The organic relationship between dance and temple or dance and worship was lost with our fractured history. By re-establishing confidence in our secular traditions, these linkages are being revived to conserve the glory of our heritage
IN India one must move away from the monument centered model of heritage valorization and expand the scope of cultural heritage concerns to include lived and living heritage. Thus language, songs, traditional knowledge, folklore, cuisine, costume and jewellery, social and religious practices are all examples of the intangible cultural wealth of communities, which often imbricates well with tangible and built heritage.
This is reflected via many old temples that continue to be living centres of worship and artistic practices. In 2010, the magnificent Brihadeeshwara temple, built in the year 1010 by king Raja Raja Chola- I, turned 1000 years old. Many inscriptions on the temple walls, testify to the fact that the temple served as a platform for the dancers and musicians. It was not surprising then that the temples millennium celebration included a full and elaborate year- long offerings of dance, not just in the temple but also around the world, in a wonderful celebration of the tangible heritage of the temple and the intangible heritage of the dance.
Dance as an offering
Many other temples in various parts of India have been strong repositories of elements of intangible heritage, or what can be loosely described as performance practices of worship. The 18th century Govind Devji temple in Imphal, resounds with the high pitched singing that accompanies the performance of Raas. During Holi, in the courtyard of the temple, dancer worshippers perform pung and dhol cholom, the fascinating acrobatic drum dancing, for which Manipuri dance is famed. Even the Govind Devji temple that is located in the City Palace complex of Jaipur, at the time of Holi, offers dance as a part of worship. Common people sway to the music, while dances like kalbeliya, ghoomar and even kathak are performed as offering.
The temples of Odisha, had the maharis or sacred dancing girls, dance as part of temple ceremonies. Depending on what they did and where they performed in respect to the main idol, the Mahari dancers were called "Nachunis', Bahara gaunis, Bhitara gaunis and gaudasanis. The temples institutionalised sacred dancing, and temple architecture, usually included a dancing hall (nata mandir) replete with a profusion of dancing images. In fact, these images, chiselled on the walls of the Konark temple, served as cogent evidence testifying to the antiquity of the dance of Odisha, that eventually got recognition as the classical dance Odissi.
In the value attached to classical dance in India the image of Shiva Nataraj became a central motif. It was first picked up by Rukmini Devi Arundale, the first lady of modern Bharatanatyam, and the theosophist circle that was in the fore front of the revival of the dance of the Devadasis. Several decades after independence, the close association between the temple and dance, was explored again with the start of dance festivals at temples. Here too the image of Nataraj was too strong a draw. One of the popular temples where dance came to be practiced as part of a festival of dance, was the Natyanjali Dance festival in Chidambaram, the city of the cosmic dancer, Nataraj, where he is believed to have danced the Ananda tandava in the golden hall of the temple. The dance has been captured in the 108 sculpted poses called Karanas, on the soaring walls of the temple towers. Every year, for five days commencing with Maha Shivratri, the Natyanjali festival, is celebrated in the temple premises. The success of the Natyanjali festival, jointly organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu, the Ministry Of Tourism, Government of India and the Natyanjali Trust, Chidambaram, has resulted in clones being spawned in other temples like Thanjavur (Sri Brihadeswarar temple), Thiruvarur, Thirunallur, Kumbakonam (Sri Adhikumbeshwarar temple) Nagapattinam, Tiruchi, Mylapore (Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple) etc. But all this could happen only many years after independence, when we were more comfortable as a nation with a secular constitution and sacred practices. It called for some interesting tweaking of our performance heritage, such that even though they claim unbroken millennial histories, they reflect definite and conscious historical fractures.
The disappearing temples
However, the fractures in history resulted in twists in the fate of some tangible heritage structures as well. Several historical temples suffered so much neglect, as a result of the disappearance of patronage, that worship ceased, and with it the entire plexus of performance and creative practices. Some of these temples virtually disappeared from people's view, as jungles took a toll on the monuments. The temples of Khajuraho were among them. Built by the Chandela kings ( 10th - 13th century AD), the temples hailed as "one of the seven wonders of India" are illustrated with a profusion of images including erotic images, the reason why they make it to must see parts of travel itineraries. However, historically, as Chandela power diminished, the importance of their one time capital also waned. The temples were never, really lost, for villagers and tribal inhabitants of the region were familiar with them; they continued to worship one temple in particular, especially on the occasion of Shivratri - the Kandariya Mahadev temple.
While early travellers such as Alberuni and lbn Batuta had reported the presence of the temples, they were not treated in detail, possibly because of their being abandoned and overgrown by bushes and weeds. This was probably good for their continued existence, because these erotic images, though less than 10% of all the carvings, may have resulted in the temples being vandalised by offended invading Muslim armies. The British engineer T.S. Burt, was credited with their 'discovery' in the mid-19th century, but Alexander Cunningham put Khajuraho on the world map when he explored the site on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India and waxed eloquent about the temples. In 1986, the Khajuraho Group of Monuments, were in scripted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
However, almost seven years before that happened, Khajuraho became a laboratory for a very unusual experiment, spearheaded by Ashok Vajpeyi, one of the rare culturally aligned bureaucrats. Believing that "in the north temples and dances had parted company it would be a good idea to put them together, even if for a week". To start this experiment, the living worshipped temple of Kandariya Mahadeva was chosen as the venue for the dances, and in the initial years, the dancers, like Sanjukta Panigrahi and Yamini Krishnamurthy emerged from inside and danced before the audience sitting on the plinth of the temple, re-establishing the evocative and interesting ethos of the relationship of the tangible temple and the intangible dance. Subsequently as the festival audiences grew, the Archaeological Survey of India's point of an impending threat to the temples was heeded to, and the festival shifted outside and was presented against the silhouette of the temple, where it continues to charm visitors more than three decades later.
The Khajuraho Festival served as the mother of heritage site specific festivals, where the sites are ancient temples. The Konark Dance Festival, is another such success story, inspired by Khajuraho's success. This festival drew on Khajuraho's experience. First organised in 1989, five years after receiving its World Heritage Monument status, the grand Sun Temple of Konark serves as the backdrop of the dance festival that is organised in an amphitheatre outside.
Re-establishing the missing link
However, in all these cases the monument served as a backdrop for a dance festival, carefully curated from among the pantheon of Indian classical dances, to reflect the diversity of India, rather than reflect any organic relationship between dance and the temple or dance and worship in that specific temple, as was happening in the Agamic dance (temple dance) tradition of India. This practice was revived in 1996 by dancer Swapnasundari, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, in the 400 year old, living, Ranganath Swamy temple of Hyderabad, where all ceremonies, whether nitya (daily) or naimitya ( occasional), happen. Here, every year since 1996, Swapnasundari has been dancing Vilasini Natyam rituals as annual naimitya sewa, during the Brahmotsavam.
A temple named after its sculptor
Swapnasundari has been recently approached by the Kakateeya Heritage Trust to present a Vilasini Natyam temple- dance performance at the Ramappa temple in Palampet village of Warrangal district in Andhra Pradesh, on 18th of April 2013. "Having become the first present-day classical dancer to restore agamic sewa, it occurred to me that once again I would probably be the first present-day dancer to also have the unique honour of dancing in the Ramappa temple- not only on a constructed stage which would just use the dramatic temple as a back-drop" says Swapnasundari. "As the choreographer , I see the exciting choreographic possibilities offered by the stunning setting of this historic temple . For instance, I can imagine the Ashta -Dikpalaka Ritual dance in which my troupe of dancers and myself would move rhythmically around the temple , wrapping it in our dance-prayers and seeking protection of the directional deities for it" she adds.
What makes this occasion even more important is that according to an inscription found in the temple, it was on 18th April, 800 years ago, that the Ramappa temple, a Shivalaya, was established, in the reign of Kakatiya king Ganpati Deva. This temple has the unique distinction of being named after its sculptor Ramappa, a sthapathi, and not the chief deity or its location. The Ramappa temple is built on the classical pattern of being held aloft on a high star-shaped platform, resulting in being called the "brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples in the Deccan". The temple uses the unique sandbox foundation technology that keepst it cool in the long hot summer. The roof of the temple is built with bricks, which are so light that they are able to float on water. Intricate carvings line the walls and cover the pillars and ceilings, with carvings, so fine that only a needle and thread can pass through the gaps of the wall and the friezes.
This temple has many close associations with dance as is evidenced by historical references to dancers and dance being closely associated with the temple. It also boasts of a Natamandap with a profusion of dance carvings. Dr. Nataraja Ramakrishna revived the Perini Shivatandav (Perini Dance), by seeing the sculptures in this temple. The dance poses written in the eight century old text, "Nritta Rathnavali" by Jayapa Senapati, one of the Kakatiya Generals, also appear in these sculptures. An English translation of Nritta Ratnavali was released in March this year, by the Kakatiya Heritage Trust.
So on World Heritage Day this year, in a unique coincidence of two anniversaries, a world class heritage monument, reflective of an integrated cultural tradition will be framed, for celebration, by the world at large. Can this temple go beyond the Khajuraho format and set new and creative standards for dovetailing the tangible and intangible heritage, and in bringing together dance and temple monuments? Only time will tell.
The writer is an arts administrator, scholar and commentator, and a heritage activist. |
