks often adorn the walls of both temples and royal palaces.
• Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Thailand
o Khon Dance
o Lakhon and Likay traditional theatre
o Lakhon - classical form of Thai dance drama that originated in the royal courts of Thailand.
o Likay - a popular form of folk theater in Thailand.
o Krabok or Hun Lakhon Lek Puppetry -Thai puppetry features intricately crafted puppets that represent characters from the Ramakien. It combines elements of puppetry, dance, music, and storytelling.
Ramayana in Burma (Myanmar)
Yama Zatdaw is a traditional Burmese literary genre that comprises poetic retellings of the Ramayana story. These poetic texts are often recited or sung by performers during theatrical performances or as standalone recitations. Burmese art and architecture have been influenced by the Ramayana, with depictions of Rama and other characters found in temples, murals, and sculptures across the country. The Ananda Temple in Bagan, for example, contains frescoes in depicting scenes from the Ramayana.
• Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Burma (Myanmar)
o Zat Pwe (Traditional Burmese Theatre)
o Yama Zatdaw (The Burmese Ramayana)
o Anyeint (Traditional Burmese Dance-Comedy)
o A-nyeint pwe (Traditional Burmese Variety Show)
o Yoke thé pwe Puppetry also incorporates local cultural elements, interpretations, and artistic styles, from other renditions of the Ramayana. Traditional Burmese music and vocals accompany the puppet presentations.
Ramayana in Vietnam
The Champa Empire played a significant role in spreading Hinduism to Vietnam, particularly in the central and southern regions, during the period of its dominance from around the 4th to the 13th centuries. The Champa Empire, which was a powerful maritime and trading kingdom located in what is now central and southern Vietnam, had extensive cultural and religious ties with India, particularly with the Chola and Pallava dynasties of South India.
The influence of the Ramayana is definitely seen in Vietnamese art and architecture of South and Central Vietnam.
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Vietnam
• Traditional dance, theatre, and puppetry forms of Vietnam incorporate elements of the Ramayana narrative without specific genres dedicated to exclusively telling the story of Rama.
• Traditional Vietnamese performing art forms, such as "Múa rối nước" (water puppetry) and "Múa" (classical dance), do include choreographed sequences inspired by the Ramayana.
• Traditional Vietnamese theatre forms, such as "Hát tuồng" (classical opera) and "Cải lương" (reformed theatre), may feature performances based on episodes from the Ramayana.
The influence of the Ramayana can be seen in Vietnamese art and architecture, with depictions of Rama and other characters found in temples, pagodas, and historical sites. For example, the One Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi contains a statue of Avalokiteshvara, who is sometimes identified with Rama.
Throughout Southeast Asia, the Ramayana has been embraced as a source of cultural inspiration and artistic expression. Through various mediums such as text, art, architecture, dance, theatre, and puppetry, the epic continues to play a significant role in shaping the cultural heritage of these countries.
The Jewish communities of India and their devotional music are hidden gems among the various religious traditions of our vast subcontinent. Sacred music plays an important role in both the synagogue, the place of worship, as well as in life cycle and festival celebrations.
Judaism is the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, dating back nearly 4,000 years. Followers of Judaism believe there’s only one God who revealed himself through ancient prophets. Most Jews believe that their Messiah hasn’t yet come—but will one day, while followers of the Jewish prophet Jesus believed he was the Messiah and established a new religion, Christianity, in his name. The destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70 ended the ability of priests to conduct rituals on behalf of individuals and the community and shifted religious practice to personal moral and religious responsibility. Congregational worship in synagogues was/is led by rabbis (teachers) based on holy texts, including the Torah, the first five books of the Tanakh which outline laws for Jews to follow (the same books as the Old Testament in the Christian Bible, but placed in a slightly different order. Later, the Talmud, a collection of teachings and commentaries on Jewish law, was created as well as other texts and commentaries.
Religious music is primarily vocal with the important exception of the blowing of the Shofar, a ram’s horn. In ancient times, the shofar was blown as part of the Temple service and in battle when enemies destroyed the Temple. Hearing it gives hope, inspires renewed commitment to the Divine and even evokes the shofar blasts that were heard when G d descended on Mount Sinai and Moses came down with the Torah.
Jewish communities of India and their devotional music
The earliest Jews of India arrived before the Christian era with various others from west Asia, Spain, Persia, Syria and other parts of the diaspora arriving over the millennia. The three major populations of Judaism in India are identified as the Cochin Jews, the Bene Israel and the Baghdadi Jews.
Cochin Jews of Kerala
The Cochin Jews, as the name suggests, lived along the Malabar Coast and are also called Malabar Jews or Kochinim. Their devotional music draws on the Judeo-Malayalam dialect they developed as well as Hebrew. Their roots in India may date back to the time of King Solomon in west Asia, then the land of Israel and Judah, with other exiles arriving after the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BCE. More arrived in Cranganore near Cochin after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. It is said that St. Thomas journeyed to the western coast of around 50 CE with the aim of converting them to his new religion. By the 11th century, Indian rulers had generously gifted them land and freedom build synagogues.
When Spain banished all Jews in 1492, a significant number of Sephardi families arrived in Cochin over the next century or two, speaking Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect. While they learned Judeo-Malayalam, they did retain some cultural distinctions and were known as the Paradesi Jews or “foreign Jews/White Jews” from the 16th century.
Bene Israel Jews of Maharashtra
The largest Jewish community in India, the Bene Israel Jews of Maharashtra, are an ancient community whose traditional religious and cultural practices date back to practices of the first temple in Jerusalem of biblical times. It is said to have had its founding with a shipwreck of Jews from the Kingdom of Israel off India’s Konkan coast circa 175 BCE. With no access to the written Torah holy texts codified several centuries later, they easily maintained their traditional, ritualistic Judaism such as not working on the Sabbath, circumcision, the kosher laws, and the recitation of the Shema prayer within the religiously tolerant Indian society over the centuries.
In the late 1600’s, when control of the Bombay Islands shifted to the British from the feared antisemitic Portuguese, Bene Israeli began migrating to the Bombay Islands from the Konkan Coast which led to their discovery by Cochin Jews who strengthened their religious education and relearning of Hebrew, the sacred language. The devotional music of the Bene Israel reflects the inter-cultural synthesis found in worldwide Jewish liturgical music. For thousands of years, Jews have lived in diaspora among many cultures, always incorporating local cultural elements into their music. A wonderful example of this are the Bene Israel kirtans (devotional songs with storytelling) performed in the decades immediately following the founding of the first Jewish kirtan organization in 1880. The socio-political climate of the late nineteenth century spurred this enrichment of Jewish devotional music with the Hindu kirtan format.
Baghdadi Jews
“Baghdadi” or “Iraqi,” Jews of India originally came from the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, for centuries a centre of Jewish learning and culture, and later included Jews from Syria and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, Aden, and Yemen, who were all Arabic-speaking, and even Jews from Persia. Baghdadi Jews often referred to themselves as Sephardim, an allusion to their liturgical tradition rather than their geographic origins.
The three streams of Jewish music include Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi. The Ashkenazi liturgical music originated in Eastern Europe and is heard in India among the visiting or resident international Jewish community in homes and Chabad House services.
Mizrahi literally means Eastern and refers to the music of Jews primarily living amidst Arabic cultures over the centuries. Sephardi literally means Spanish, and this stream of devotional music originated in the countries around the Mediterranean from Spain to Turkey, Greece and North Africa. As noted earlier, a significant population of the Cochin Jews of Kerala migrated from Spain and both they and the Bene Israel Jews of India followed the Sephardi musical traditions with major influences of Indian musical traditions and languages.
The Arabo-Turko-Persian musical traditions the Mizrahiyim is essentially that of the Baghdadi Jews, but they are generally considered to also follow Sephardi traditions as currently the terms Mizrahi and Sephardi have become interchangeable. This is basically because their religious communities and cultural traditions are closer to each other than to the Western Ashkenazi. What is relevant about making a distinction is that the Mizrahi element is farther from Western musical forms of expression while the Sephardi was somewhat between the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi geographically as well as musically.
The Baghdadi Jewish community dates back to around 1730 as trade between Basra in the Persian Gulf and Surat by the British East India Company began to bring Jewish merchants to Surat and, much later, Calcutta. A century later, there were perhaps 20 to 30 families of Arabic-speaking Jews among the total Bombay Jewish population of 2,246.
By the end of the 18th century, close to 100 Jews from Aleppo, Baghdad, and Basra made up the Arabic-speaking Jewish merchant colony of Surat. Arriving in 1833, David Sassoon built the Magen David synagogue in 1861 with a hostel for Jewish travellers, a ritual bath and a religious school which encouraged more Jewish immigration to India. He contributed enormously to the development of the city of Bombay, financing numerous educational, medical, and social institutions that were open to all. Calcutta became the second-largest centre of Baghdadi Jewish settlement. By the end of the 19th century, the community numbered over 1,800.
Like the Bene Israel and Cochin Jews, the Baghdadi Jews in India did not have ordained rabbis of their own and remained attached to the teaching and traditions of Baghdad life (minagh babli, ‘Babylonian custom’) across the generations. This included practising their music-liturgical tradition in their numerous synagogue services. To this day the community claims that they have succeeded in preserving their ancient tradition, singing many of the same liturgical melodies as in past generations.
Overview
Jewish music in India as well as across the globe includes both devotional vocal music for religious worship in the synagogue and as well as secular songs for life-cycle celebrations and these will sometimes interface. As elsewhere, the musical traditions of India from the non-Jewish culture have been incorporated in Jewish devotional music, especially congregational, and become part of Jewish worship as exemplified in the Jewish kirtans of the Bene Israel community. As with other traditions, religious poetry sung as a congregation in the synagogue or with the family at home heighten devotional passion.
Modal Chanting nuances, multiple traditions of cantillation which is the manner of chanting/singing ritual texts based on Biblical diacritical notations along with neumes or signs representing musical pitches according to Ashkenazi, Sephardi, or Mizrahi traditions, create the rich landscape and musical vocabulary of the devotional music of the Jews of India. These may even vary between different chants/songs used for Torah readings on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur than for the same text on a normal Shabbat.
There are various Jewish communities of India, some present within India for millennia, others from medieval and colonial times and now the Shinlung or Bnei Menashe have been identified as one of the ancient Lost Tribes of Israel. Delhi is a “new Indian city” and therefore its Jewish community has less than a century of roots. This results in a sharing of devotional traditions drawn on the Bene Israel, Cochin and Baghdadi Jews of India, whose work brought them to the capital, plus the extra masala of Delhi’s international community of Ashkenazi Jews. India’s Jewish devotional music, like that of Jewish communities around the world, rests on a foundation of shared religious and...
Many early developments in Buddhist music originated during the Maurya Dynasty (317 – 180 B.C.E.) with the “inclusion of copper gongs, drums, flutes, conch horns, and harps in Buddhist ceremonial music”. It was envisioned that each instrument mimics the sound of an animal, the drums being the footsteps of elephants and the horns mimic bird calls.
• Buddhist music, as in other traditions of India, can be an offering of devotion to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and even as a support to memorizing Buddhist texts, but it also has a primary function as a vehicle supporting the embodied approach to meditation and the realization of wisdom.
• Chanting may be complex recitations of sacred texts or repetition of mantra. Musical chanting can be heard accompanied by resonant drums with low, sustained syllables.
• Individual schools such as the Gelug, Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu, and even individual monasteries, maintain their own chant traditions.
Not only music but also dance is experienced and understood as a form of meditation In the Mahayana traditions of the Himalayan regions, inspired largely by great scholars and practitioners of India such as those of Nalanda.
Chanting is viewed as coming from the deepest level of reality, the true nature of the self, which is emptiness, oneness, or the formless source of the buddha body, the dharmakaya.
A charming example of the relationship of Buddhist chanting, music and dance with meditative practice was shared with me by Joseph Houseal, Director of Core of Culture.
An amazing meditation and mental training requirements for monk dancers when a twenty-years old was directed by his teacher to do a three-year meditation retreat in a cave and recite the mantra of Bhutan’s protective deity, Palden Lhamo, 400,000 times.
When he returned and lead the chant for a protector deity dance. He opened his mouth, and out came what sounded like a lion from another dimension, a controlled roar, the voice of a ferocious deity that thundered through the whole valley. Animals stood still. We were stunned, stopped in our tracks by the sheer power of the ancient techniques he had mastered in retreat. Jigmey looked over us, saw our reactions, and burst into a huge grin.
The tone and tempo of Buddhist chants tend to be monotonic rather than with melody, with notable exceptions. The difference between this and other devotional traditions such as Christianity are both musical and intent. While Gregorian chants are more melodic than Buddhist chants and there is generally more singing than chanting, the aim is toward transcendence to heaven and the soul rising in devotion to the divine.
The emphasis in Buddhism is more on awareness of non-duality, equanimity, the interdependence with all beings, great compassion, and the joy of release from the suffering of attachment. The Tibetan Buddhist traditions practiced across the northern states in Ladakh, Dharamshala, Lahaul Valley, Spiti Valley & Sikkim as well as by a growing population of “Nalanda Shikshas” throughout the country use a variety of Tibetan Ceremonial Drums, the Tibetan horn, the smaller damaru (drum), Tingsha (small symbols), Ritual bell and the Singing or Meditation Bowl with Gong. Monks play instruments during chants, rituals and to accompany ritualistic meditative Cham dances. Inspired by tantric traditions that were performed for the greater good of all sentient beings Cham dance is fundamentally an act of cleansing evil forces. Monks practice this music and dance as a kinetic and aural meditation on neutralizing the evil powers of demonic spirits through the Buddhist wisdom that dispels fear and brings happiness. Here, the music and dance are not about movement and melody, but rather the rituals of meditation, mudra (hand gestures), chants, invocation of deities, all to eliminate negativity.
When Dr Ambedkar initiated the conversion of Dalits into Buddhism in 1956 new forms of musical practices also came into being. The Navayana Buddhism of Uttar Pradesh has drawn on traditional Indian music traditions of the medieval Bhakti movement saints like Kabir and Tukaram to craft the Tathagata Buddha songs that expresses their devotion as well as dignity. Performed by women, these songs reflect a new aesthetic that has relevance to across the Dalit-Bahujan culture. There is no worship of any form of god as the Buddha taught that ultimately there is none. ‘Tatha+Agata’, means the arrival of the enlightened one and traces its roots from Pali rather than the Brahminical notion that considered Buddha as god or ‘avatar’ of Lord Vishnu. The Dalit neo-Buddhists have used the Tathagata Buddha songs as an expression of resistance by imbuing in them historical and social messages. Besides Buddha, many of these songs invoke other social reformers who are revered within the Dalit community.
Today there is much Buddhist based music created for mindfulness and meditation practices, including recordings of singing bowls, Tibetan flutes, mantra chanting and singing by monks, nuns, and other followers of the Dharma. As Buddhism is not a theistic religion, its philosophy communicated through its musical traditions can be appreciated and of value to all whatever their other spiritual practices may be.
Did these texts play a central role in the development of the Odissi dance tradition as we know it today, or have they been used after the fact in a quest to capture and codify a tradition? What are the consequences of using textual codification as a starting point in classical training? To what extent has Odissi dance gelled into a distinctive form as it passed through generations of dancers up to the present and how much latitude still remains for innovation within the tradition?
What texts play a role in Odissi dance and what is that role? To what extent do contemporary practitioners of Odissi base their work on shastric tradition?
What are the problems of textual representation of a three-dimensional art form functioning in time and space translated to two dimensional paper and word symbolization? What are the difficulties of taking a fluid tradition in art and categorizing its elements in narrowing definitions, definitions which can intrinsically exclude nuance and variation, and lose its channeled logic in tangents? Does the quest for codification threaten the fluidity of tradition, tying teaching to text in future?
And finally, what role has shastric text played in bestowing legitimacy of recognition to Odissi dance as a classical tradition?
The recently released Illustrating Classical Indian Dance Through Yoga, co-authored by Shovana Narayan and Anita Dua, clearly and systematically share these similarities. I would presume that most classical dancers are aware of the yoga of their dance, but the care taken by the authors to deconstruct the elements for comparison goes far beyond what the vast majority of us could articulate. Shovana found surprisingly, little actually written on this when the Shubhi publisher, Sanjay Arya, suggested the theme for her to research for a book.
Anita Dua, trained for years by her Pune neighbor, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, supports Shovana’s comparisons with solid visual and textual information. The result is a book accessible and of interest to the general reader while of solid use for dance and yoga teachers and practitioners.
Performances were by Vidushi Lakshmi Vishwanathan- today perhaps the only artist who does justice to the essential aspects of the Tanjore tradition of Bharatanatyam. May 3 2019 and Pt Birju Maharaj - the undisputed master of Kathak, torch-bearer of the Kalka-Bindadin gharana of Lucknow – May 4.
The Beyond Technique Seminar gave one hour each to senior exponents and gurus to share their process: Vidushi Saswati Sen - Kathak, Guru Lakshmi Vishwanathan, Guru Singhajit Singh -Manipuri Jagoi,Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan - Bharatanatyam and Guru Kamalini Dutt - Bharatanatyam & Sharon Lowen – Odissi on their pedagogy of teaching monodhama to today’s students. This was presented by Manasa-Art Without Frontiers in collaboration with the India International Centre, New Delhi
We have all shared the grief over the attack on so many dedicated defenders of Indian democracy, but it was Shovana, retired from a brilliant IAS career and fortunately not retired from a brilliant performance career, who brought us all together to express our solidarity through our arts.
Row upon row of uniformed CRPF personnel along with their DG, other administration and families were present for an emotional evening of love, tears, compassion and solidarity. The tribute was planned out with the collaboration of the multi-talented visual artist, Naresh Kapuria, also known for his half century of dedication to helping others including a legendary fundraising benefit by a panorama of artists for Kargil families.
The vision for the evening began with every dancer, vocalist and speaker signing a large canvas in the lobby which was later presented to the DG CRPF, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, on stage. Shovana wove a tapestry of poetry through the warp and weft of the evening connecting each brief presentation to the next. Drawing on ancient and modern sources, from sutras to Helen Keller, Gandhi, Wordsworth and Robert Louis Stevenson, she gently embraced our shared loss as with the Sufi “When the heart grieves over what is has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left.”
The balance of dance, music and spoken word tributes began with heartfelt words from the IIC Director, KN Shrivastava. This was followed by a moving vocal performance by Dr. Shanno Khurana introduced by Rani Chhabra. The incredibly elegant Shanno-ji at the age of 95 established the aura of the evening. Other musical tributes were offered in the deep, stirring tones of Madhup Mudgal and Vidya Shah’s lyrical tenor.
The dancers had been asked to present 3-4 minutes of abhinaya without costume and bring recorded music. Music was handed over to Shovana’s student liason coordinators, Komal and Mrinalini, with light and sound coordination by Nitin Jain. It was incredible to see the seamless technical transitions handled without a single glitch! No mix ups, restarts, or dropped levels; mics for musicians and speakers were all in the right place and on at the right time, lights did the needful and all you consider that this involved more than 30 separate light and sound occasions in one presentation it was awesome.
Sonal Mansingh rushed from her India Gate Odisha Parb performance to join us but arrived after the well orchestrated event had concluded because everything had gone like clockwork without the usual hiccups and delays that would have made such a large group presentation drag on interminably. This one was crisp and effective and the energy was palpable as artistic voices shifted flawlessly.
The dance presentations were powerful and touching, elegant and thought provoking, by nationally honored dancers Bharati Shivaji, Geeta Chandran, Prathibha Prahlad, Madhavi Mudgal, Ranjana Gauhar, Dr Saroja Vaidyanathan, Prerana Srimali plus myself. I was particularly moved by Dr Saroja Vaidyanathan’s abhinaya of a soldier’s mother, wife, sister and brother interacting with him before departure to service and each one’s reaction to news of his death.
Rashmi Vaishalingam shared the words of Raja and Radha Reddy who were out of Delhi, Sadhana Shrivastava shared poetry of Nalini Kamlini and Rama Pandey blew us away with a powerful reading of her own poetry of praise and reflections on society. The always graceful actress, Sushma Seth, shared her feelings in a few words of poetry while Sunit Tandon brought the artist tribute to a fitting end with a well chosen poetic bouquet.
Besides poetry, there were excellent spoken tributes by Alka Raghuvanshi , Lavlin Tandon reading inspirational letters from the battlefront and from Aruna Vasudeva, Ashish Khokar shared his pride in a family history of a grandfather and aunts serving as army doctors while Geetanjali Lal recalled her college days in Kashmir during the 1965 war with Pakistan.
This heartfelt tribute was a much appreciated opportunity by the community of artists to share our feelings as part of civil society to a representative selection of our armed forces, those who “give their today for our tomorrow”.
The place and impact of India’s dance traditions throughout the world is obviously a vast subject covering space and time. It has perhaps almost as many perspectives as there are artists and audiences. Recently I invited a dance scholar, a mid-career international performing artist and a former Indian ambassador to offer their thoughts and experiences as part of a seminar.
Ambassador Amarendra Khatua is an all-too-rare civil servant who brought significant knowledge and familiarity with arts and artists to his international postings as well director of ICCR. He shared that there are approximately 7,600 classical art schools outside India and 367,000 recognized classical Indian arts performers. Surprisingly, these are not just in the Indian Diaspora countries but all over the globe.
A question he raised is whether these arts, which are recognized and appreciated abroad, have entered the local lexicon of the arts internationally. Khatua also shared his personal view, after 38 years as a Foreign Service bureaucrat, that government should not function as a patron of the arts running institutions but should simply offer financial support. He also raised the question of the motivation and impact for India of taking our performing arts abroad. There are 32 million non-resident Indians persons of Indian origin abroad. We tell them they are ambassadors of India but are they ambassadors of our performing arts? Or are they opportunistic promoters of our performing arts during their conferences and festival events?
Bharatanatyam exponent Rama Vaidyanathan articulated the responsibility of representing Indian Sanskriti and connecting to both the Indian Diaspora and local nationals worldwide. I was happy to hear that she shared my experience that “it is the emotive power of Indian dance that really stirs the soul of the audience that connects to them and is different from their familiar dance forms rather than the general assumption that fast-paced rhythmic nritta”.
Dance scholar Arshiya Sethi shared her research into the creative interactions, based on fact and imagination, of Western artists connecting to the Indian dance genres available to them in the early and mid-20th century. These included Ruth St Denis, Anna Pavlova, La Meri who promoted Ram Gopal, Jazz and film choreographer Jack Cole who trained under La Meri, and many more, creating a considerable tapestry of artistic and cultural influences and interactions as well as the downside of devadasis exhibited in fairs.
She gave an historical panorama of the tapestry of these connections. “The transference of Indian dance overseas is a process that has been going on in phases for 140 years. A Nautch group that went in the 1880s to perform in exhibitions and fairs provided glimpses of spiritual elements draped in saris, though tinged with racist and sexist stereotypes.
Basically these were people who were fascinated by India. There are questions of representation, authenticity even today when we have reclaimed and researched so much that was not available earlier in the 20th century.
The 1960’s STEM visas for the USA brought highly skilled immigrants with wives trained in classical dance who found a few interested American students to teach. In the 1980’s USA visa policy changed which led to many Indians coming, trained dancers among them, and the rise of Indian dance schools everywhere with more Indian origin students as the number of American students reduced.”
Arshiya’s historical overview led to the conclusion that the visibility of Indian dance has improved considerably in the USA with an Indian dancer, Ranee Ramaswamy, in the National Endowment for the Arts which determines national funding and other dancers getting national, state and local funding.
Of course, this is a subject I have enjoyed observing over the decades since I was first exposed to India and Indian classical dance during the 1950’s as a child in multi-culturally vibrant Detroit, Michigan. The transmission of tradition here and abroad, along with its understanding and appreciation, is an evergreen subject I plunge into regularly. This was a few drops from this ocean.
Stories of great artists can be enthralling; those with unusual challenges are inspiring. If overcoming these obstacles is achieved with grace and generosity we are delighted and amazed. If an individual artist's success clears the path for others, we applaud their courageous inspiration.
Sharan Rani, popularly known as ‘Sarod Rani’ (Queen of Sarod), was all of the above and more. She was the first internationally renowned woman instrumentalist of India and undoubtedly one of the foremost master musicians of the 20th century during a concert stage career spanning over seven decades.
What has fascinated me is how she achieved this, coming from a non-musician family of Hindu Delhi walled-city businessmen and educators, as well as how she wore the mantle of greatness with humility and devotion, without compromise to either art or family.
To have genius together with dedication and a pure life is a rare occurrence and by her example, Sharan Rani inspires all artistes and the younger generation who are the hope of the future.’- Rukmini Devi Arundale, President, Kalashetra
Sharan Rani, popularly known as ‘Sarod Rani’ (Queen of Sarod), was all of the above and more. She was the first internationally renowned woman instrumentalist of India and undoubtedly one of the foremost master musicians of the 20th century during a concert stage career spanning over seven decades.
What has fascinated me is how she achieved this, coming from a non-musician family of Hindu Delhi walled-city businessmen and educators, as well as how she wore the mantle of greatness with humility and devotion, without compromise to either art or family.
To have genius together with dedication and a pure life is a rare occurrence and by her example, Sharan Rani inspires all artistes and the younger generation who are the hope of the future.’- Rukmini Devi Arundale, President, Kalashetra
She grew up in a home that enjoyed music, literature and dance but to perform beyond the confines of the home was taboo. She enjoyed learning Kathak under Achhan Maharaj and Manipuri dance from Nabha Kumar Sinha side by side with Kapila Vatsayayan but was told clearly by family that we “will break your legs if you dance in public”.
An unrecognized string instrument was given to her by her flamboyant lawyer brother, Rajindra Narayan, when his wife had no interest in it. Sharan’s life changed when she touched the strings. The sound went to her heart and she knew this instrument was made for her and she for it. Earlier vocal training allowed her to pluck out notes and then ask for a music teacher’s help. This was a time of many artists coming home, occasional classes with Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan (which she absorbed like a sponge) and winning school and college music competitions culminating in President Rajendra Prasad awarding top honors in the first all India music competition. She was not simply the only female playing sarod, she was the only one playing an instrument rather than singing.
Her world turned on its head when her parents died, followed the next year by that of her beloved brother Rajindra. Only music helped her bear this, yet she was well aware of the disapproval of the family she was now dependent upon. Ustad Allauddin Khan had always denied her requests to come to Maihar to study so it is hard to image the courage and determination of a young Sharan Rani packing her considerable belongings and meeting Baba in Calcutta insisting that he take her to study in his home.
When he said the sitar was better suited for a woman than the sarod, Sharan replied “You can’t fall in love with one and marry another”. He told her she would have to care for the cows (she was terrified of them), fill his hookah, wash clothes, come with only two changes of clothing-one to wear and one to wash, face the weakness of being a vegetarian taking up a physically demanding instrument, never leave the house except to visit the temple and meet no one (the Maharaja, his patron, had a reputation for lifting girls).
The upside was their arrival in Maihar when Baba called out to his wife that he had brought her daughter home with him and young Sharan found a new mother. For two years she practiced only swaras (notes) and alankar or palta variations. Her dedication was unwavering, yet perhaps even more remarkable was her unstinting caring for those around her and uncomplaining adaptability material discomfort.
Her caring for others and uncomplaining adaptability are halos around the crowning achievement of her art. She was a stalwart friend of her guru-bahan Annapurna throughout her life, fought for the same AIR pay scale for English and Hindi announcers and transformed the lives of 65 Indian and international students, including a blind disciple, who lived in her home over 18 years free of cost except the requirement to practice during all free time. This great artist was an agony aunt and surrogate mother to many.
I have always loved the ephemeral nature of dance. The magic of the performance exists in the synergy of performer and audience in a particular moment in time and space. Entering the stage, the dancer offers one’s creative best available for the moment, not for posterity. Another day and the “same” dance may be exponentially different in performance. It always seemed to me that when a book was published or a painting displayed, the creator had made a statement of completion that I did not in dance. Of course, as I matured, it was clear that tangible arts are also “of the moment” in the creative process, yet dance is a poignant reminder of impermanence.
Because of this, we treasure filmed moments of dance in documentaries or archives knowing that they can provide only a tangential experience to being part of a live performance experience. For Indian classical dance, straight forward quality documentation is available from the Doordarshan Archives created by Smt. Kamalini Dutt. Documentation by other government and autonomous bodies leaves too much to be desired.
Given that every artistic medium has its own abilities and parameters, a good film on dance can shift time and place to provide not only varying angles of the dance but also of the lives, context of the dance, gurus and dancers. A great film can shift energy and even our willingness and ability to perceive.
La Danse de l’enchanteresse (The dance of the enchantress) by Adoor Gopalakrisnan and Bridget Chataignier is a great film. As everyone familiar with other films of this master, Adoor-ji chooses not to lean on a linear narrative to convey meaning. The viewer is respected as a Rasika to experience the rasa evoked. This is done through images of Mohiniattam performed in temples, palaces as well as classroom, contextualized in the Kerala environment.
When the renowned French Mohiniattam exponent, Brigitte Chataignier, a graduate of Kerala Kalamandalam was directed to Adoor Gopalakrishnan with her film concept, she discovered he had also been studying and considering Mohiniattam for decades without yet having decided on how to approach it in film. Bridget managed to secure funding, create a production house and together they co-scripted this exquisite film. The sensitivity and expansiveness of spirit in this virtually wordless depiction of the lush traditional ethos of Kerala is breathtaking.
An exception to the rule of classical dancers making documentary films, Bridget did not feature herself or make even a transitory appearance, instead presenting accomplished performances by Smitha Rajan (daughter of Sreedevi Rajan), Dr. Neena Prasad, Pallavi Krishnan and Usha Balaji. I was personally delighted to see included two Mohiniattam compositions that I had never seen before, Swati Tirunal’s Aliveni and the popular lullaby, Omanathinkal Kidavo in Mohiniattam, as I had performed these in Odissi in Kerala decades ago.
There are only 2 scenes with spoken dialogue. One finely crafted scene is in a bus as dancers and their musicians are returning from a performance. The vocalist is singing and a bus discussion reiterates the revival of Mohiniattam by the Maharaja Swati Tirunal (his over 400 classical compositions are the core of the repertoire since the first half of the 19th century) while another bus rider reminds that Vallathol Narayana who established Kerala Kalamandalam revived it in the early part of the last century.
The sole other scene with dialogue involves the guru asking why a student is not in class. The answer- she is getting married and her in-laws don’t approve of her continuing to dance. The guru declares that this is an outdated attitude. Meanwhile the images of the young girl, her betrothed, even the selection of wedding saris are dovetailed with the sringar of the dance and luxuriant Kerala landscapes.
Without dialogue, the sound landscape of birds and rain in nature, dance music and solkattu in class, courtyard and inner sanctum calms down our inner voices to rest in a more metaphysical serentity.
We see the bhava of the most revered and beloved gurus sharing with their shisyas in the classroom. These interactions with Kalamandalam Satyabhama, recently departed Guru Prof. Kalamandalam Leelamma, Sreedevi Rajan (daughter of the 'grandmother of Mohiniattam', Kalyani Kuttiyamma) as well as Guru Kalamandalam Kshemavathi evoke the delicious flavor of learning to experience and share rasa.
The well chosen dance sequences were shot in temples and palaces associated with Maharaja Swati Tirunal and Mahakavi Vallathol, generations apart, who both revived Mohiniyattam and other Kerala art forms when they were fading into oblivion.
This film is so much more than a documentary; it is an aesthetic experience that evokes rasa through the music, dance and visuals. If you already appreciate Kerala or are uninitiated, immersing yourself in Brigitte and Adoor-ji’s Dance of the Enchantress will be a meditation in joy.
Shakuntala
Malavikagnimitra
Meghadoota
Kumara Sambhavanam
The wedding night and morning of Lord Shiva, God of Dissolution and his consort, Parvati, is described in the 2000 year old epic by the great Sanskrit poet/dramatist Kalidas. Shiva reclines as Parvati glances at him with curiosity and mischief. He slowly opens his eyes as she is dazzled as though by lightning. covering Shiva's eyes with her hands in shyness, Parvati sees his third eye open and is bewildered by the futility of effort to hide her shyness. Next morning, in Parvati's concern that her friends will arrive and tease her about the telltale signs of love, she checks herself in her mirror. Shiva is reflected and she cannot answer his questions in shyness.
The Ramayana transcends its geographical and cultural origins, finding profound resonance across Southeast Asia. From Cambodia and Thailand to Vietnam, Indonesia, Bali, and Java, the story of Rama, Sita, and their allies and adversaries has been woven into the fabric of literature, performing arts, ritual, and daily life. Over centuries, this epic has been adapted into their cultural and artistic heritage.
This chapter delves into the Ramayana's multifaceted presence in these regions, exploring its manifestations in literature, dance, music, puppetry, theatre, sculpture, and more.
Ramayana in Indonesia
The story of Rama took root in Indonesia since at least the first millennium CE and its enactment in literature, dance, theatre, and puppetry continues today. The country of Indonesia includes over 17,504 islands and the archipelago covers almost two million square miles. The Ramayana has become deeply ingrained in the culture, particularly among the Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese people. Serving as a source of moral and spiritual guidance, as well as aesthetic expression and entertainment. Here the focus here will be on the traditions of Java and Bali with which I became familiar during performance tours in the early 1980’s, as well as seeing in the 1960’s and 70’s in the USA and India.
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Java
• Wayan Kulit, Wayang Klitik, and Wayang Golek
• Wayang Wong
• Topeng masked dance
• Gamelan
• Ketoprak
• Contemporary Interpretations
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Bali
Balinese dance is renowned for its intricate movements, expressive gestures, and dynamic choreography. In Bali, the Ramayana transcends its origins as an ancient Indian epic and has evolved into a living, breathing tradition, woven into the fabric of daily life. In Ramayana performances, traditional Balinese dance forms such as the Barong dance and the Kecak dance are often used to depict key scenes from the epic.
• Barong Dance
• Kecak Dance
• Balinese Wayang
Ramayana in Cambodia
In Cambodia, the Ramayana is known as the Reamker, a literary adaptation that incorporates local myths, legends, and religious beliefs, creating a uniquely Cambodian version of the epic. The earliest mention of this epic's manuscript in Cambodia dates back to the 7th century while the surviving text of Reamker dates from 16th century.
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Cambodia
In the royal courts of Cambodia, performances of the Reamker have historically been integral to royal ceremonies, emphasizing the virtues of righteous leadership and moral integrity. It is traditionally the only story performed by all-male masked dance-drama and large shadow puppet play troupes.
• Lakhon Khol-This dance drama genre is also known as Khmer masked theatre
• Royal Ballet of Cambodia Khmer classical dance, Robam Preah Reach Trop, literally means. 'Dance of Royal Wealth.’ Ninety percent of all Cambodian classical artists perished between 1975 and 1979 due to execution, torture, starvation, and exhaustion during the khmer Rouge regime
• Khmer shadow theatre - Lakhaon Nang Sbek
Ramayana in Thailand
The Thai version of the Ramayana, the Ramakien, is similar to the Indian epic but has its own unique variations and additions.
• Ramayana/ Ramakien in Art and Architecture in Thailand
o Scenes from the Ramakien were frequently immortalized in Thai temple murals, paintings, and sculptures. These artworks often adorn the walls of both temples and royal palaces.
• Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Thailand
o Khon Dance
o Lakhon and Likay traditional theatre
o Lakhon - classical form of Thai dance drama that originated in the royal courts of Thailand.
o Likay - a popular form of folk theater in Thailand.
o Krabok or Hun Lakhon Lek Puppetry -Thai puppetry features intricately crafted puppets that represent characters from the Ramakien. It combines elements of puppetry, dance, music, and storytelling.
Ramayana in Burma (Myanmar)
Yama Zatdaw is a traditional Burmese literary genre that comprises poetic retellings of the Ramayana story. These poetic texts are often recited or sung by performers during theatrical performances or as standalone recitations. Burmese art and architecture have been influenced by the Ramayana, with depictions of Rama and other characters found in temples, murals, and sculptures across the country. The Ananda Temple in Bagan, for example, contains frescoes in depicting scenes from the Ramayana.
• Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Burma (Myanmar)
o Zat Pwe (Traditional Burmese Theatre)
o Yama Zatdaw (The Burmese Ramayana)
o Anyeint (Traditional Burmese Dance-Comedy)
o A-nyeint pwe (Traditional Burmese Variety Show)
o Yoke thé pwe Puppetry also incorporates local cultural elements, interpretations, and artistic styles, from other renditions of the Ramayana. Traditional Burmese music and vocals accompany the puppet presentations.
Ramayana in Vietnam
The Champa Empire played a significant role in spreading Hinduism to Vietnam, particularly in the central and southern regions, during the period of its dominance from around the 4th to the 13th centuries. The Champa Empire, which was a powerful maritime and trading kingdom located in what is now central and southern Vietnam, had extensive cultural and religious ties with India, particularly with the Chola and Pallava dynasties of South India.
The influence of the Ramayana is definitely seen in Vietnamese art and architecture of South and Central Vietnam.
Ramayana in the Performing Arts of Vietnam
• Traditional dance, theatre, and puppetry forms of Vietnam incorporate elements of the Ramayana narrative without specific genres dedicated to exclusively telling the story of Rama.
• Traditional Vietnamese performing art forms, such as "Múa rối nước" (water puppetry) and "Múa" (classical dance), do include choreographed sequences inspired by the Ramayana.
• Traditional Vietnamese theatre forms, such as "Hát tuồng" (classical opera) and "Cải lương" (reformed theatre), may feature performances based on episodes from the Ramayana.
The influence of the Ramayana can be seen in Vietnamese art and architecture, with depictions of Rama and other characters found in temples, pagodas, and historical sites. For example, the One Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi contains a statue of Avalokiteshvara, who is sometimes identified with Rama.
Throughout Southeast Asia, the Ramayana has been embraced as a source of cultural inspiration and artistic expression. Through various mediums such as text, art, architecture, dance, theatre, and puppetry, the epic continues to play a significant role in shaping the cultural heritage of these countries.
The Jewish communities of India and their devotional music are hidden gems among the various religious traditions of our vast subcontinent. Sacred music plays an important role in both the synagogue, the place of worship, as well as in life cycle and festival celebrations.
Judaism is the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, dating back nearly 4,000 years. Followers of Judaism believe there’s only one God who revealed himself through ancient prophets. Most Jews believe that their Messiah hasn’t yet come—but will one day, while followers of the Jewish prophet Jesus believed he was the Messiah and established a new religion, Christianity, in his name. The destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70 ended the ability of priests to conduct rituals on behalf of individuals and the community and shifted religious practice to personal moral and religious responsibility. Congregational worship in synagogues was/is led by rabbis (teachers) based on holy texts, including the Torah, the first five books of the Tanakh which outline laws for Jews to follow (the same books as the Old Testament in the Christian Bible, but placed in a slightly different order. Later, the Talmud, a collection of teachings and commentaries on Jewish law, was created as well as other texts and commentaries.
Religious music is primarily vocal with the important exception of the blowing of the Shofar, a ram’s horn. In ancient times, the shofar was blown as part of the Temple service and in battle when enemies destroyed the Temple. Hearing it gives hope, inspires renewed commitment to the Divine and even evokes the shofar blasts that were heard when G d descended on Mount Sinai and Moses came down with the Torah.
Jewish communities of India and their devotional music
The earliest Jews of India arrived before the Christian era with various others from west Asia, Spain, Persia, Syria and other parts of the diaspora arriving over the millennia. The three major populations of Judaism in India are identified as the Cochin Jews, the Bene Israel and the Baghdadi Jews.
Cochin Jews of Kerala
The Cochin Jews, as the name suggests, lived along the Malabar Coast and are also called Malabar Jews or Kochinim. Their devotional music draws on the Judeo-Malayalam dialect they developed as well as Hebrew. Their roots in India may date back to the time of King Solomon in west Asia, then the land of Israel and Judah, with other exiles arriving after the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BCE. More arrived in Cranganore near Cochin after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. It is said that St. Thomas journeyed to the western coast of around 50 CE with the aim of converting them to his new religion. By the 11th century, Indian rulers had generously gifted them land and freedom build synagogues.
When Spain banished all Jews in 1492, a significant number of Sephardi families arrived in Cochin over the next century or two, speaking Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect. While they learned Judeo-Malayalam, they did retain some cultural distinctions and were known as the Paradesi Jews or “foreign Jews/White Jews” from the 16th century.
Bene Israel Jews of Maharashtra
The largest Jewish community in India, the Bene Israel Jews of Maharashtra, are an ancient community whose traditional religious and cultural practices date back to practices of the first temple in Jerusalem of biblical times. It is said to have had its founding with a shipwreck of Jews from the Kingdom of Israel off India’s Konkan coast circa 175 BCE. With no access to the written Torah holy texts codified several centuries later, they easily maintained their traditional, ritualistic Judaism such as not working on the Sabbath, circumcision, the kosher laws, and the recitation of the Shema prayer within the religiously tolerant Indian society over the centuries.
In the late 1600’s, when control of the Bombay Islands shifted to the British from the feared antisemitic Portuguese, Bene Israeli began migrating to the Bombay Islands from the Konkan Coast which led to their discovery by Cochin Jews who strengthened their religious education and relearning of Hebrew, the sacred language. The devotional music of the Bene Israel reflects the inter-cultural synthesis found in worldwide Jewish liturgical music. For thousands of years, Jews have lived in diaspora among many cultures, always incorporating local cultural elements into their music. A wonderful example of this are the Bene Israel kirtans (devotional songs with storytelling) performed in the decades immediately following the founding of the first Jewish kirtan organization in 1880. The socio-political climate of the late nineteenth century spurred this enrichment of Jewish devotional music with the Hindu kirtan format.
Baghdadi Jews
“Baghdadi” or “Iraqi,” Jews of India originally came from the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, for centuries a centre of Jewish learning and culture, and later included Jews from Syria and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, Aden, and Yemen, who were all Arabic-speaking, and even Jews from Persia. Baghdadi Jews often referred to themselves as Sephardim, an allusion to their liturgical tradition rather than their geographic origins.
The three streams of Jewish music include Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi. The Ashkenazi liturgical music originated in Eastern Europe and is heard in India among the visiting or resident international Jewish community in homes and Chabad House services.
Mizrahi literally means Eastern and refers to the music of Jews primarily living amidst Arabic cultures over the centuries. Sephardi literally means Spanish, and this stream of devotional music originated in the countries around the Mediterranean from Spain to Turkey, Greece and North Africa. As noted earlier, a significant population of the Cochin Jews of Kerala migrated from Spain and both they and the Bene Israel Jews of India followed the Sephardi musical traditions with major influences of Indian musical traditions and languages.
The Arabo-Turko-Persian musical traditions the Mizrahiyim is essentially that of the Baghdadi Jews, but they are generally considered to also follow Sephardi traditions as currently the terms Mizrahi and Sephardi have become interchangeable. This is basically because their religious communities and cultural traditions are closer to each other than to the Western Ashkenazi. What is relevant about making a distinction is that the Mizrahi element is farther from Western musical forms of expression while the Sephardi was somewhat between the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi geographically as well as musically.
The Baghdadi Jewish community dates back to around 1730 as trade between Basra in the Persian Gulf and Surat by the British East India Company began to bring Jewish merchants to Surat and, much later, Calcutta. A century later, there were perhaps 20 to 30 families of Arabic-speaking Jews among the total Bombay Jewish population of 2,246.
By the end of the 18th century, close to 100 Jews from Aleppo, Baghdad, and Basra made up the Arabic-speaking Jewish merchant colony of Surat. Arriving in 1833, David Sassoon built the Magen David synagogue in 1861 with a hostel for Jewish travellers, a ritual bath and a religious school which encouraged more Jewish immigration to India. He contributed enormously to the development of the city of Bombay, financing numerous educational, medical, and social institutions that were open to all. Calcutta became the second-largest centre of Baghdadi Jewish settlement. By the end of the 19th century, the community numbered over 1,800.
Like the Bene Israel and Cochin Jews, the Baghdadi Jews in India did not have ordained rabbis of their own and remained attached to the teaching and traditions of Baghdad life (minagh babli, ‘Babylonian custom’) across the generations. This included practising their music-liturgical tradition in their numerous synagogue services. To this day the community claims that they have succeeded in preserving their ancient tradition, singing many of the same liturgical melodies as in past generations.
Overview
Jewish music in India as well as across the globe includes both devotional vocal music for religious worship in the synagogue and as well as secular songs for life-cycle celebrations and these will sometimes interface. As elsewhere, the musical traditions of India from the non-Jewish culture have been incorporated in Jewish devotional music, especially congregational, and become part of Jewish worship as exemplified in the Jewish kirtans of the Bene Israel community. As with other traditions, religious poetry sung as a congregation in the synagogue or with the family at home heighten devotional passion.
Modal Chanting nuances, multiple traditions of cantillation which is the manner of chanting/singing ritual texts based on Biblical diacritical notations along with neumes or signs representing musical pitches according to Ashkenazi, Sephardi, or Mizrahi traditions, create the rich landscape and musical vocabulary of the devotional music of the Jews of India. These may even vary between different chants/songs used for Torah readings on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur than for the same text on a normal Shabbat.
There are various Jewish communities of India, some present within India for millennia, others from medieval and colonial times and now the Shinlung or Bnei Menashe have been identified as one of the ancient Lost Tribes of Israel. Delhi is a “new Indian city” and therefore its Jewish community has less than a century of roots. This results in a sharing of devotional traditions drawn on the Bene Israel, Cochin and Baghdadi Jews of India, whose work brought them to the capital, plus the extra masala of Delhi’s international community of Ashkenazi Jews. India’s Jewish devotional music, like that of Jewish communities around the world, rests on a foundation of shared religious and...
Many early developments in Buddhist music originated during the Maurya Dynasty (317 – 180 B.C.E.) with the “inclusion of copper gongs, drums, flutes, conch horns, and harps in Buddhist ceremonial music”. It was envisioned that each instrument mimics the sound of an animal, the drums being the footsteps of elephants and the horns mimic bird calls.
• Buddhist music, as in other traditions of India, can be an offering of devotion to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and even as a support to memorizing Buddhist texts, but it also has a primary function as a vehicle supporting the embodied approach to meditation and the realization of wisdom.
• Chanting may be complex recitations of sacred texts or repetition of mantra. Musical chanting can be heard accompanied by resonant drums with low, sustained syllables.
• Individual schools such as the Gelug, Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu, and even individual monasteries, maintain their own chant traditions.
Not only music but also dance is experienced and understood as a form of meditation In the Mahayana traditions of the Himalayan regions, inspired largely by great scholars and practitioners of India such as those of Nalanda.
Chanting is viewed as coming from the deepest level of reality, the true nature of the self, which is emptiness, oneness, or the formless source of the buddha body, the dharmakaya.
A charming example of the relationship of Buddhist chanting, music and dance with meditative practice was shared with me by Joseph Houseal, Director of Core of Culture.
An amazing meditation and mental training requirements for monk dancers when a twenty-years old was directed by his teacher to do a three-year meditation retreat in a cave and recite the mantra of Bhutan’s protective deity, Palden Lhamo, 400,000 times.
When he returned and lead the chant for a protector deity dance. He opened his mouth, and out came what sounded like a lion from another dimension, a controlled roar, the voice of a ferocious deity that thundered through the whole valley. Animals stood still. We were stunned, stopped in our tracks by the sheer power of the ancient techniques he had mastered in retreat. Jigmey looked over us, saw our reactions, and burst into a huge grin.
The tone and tempo of Buddhist chants tend to be monotonic rather than with melody, with notable exceptions. The difference between this and other devotional traditions such as Christianity are both musical and intent. While Gregorian chants are more melodic than Buddhist chants and there is generally more singing than chanting, the aim is toward transcendence to heaven and the soul rising in devotion to the divine.
The emphasis in Buddhism is more on awareness of non-duality, equanimity, the interdependence with all beings, great compassion, and the joy of release from the suffering of attachment. The Tibetan Buddhist traditions practiced across the northern states in Ladakh, Dharamshala, Lahaul Valley, Spiti Valley & Sikkim as well as by a growing population of “Nalanda Shikshas” throughout the country use a variety of Tibetan Ceremonial Drums, the Tibetan horn, the smaller damaru (drum), Tingsha (small symbols), Ritual bell and the Singing or Meditation Bowl with Gong. Monks play instruments during chants, rituals and to accompany ritualistic meditative Cham dances. Inspired by tantric traditions that were performed for the greater good of all sentient beings Cham dance is fundamentally an act of cleansing evil forces. Monks practice this music and dance as a kinetic and aural meditation on neutralizing the evil powers of demonic spirits through the Buddhist wisdom that dispels fear and brings happiness. Here, the music and dance are not about movement and melody, but rather the rituals of meditation, mudra (hand gestures), chants, invocation of deities, all to eliminate negativity.
When Dr Ambedkar initiated the conversion of Dalits into Buddhism in 1956 new forms of musical practices also came into being. The Navayana Buddhism of Uttar Pradesh has drawn on traditional Indian music traditions of the medieval Bhakti movement saints like Kabir and Tukaram to craft the Tathagata Buddha songs that expresses their devotion as well as dignity. Performed by women, these songs reflect a new aesthetic that has relevance to across the Dalit-Bahujan culture. There is no worship of any form of god as the Buddha taught that ultimately there is none. ‘Tatha+Agata’, means the arrival of the enlightened one and traces its roots from Pali rather than the Brahminical notion that considered Buddha as god or ‘avatar’ of Lord Vishnu. The Dalit neo-Buddhists have used the Tathagata Buddha songs as an expression of resistance by imbuing in them historical and social messages. Besides Buddha, many of these songs invoke other social reformers who are revered within the Dalit community.
Today there is much Buddhist based music created for mindfulness and meditation practices, including recordings of singing bowls, Tibetan flutes, mantra chanting and singing by monks, nuns, and other followers of the Dharma. As Buddhism is not a theistic religion, its philosophy communicated through its musical traditions can be appreciated and of value to all whatever their other spiritual practices may be.
Did these texts play a central role in the development of the Odissi dance tradition as we know it today, or have they been used after the fact in a quest to capture and codify a tradition? What are the consequences of using textual codification as a starting point in classical training? To what extent has Odissi dance gelled into a distinctive form as it passed through generations of dancers up to the present and how much latitude still remains for innovation within the tradition?
What texts play a role in Odissi dance and what is that role? To what extent do contemporary practitioners of Odissi base their work on shastric tradition?
What are the problems of textual representation of a three-dimensional art form functioning in time and space translated to two dimensional paper and word symbolization? What are the difficulties of taking a fluid tradition in art and categorizing its elements in narrowing definitions, definitions which can intrinsically exclude nuance and variation, and lose its channeled logic in tangents? Does the quest for codification threaten the fluidity of tradition, tying teaching to text in future?
And finally, what role has shastric text played in bestowing legitimacy of recognition to Odissi dance as a classical tradition?
The recently released Illustrating Classical Indian Dance Through Yoga, co-authored by Shovana Narayan and Anita Dua, clearly and systematically share these similarities. I would presume that most classical dancers are aware of the yoga of their dance, but the care taken by the authors to deconstruct the elements for comparison goes far beyond what the vast majority of us could articulate. Shovana found surprisingly, little actually written on this when the Shubhi publisher, Sanjay Arya, suggested the theme for her to research for a book.
Anita Dua, trained for years by her Pune neighbor, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, supports Shovana’s comparisons with solid visual and textual information. The result is a book accessible and of interest to the general reader while of solid use for dance and yoga teachers and practitioners.
Performances were by Vidushi Lakshmi Vishwanathan- today perhaps the only artist who does justice to the essential aspects of the Tanjore tradition of Bharatanatyam. May 3 2019 and Pt Birju Maharaj - the undisputed master of Kathak, torch-bearer of the Kalka-Bindadin gharana of Lucknow – May 4.
The Beyond Technique Seminar gave one hour each to senior exponents and gurus to share their process: Vidushi Saswati Sen - Kathak, Guru Lakshmi Vishwanathan, Guru Singhajit Singh -Manipuri Jagoi,Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan - Bharatanatyam and Guru Kamalini Dutt - Bharatanatyam & Sharon Lowen – Odissi on their pedagogy of teaching monodhama to today’s students. This was presented by Manasa-Art Without Frontiers in collaboration with the India International Centre, New Delhi
We have all shared the grief over the attack on so many dedicated defenders of Indian democracy, but it was Shovana, retired from a brilliant IAS career and fortunately not retired from a brilliant performance career, who brought us all together to express our solidarity through our arts.
Row upon row of uniformed CRPF personnel along with their DG, other administration and families were present for an emotional evening of love, tears, compassion and solidarity. The tribute was planned out with the collaboration of the multi-talented visual artist, Naresh Kapuria, also known for his half century of dedication to helping others including a legendary fundraising benefit by a panorama of artists for Kargil families.
The vision for the evening began with every dancer, vocalist and speaker signing a large canvas in the lobby which was later presented to the DG CRPF, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, on stage. Shovana wove a tapestry of poetry through the warp and weft of the evening connecting each brief presentation to the next. Drawing on ancient and modern sources, from sutras to Helen Keller, Gandhi, Wordsworth and Robert Louis Stevenson, she gently embraced our shared loss as with the Sufi “When the heart grieves over what is has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left.”
The balance of dance, music and spoken word tributes began with heartfelt words from the IIC Director, KN Shrivastava. This was followed by a moving vocal performance by Dr. Shanno Khurana introduced by Rani Chhabra. The incredibly elegant Shanno-ji at the age of 95 established the aura of the evening. Other musical tributes were offered in the deep, stirring tones of Madhup Mudgal and Vidya Shah’s lyrical tenor.
The dancers had been asked to present 3-4 minutes of abhinaya without costume and bring recorded music. Music was handed over to Shovana’s student liason coordinators, Komal and Mrinalini, with light and sound coordination by Nitin Jain. It was incredible to see the seamless technical transitions handled without a single glitch! No mix ups, restarts, or dropped levels; mics for musicians and speakers were all in the right place and on at the right time, lights did the needful and all you consider that this involved more than 30 separate light and sound occasions in one presentation it was awesome.
Sonal Mansingh rushed from her India Gate Odisha Parb performance to join us but arrived after the well orchestrated event had concluded because everything had gone like clockwork without the usual hiccups and delays that would have made such a large group presentation drag on interminably. This one was crisp and effective and the energy was palpable as artistic voices shifted flawlessly.
The dance presentations were powerful and touching, elegant and thought provoking, by nationally honored dancers Bharati Shivaji, Geeta Chandran, Prathibha Prahlad, Madhavi Mudgal, Ranjana Gauhar, Dr Saroja Vaidyanathan, Prerana Srimali plus myself. I was particularly moved by Dr Saroja Vaidyanathan’s abhinaya of a soldier’s mother, wife, sister and brother interacting with him before departure to service and each one’s reaction to news of his death.
Rashmi Vaishalingam shared the words of Raja and Radha Reddy who were out of Delhi, Sadhana Shrivastava shared poetry of Nalini Kamlini and Rama Pandey blew us away with a powerful reading of her own poetry of praise and reflections on society. The always graceful actress, Sushma Seth, shared her feelings in a few words of poetry while Sunit Tandon brought the artist tribute to a fitting end with a well chosen poetic bouquet.
Besides poetry, there were excellent spoken tributes by Alka Raghuvanshi , Lavlin Tandon reading inspirational letters from the battlefront and from Aruna Vasudeva, Ashish Khokar shared his pride in a family history of a grandfather and aunts serving as army doctors while Geetanjali Lal recalled her college days in Kashmir during the 1965 war with Pakistan.
This heartfelt tribute was a much appreciated opportunity by the community of artists to share our feelings as part of civil society to a representative selection of our armed forces, those who “give their today for our tomorrow”.
The place and impact of India’s dance traditions throughout the world is obviously a vast subject covering space and time. It has perhaps almost as many perspectives as there are artists and audiences. Recently I invited a dance scholar, a mid-career international performing artist and a former Indian ambassador to offer their thoughts and experiences as part of a seminar.
Ambassador Amarendra Khatua is an all-too-rare civil servant who brought significant knowledge and familiarity with arts and artists to his international postings as well director of ICCR. He shared that there are approximately 7,600 classical art schools outside India and 367,000 recognized classical Indian arts performers. Surprisingly, these are not just in the Indian Diaspora countries but all over the globe.
A question he raised is whether these arts, which are recognized and appreciated abroad, have entered the local lexicon of the arts internationally. Khatua also shared his personal view, after 38 years as a Foreign Service bureaucrat, that government should not function as a patron of the arts running institutions but should simply offer financial support. He also raised the question of the motivation and impact for India of taking our performing arts abroad. There are 32 million non-resident Indians persons of Indian origin abroad. We tell them they are ambassadors of India but are they ambassadors of our performing arts? Or are they opportunistic promoters of our performing arts during their conferences and festival events?
Bharatanatyam exponent Rama Vaidyanathan articulated the responsibility of representing Indian Sanskriti and connecting to both the Indian Diaspora and local nationals worldwide. I was happy to hear that she shared my experience that “it is the emotive power of Indian dance that really stirs the soul of the audience that connects to them and is different from their familiar dance forms rather than the general assumption that fast-paced rhythmic nritta”.
Dance scholar Arshiya Sethi shared her research into the creative interactions, based on fact and imagination, of Western artists connecting to the Indian dance genres available to them in the early and mid-20th century. These included Ruth St Denis, Anna Pavlova, La Meri who promoted Ram Gopal, Jazz and film choreographer Jack Cole who trained under La Meri, and many more, creating a considerable tapestry of artistic and cultural influences and interactions as well as the downside of devadasis exhibited in fairs.
She gave an historical panorama of the tapestry of these connections. “The transference of Indian dance overseas is a process that has been going on in phases for 140 years. A Nautch group that went in the 1880s to perform in exhibitions and fairs provided glimpses of spiritual elements draped in saris, though tinged with racist and sexist stereotypes.
Basically these were people who were fascinated by India. There are questions of representation, authenticity even today when we have reclaimed and researched so much that was not available earlier in the 20th century.
The 1960’s STEM visas for the USA brought highly skilled immigrants with wives trained in classical dance who found a few interested American students to teach. In the 1980’s USA visa policy changed which led to many Indians coming, trained dancers among them, and the rise of Indian dance schools everywhere with more Indian origin students as the number of American students reduced.”
Arshiya’s historical overview led to the conclusion that the visibility of Indian dance has improved considerably in the USA with an Indian dancer, Ranee Ramaswamy, in the National Endowment for the Arts which determines national funding and other dancers getting national, state and local funding.
Of course, this is a subject I have enjoyed observing over the decades since I was first exposed to India and Indian classical dance during the 1950’s as a child in multi-culturally vibrant Detroit, Michigan. The transmission of tradition here and abroad, along with its understanding and appreciation, is an evergreen subject I plunge into regularly. This was a few drops from this ocean.
Stories of great artists can be enthralling; those with unusual challenges are inspiring. If overcoming these obstacles is achieved with grace and generosity we are delighted and amazed. If an individual artist's success clears the path for others, we applaud their courageous inspiration.
Sharan Rani, popularly known as ‘Sarod Rani’ (Queen of Sarod), was all of the above and more. She was the first internationally renowned woman instrumentalist of India and undoubtedly one of the foremost master musicians of the 20th century during a concert stage career spanning over seven decades.
What has fascinated me is how she achieved this, coming from a non-musician family of Hindu Delhi walled-city businessmen and educators, as well as how she wore the mantle of greatness with humility and devotion, without compromise to either art or family.
To have genius together with dedication and a pure life is a rare occurrence and by her example, Sharan Rani inspires all artistes and the younger generation who are the hope of the future.’- Rukmini Devi Arundale, President, Kalashetra
Sharan Rani, popularly known as ‘Sarod Rani’ (Queen of Sarod), was all of the above and more. She was the first internationally renowned woman instrumentalist of India and undoubtedly one of the foremost master musicians of the 20th century during a concert stage career spanning over seven decades.
What has fascinated me is how she achieved this, coming from a non-musician family of Hindu Delhi walled-city businessmen and educators, as well as how she wore the mantle of greatness with humility and devotion, without compromise to either art or family.
To have genius together with dedication and a pure life is a rare occurrence and by her example, Sharan Rani inspires all artistes and the younger generation who are the hope of the future.’- Rukmini Devi Arundale, President, Kalashetra
She grew up in a home that enjoyed music, literature and dance but to perform beyond the confines of the home was taboo. She enjoyed learning Kathak under Achhan Maharaj and Manipuri dance from Nabha Kumar Sinha side by side with Kapila Vatsayayan but was told clearly by family that we “will break your legs if you dance in public”.
An unrecognized string instrument was given to her by her flamboyant lawyer brother, Rajindra Narayan, when his wife had no interest in it. Sharan’s life changed when she touched the strings. The sound went to her heart and she knew this instrument was made for her and she for it. Earlier vocal training allowed her to pluck out notes and then ask for a music teacher’s help. This was a time of many artists coming home, occasional classes with Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan (which she absorbed like a sponge) and winning school and college music competitions culminating in President Rajendra Prasad awarding top honors in the first all India music competition. She was not simply the only female playing sarod, she was the only one playing an instrument rather than singing.
Her world turned on its head when her parents died, followed the next year by that of her beloved brother Rajindra. Only music helped her bear this, yet she was well aware of the disapproval of the family she was now dependent upon. Ustad Allauddin Khan had always denied her requests to come to Maihar to study so it is hard to image the courage and determination of a young Sharan Rani packing her considerable belongings and meeting Baba in Calcutta insisting that he take her to study in his home.
When he said the sitar was better suited for a woman than the sarod, Sharan replied “You can’t fall in love with one and marry another”. He told her she would have to care for the cows (she was terrified of them), fill his hookah, wash clothes, come with only two changes of clothing-one to wear and one to wash, face the weakness of being a vegetarian taking up a physically demanding instrument, never leave the house except to visit the temple and meet no one (the Maharaja, his patron, had a reputation for lifting girls).
The upside was their arrival in Maihar when Baba called out to his wife that he had brought her daughter home with him and young Sharan found a new mother. For two years she practiced only swaras (notes) and alankar or palta variations. Her dedication was unwavering, yet perhaps even more remarkable was her unstinting caring for those around her and uncomplaining adaptability material discomfort.
Her caring for others and uncomplaining adaptability are halos around the crowning achievement of her art. She was a stalwart friend of her guru-bahan Annapurna throughout her life, fought for the same AIR pay scale for English and Hindi announcers and transformed the lives of 65 Indian and international students, including a blind disciple, who lived in her home over 18 years free of cost except the requirement to practice during all free time. This great artist was an agony aunt and surrogate mother to many.
I have always loved the ephemeral nature of dance. The magic of the performance exists in the synergy of performer and audience in a particular moment in time and space. Entering the stage, the dancer offers one’s creative best available for the moment, not for posterity. Another day and the “same” dance may be exponentially different in performance. It always seemed to me that when a book was published or a painting displayed, the creator had made a statement of completion that I did not in dance. Of course, as I matured, it was clear that tangible arts are also “of the moment” in the creative process, yet dance is a poignant reminder of impermanence.
Because of this, we treasure filmed moments of dance in documentaries or archives knowing that they can provide only a tangential experience to being part of a live performance experience. For Indian classical dance, straight forward quality documentation is available from the Doordarshan Archives created by Smt. Kamalini Dutt. Documentation by other government and autonomous bodies leaves too much to be desired.
Given that every artistic medium has its own abilities and parameters, a good film on dance can shift time and place to provide not only varying angles of the dance but also of the lives, context of the dance, gurus and dancers. A great film can shift energy and even our willingness and ability to perceive.
La Danse de l’enchanteresse (The dance of the enchantress) by Adoor Gopalakrisnan and Bridget Chataignier is a great film. As everyone familiar with other films of this master, Adoor-ji chooses not to lean on a linear narrative to convey meaning. The viewer is respected as a Rasika to experience the rasa evoked. This is done through images of Mohiniattam performed in temples, palaces as well as classroom, contextualized in the Kerala environment.
When the renowned French Mohiniattam exponent, Brigitte Chataignier, a graduate of Kerala Kalamandalam was directed to Adoor Gopalakrishnan with her film concept, she discovered he had also been studying and considering Mohiniattam for decades without yet having decided on how to approach it in film. Bridget managed to secure funding, create a production house and together they co-scripted this exquisite film. The sensitivity and expansiveness of spirit in this virtually wordless depiction of the lush traditional ethos of Kerala is breathtaking.
An exception to the rule of classical dancers making documentary films, Bridget did not feature herself or make even a transitory appearance, instead presenting accomplished performances by Smitha Rajan (daughter of Sreedevi Rajan), Dr. Neena Prasad, Pallavi Krishnan and Usha Balaji. I was personally delighted to see included two Mohiniattam compositions that I had never seen before, Swati Tirunal’s Aliveni and the popular lullaby, Omanathinkal Kidavo in Mohiniattam, as I had performed these in Odissi in Kerala decades ago.
There are only 2 scenes with spoken dialogue. One finely crafted scene is in a bus as dancers and their musicians are returning from a performance. The vocalist is singing and a bus discussion reiterates the revival of Mohiniattam by the Maharaja Swati Tirunal (his over 400 classical compositions are the core of the repertoire since the first half of the 19th century) while another bus rider reminds that Vallathol Narayana who established Kerala Kalamandalam revived it in the early part of the last century.
The sole other scene with dialogue involves the guru asking why a student is not in class. The answer- she is getting married and her in-laws don’t approve of her continuing to dance. The guru declares that this is an outdated attitude. Meanwhile the images of the young girl, her betrothed, even the selection of wedding saris are dovetailed with the sringar of the dance and luxuriant Kerala landscapes.
Without dialogue, the sound landscape of birds and rain in nature, dance music and solkattu in class, courtyard and inner sanctum calms down our inner voices to rest in a more metaphysical serentity.
We see the bhava of the most revered and beloved gurus sharing with their shisyas in the classroom. These interactions with Kalamandalam Satyabhama, recently departed Guru Prof. Kalamandalam Leelamma, Sreedevi Rajan (daughter of the 'grandmother of Mohiniattam', Kalyani Kuttiyamma) as well as Guru Kalamandalam Kshemavathi evoke the delicious flavor of learning to experience and share rasa.
The well chosen dance sequences were shot in temples and palaces associated with Maharaja Swati Tirunal and Mahakavi Vallathol, generations apart, who both revived Mohiniyattam and other Kerala art forms when they were fading into oblivion.
This film is so much more than a documentary; it is an aesthetic experience that evokes rasa through the music, dance and visuals. If you already appreciate Kerala or are uninitiated, immersing yourself in Brigitte and Adoor-ji’s Dance of the Enchantress will be a meditation in joy.
Wir Sind Osterreicher Erwin Traxl (1884-1975)
Those who enjoy delving into history may still be a bit fuzzy about the breakup of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the aftermath effects on the populations of Central and Eastern Europe. The results of the breakup of the multicultural, multilingual Hapsburg Empire on the real politic supporting Hitler's rise are central to the trajectory of this biography. The life experiences of the Austrian Erwin Traxl detail how simply and inexorably one family walks, stumbles and survives rising fascism and identity politics. His personal courage is inspirational for those who value multiculturalism over tribal identity and integrity over exploitation.
Beyond filling in the gaps in our general knowledge of modern history, the imagined internal monologues of Erwin Traxl and the external actions he took based on personal and family values, mirror very current issues facing civil society in large democracies.
The biographer, Shovana Narayan Traxl is a celebrated Kathak exponent and retired senior civil servant. Married to a former Austrian ambassador to India, Herbert Traxl, Shovana has lovingly researched the life and times of her father-in-law, Erwin. With her trans-national sensibilities, she has brought to life the major conflicts of the 20th century from the perspective of a small European German-speaking country. The trajectory expresses the confusions of living in troubled times interspersed with the mundane realities and of daily life.
From 1848 till 1916 Emperor Franz Joseph ruled over 15 nations and 50 million inhabitants. Austrian-Hungarian Army officers were required to give commands in 11 languages besides German. "With the granting of full citizenship rights in 1867 to the Jews, there was a surge of energy that saw the Empire scaling upwards in intellectual, economic, medical, art, architecture and various streams of activities." At the same time, the Emperor demolished the old city fortifications and the Ringstause development included the University, City Hall, Parliament and magnificent buildings, some by Jewish Austrians now permitted to own property.
Using date headings in lieu of chapters, The biography begins on the 28th of June 1914 with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, critical in setting off the chain of events that led to the First World War.
Erwin, aged 30, a trained engineer and artillery lieutenant, was immediately sent to the Russian front, the nation that had supported the Serbian nationalism movement prompting the assassination. The war started a month later and not only ended the Empire, but also the vibrant multicultural, multinational life of Vienna in a suddenly shrunken Austria.
Walther Traxl, Erwin's chemist brother, chafed at his perceived unfairness of unfairness to Austria when Britain wasn't held accountable for the Opium Wars and could have intervened to stop Germany's promised aid to Austria. By the early 1930's Walther was anti a Pan-European Union in favor of National Socialism, a brand of nationalism Erwin called "negative in character as it rejects rationalism, democratic values and human rights".
Tripura Kashyap opens her new book, Contemporary Dance – Practices, Paradigms and Practitioners with this quote from not only one of the world’s greatest contemporary dance choreographers but one who shifted perceptions of dance in India for artists and audiences, thanks to the actualized dream of Max Meuller Bhavan’s Dr Georg Lechner. She addresses the historical, theoretical, philosophical and practical considerations of contemporary dance in India. It is readable, thorough and full of practical advice for teachers, performers and anyone interested in a solid overview of its past and present.
In her dance journey, exploring her own movement preferences and themes developed outside the parameters of her Kalakshetra Bharatanatyam training, Tripura also became interested in dance as a form of therapy for people with disabilities. Studying Dance/Movement therapy at the Hancock Centre and Contemporary dance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison she discovered that it was the informal, non-traditional approaches in dance, which helped people, with and without disabilities, to evolve personal styles of expression and communication. With an M.A in Psychology alongside modern and creative dance techniques, Tripura brought Creative Movement Therapy to India in 1990.
ISBN 9788182903647
Classical Indian aesthetics use human love (Shringar Rasa) as the closest metaphor to approaching an understanding of divine love, and consequently divides and subdivides the nuances and states of love in relation to anticipation, preparation, yearning, waiting, disappointment, betrayal, reconciliation and ultimately, union. The Shringara Rasa theory shared across classical dance genres of India has already been detailed in earlier chapters. This aesthetic philosophy of love imbued with Bhakti, or devotion, is presented to a highly sophisticated and refined degree in the art of Odissi dance and the poetry that inspires it.