Dance

                         

A Study of an impact of Hinduism on Odissi as a Classical Indian Dance Style. 

                 Krishna-Radha fascinated poets and playwrights of Orissa. Odissi dance was inundated with the Krishna-Radha legend from the 12^th C onwards influenced by the Geetagovinda of the Jayadeva. The sculptural pieces of evidence of the 1^st century BC at the Ranigumpa and several treatises on Odissi Dance is earlier known as Odra Nritya written between the 16^th and 19^th century prove the fact that the classes of dancers were performing this style of dance. The Nartakis were dancing in the royal court and for the general public at the time of Vasantotsava. The maharis and devadasis used to perform in the temple and their dance was basically ritualistic. From around the 17^th C began to perform the dance for the mass called “Gotipua”. Owing to the extreme changes in social values and gradual withdrawal of Royal Patronage, the nartakis were the first to disappear from the scene by around the latter half of the 19^th C. The Maharis continued to dance in the temple of Lord Jagannatha of Puri till the 4^th decade and it was more a ritual than dance.

The expressional numbers of the nartakis till the 12^th C were mostly based on Sanskrit poems often steeped in Shringara Rasa, but not inspired by the Krishna legend. But the Geetagovinda became so popular that both the nartakis and maharis began basing their expressional numbers frequently on the ashtapadis, as said by a school of thought, eminent dancer Rita Devi. Singing and dancing the ashtapadis became the regular form of the temple being disrupted for some time but Prataparuda Dev, the Gajapati King of Puri, restarted it. On 8^th July 1500 he proclaimed that no song and dance other than those based on Geetagovinda should be performed in the temple of Lord Jagannatha. The influence of the Geetagovinda was so deep that the highly ornate Oriya poetry of the said period was immensely inspired by the Krishna legend.

Further, we have some examples of poets outside the Hindu religion like the “Shalveg” who was a Muslim Odiya poet known for his poems. He was the bhakta of Jaganatha who was not even allowed to enter the Jagannath Temple. He used to sit outside the temple for hours and wait for one glance of Lord Jaganatha when the doors opened in the evening. His poems at first were not accepted by the people but later they got recognised and still are being used as Abhinaya. One of his famous compositions is “Aahe nila shaila”. Thus we can see that Hinduism and Lord Jagannath's influence was strong that it also incorporated even bhakta’s of different religion into it and finally even was broader to accept them and their work. As said by one the dancers from a school of thought, Tonushree Datta.

Another school of thought by Guru. Smt. Mitra Purkayastha mentions

“Religion has had a deeper impact on Odissi Especially the Vaishnava and Shiva sects of Hinduism. The essence of Abhinaya in Odissi has been the Sanskrit work, Gita Govinda written by the 12^thcentury poet, Jayadev. Gita Govinda comprises of 24 ashtapadis or 8 verse poems and revolves around the eternal love of Radha and Krishna.

Like other Indian dances, Odissi has tandava or vigorous, masculine movements, as well as lasya or feminine, graceful movements. The dancer's aim is to attain unity with God through dance.”

If we would go back to the 13^th to 19^th century saw dancers as “Gouni”, “Nachuni” dancer performing in the “Garmagruha” and “Potvari” dancing in the Ratha yatra. Post-Independence some of the classic choreographies and performances of “Dashavatar- Kuruyadu Nandana” and many more Ashtapadi’s in Vasanti and exploration of many Odiya songs and poetry took place. One of the well-known groups which were known at that time was “Natyo Darpan”.

As I move on to sum up the impact on Hinduism stating some of the compositions like Swaabhinaya Pallavi in Odissi which is also danced for Ganesha, Saraswati and Shiva. Unlike other dance styles, these compositions pay homage to n numbers of goddesses. As a whole, I thought though Hinduism saw a lot of change right from Ganga dynasty coming in and also we see the influence of Prataparuda Dev, the Gajapati King, Hinduism always accepted the changes and moved ahead. It was on the broader perspective towards accepting all the various parts of ritualistic traditions and art in itself. This is what I analysed after a conversation with my Guru Parimal Phadke.   

NRUTYA LEKHAN ( DANCE NOTATIONS)

Indian Classical dances and also other various forms of dances have been evolved from decades. The volumes of Natyashastra also state that dance forms even existed in 1606. Thus many dance forms, especially folk are getting deviated as they are not being carried on from the present performers to the young generation. But for Indian Classical dances, the Guru-shishya parampara carried on these dance styles to reach up to a lot of people. The Gurukul became the home for the students taking education under Guru-shishya parampara where they were given Guru Mukhi Vidya. With this teaching method, the students generally bi-hearted everything taught to them and thus they may not have felt the need for nrutya lekhan.



With the changing time and period, the British rule came in India, which eventually changed the system of education, right from the basic education. Now the education here took the form of classroom teaching method. Now with the changing generation, the guru-shishya paampara started deviating. Though we know the institution like Lalit Kala Kendra and many other would be helpful for the art lovers. Still, for the people who do not get a chance to come up to such institutions to get such knowledge, I think the script like Nrutya Lekhan would definitely help such dances to reach up to many people and also next generation far and wide.
The second thing would be the help and sense of belonging which we would get if it is in writing. We learn so many dance items and some being choreographed in so many different forms. In such situation, if we have these items and choreographies in written it would be most helpful for dancers like us. Thus whenever we need to recall something’s we can just pop in and see the required data. Some positive points would be the help of writing such notations in details which are most helpful.
Nrutya Lekhan would also help in memorising these notations carefully and vividly as it would be written by us. Even we would get to understand it better by notations. Many a time it would also help in generating various ideas and new steps while we are actually writing these notations. Also, writing these notations in a specific style rather than using different symbols and notations personally is necessary as it would avoid chaos. We have two great examples of Bhatkhande and Paluskar style of writing notations used in Kathak which is really helping them a lot to go through their earlier collection and preserve their own.
As all other things, even this has some drawbacks. Knowing that we have all the material in writing it would make us lean and sometimes we may not take the effort to learn and remember our choreographies. Also during the Guru-shishya parampara the students could pass on the knowledge to their students only which they remembered from the vast knowledge provided to them from their guru. Thus we can say that nrutya lekhan can be a storage device for the knowledge we are going to get from our Guru. It will also help us preserve old choreographies and make some new choreography’s using those.

Thus, I think that avoiding some of the drawbacks which are being present in every condition Nrutya Lekhan is very helpful and definitely necessary. It would definitely add a helping hand to the knowledge which is being parted to us by our Guru.