The four elements of beauty: Bharatanatyam has moved from temples to stage without losing its characteristic devotional component

By Manisha S

Bhavam, ragam, thalam, and natyam, the four elements amalgamating into a beautiful story, describe Bharatanatyam. Its roots go back to the Hindu temples of Tamil Nadu. Earlier it was known as dasi attam or sadir. Today, Bharatanatyam isn’t dear only to India but it is a world of art and heritage, flourishing across the globe.

Bharatanatyam is approximately 200 years old, and continues to evolve as a living performance art. The dance moved from temples to stage over time retaining its characteristic devotional component, expression of human emotions, and stylised storytelling. The framework of Bharatanatyam is flexible allowing both traditional and modern day stories to be portrayed.

“The prime intention of the origin of Bharatanatyam was to treasure and spread Vedic knowledge in a way that normal people would enjoy learning. It’s a way of learning and living in culture,”says Navya of the Art of Living,

The Bharatanatyam recital has the structure of a temple. We enter through the gopuram of alarippu, traverse the ardhamandapam of jatiswaram, then the mandapam of sabdam, and enter the sacred precinct of the God in the varnam, just like we would in a temple.

Evolving in styles and schools of thought like Pandanallur, Thanjavur, Mysore and Kalakshetra variants, the dance form is only growing in strength. As each generation passes by, Bharatanatyam has had artistes who have held the flag high at all times. One of the reasons why Bharatanatyam is flourishing is because of the institutional support it has been getting for a long time, be it the Madras Music Academy or Rukminidevi Arundale’s Kalakshetra.

Bharatanatyam is not gender specific. It has space both for the male and the female and it accommodates tandava as well as lasya without reference to gender. Historically, the dancers were mostly females, but many outstanding male dancers have been chipping away at the gender divide in recent years. It is a tough climb given our social construct but they are achieving it with sustained effort and lateral thinking.

“I had a traumatic childhood just because I was a male dancer. I used to hear a lot about not practicing art forms that are not ‘manly enough’. I am grateful that I didn’t take a turn back as today I am known to people by my dance and the dancer that I am,”says Karthik Manikandan.

The guru-shishya relation determines how well the teacher can decipher the stories to their students and how well they can portray it to the audience. Both gurus and students were aware of the importance of learning a dance form but many feel that the trophies and limelight are the benchmark for today’s dancers and not their years of practice, effort and talent.

Like the preference of fast food for generation Z, the bond between the teacher and the student is to gain instant satisfaction and results. While students are taught about the glitter and glory of the field, we fail to imprint in them the heart and soul of the art form.

“With every field of art being confined to competitions, learning bharatanatyam has become a race, where students want to land on the 100th level without even stepping on the first,” says Asha, a Bharatanatyam teacher.

Today, we can see the democratisation of bharatanatyam and other art forms, which were once exclusively practiced by hereditary artists. This has been the result of disenfranchisement of the original practitioners. Thanks to the anti-nautch movement, and later, acts of Parliament abolishing temple dancing.

Still we hear instances of systemic barriers restricting the world of dance. Recently a Bharatnatyam artist was barred from performing in a dance programme scheduled in a temple in Kerala because the performer wasn’t a Hindu.

“Bharatanatyam has been my passion and I will continue to pursue it. But it is difficult for me to choose it as a career because of financial distress in the field. There are organisers who offer us a stage to perform based on caste, religion, fame and not years of practice, effort and talent,” says Shyama.

The arena of Bharatanatyam has not remained static. Many of its practitioners, through their fresh and polished interpretations, have enhanced the value of the inherited treasure. Factors such as changes in the audience, and environment have also made Bharatanatyam fluid.

Even though remnants of the fears about nation, body, sexuality, religion and performance still circulate in the practice of Bharatanatyam, it has gone far beyond the historical disputes. From its origins in its courtly home -- the town of Thanjavur, the form has developed into a fully transnational art, and the story of its transformation is central to understanding its aesthetic dimensions.