Bharatanatyam

Role of Devadasis and Courtesans

Devadasis were held with great respect as repository of culture manners and performing arts.
They knew how to dance and play various instruments skilfully. They could read and
interpret scriptures and led a pious dedicated life. They danced before the temple gods in the
morning and evening and on ceremonial occasions when the idols were taken out for
possession to the sound of music. They enjoyed special privileges and rights, especially
during the reign of the Chola Kings. Every temple had a group of these dancing girls and the
number of these increased in proportion to the resources and importance of a temple. For
instance, in the Brihadishwara Temple at Tanjavur there were 400dancing girls to serve its
presiding deity originally called Rajarajeshwara, an enormous lingam. It is a magnificent
temple which combines excellent proportion with form of grace.
The rich temple sculptures and icons in the various ecstatic rhythmic poses and postures are
mute witness of the prayers these maids offered to gods in the form of their dance
performances. The walls and niches and gopurams of these temples are virtually crowded
with dancing sculptures of various gods, goddesses, and apsaras. They are highly
iconographic and artistic significance and interest. Many magnificent bronzes were also
created during this period depicting sacred legends of dancing Shiva, Vishnu and his consort
Lakshmi, Rama and Sita with Hanuman, etc., and the boy Krishna performing tandava on the
serpent Kaliya.
With the passage of time the institution of Devadasis lost its grace and reverence and became
synonym prostitution and lasciviousness. As the devadasis were exploited, rulers, noblemen
and temple priest took undue advantage of them. Their association with temple prostitution
saw a decline in their status and dignity and was responsible for their marginalization in the
society. With the fall of these maids of the gods, the dance forms also were looked upon and
become disgrace and disrespect. Deprived of the royal patronage and liberal privileges, the
Devadasis fell upon the thorns of life became public courtesans granting favours to anybody
demanding them for gifts in cash and kind. They received an insignificant amount as a fixed
salary which was hardly sufficient to keep their body and soul together, and so they were
constrained to eke out it by selling their favours to anybody who could afford to pay.
Naturally, dance and music came to be associated with courtesans and prostitutes and people

began to look upon the arts particularly music and dancing. It was a great fall indeed. (include
silapadikaram story synopsis)
It was perhaps this situation that led to the rechristening of their dance form as one of the
first steps taken when to reform and restoration commenced. The new name Bharata Natyam
was derived from the then recent discovery of theatrical treatise, Bharatas Natya Shastra.
This proved to be psychological measures. E. Krishna Iyer, Rukmini Devi Arundhale and
other enlightened members of the society dedicated to the task of formalization of the dance
form. In the 19th century, the tradition of Sadir Attam/ Dasi Attam received its definite shape,
by redefining the content and formalization of the repertoire had been started by the Tanjore
brothers known as the Tanjore Quartet. They were Chinnaiah, Ponniah, Vadivelu and
Shivanandan, who were the disciples of the composer Muthuswami Dikshitar. To Rukmini
Devi Arundhale goes the credit of being the first Brahmin lady dancer hailing from a noble
and enlightened family background.

Technique
Elements of Bharata Natyam
Nritta (read: nru-th-thaa) --- rhythmic dance movements. Nritta is the demonstration of
rhythm through graceful body movements. The synchronization between rhythm and time is
of utmost importance in a Nritta piece. Beat and tempo are its two vital constituents. There is
no poetic meaning to emote. Its purpose is to showcase geometric patterns and complex
rhythmic variations. Hand gestures, dance steps, patterns and concluding dance movements
(known

as Theer-maa-num)

form

the

backbone

of

Nritta.

In Natyashatra it is explained that "the sheer beauty of Nritta has a great popular appeal".
.... and to brag a little bit, I am a self proclaimed Queen of Nritta
Nritya (read: nrith-yaa) --- depicting a story through facial expressions & body
movements. Nritya can be described as an explanatory dance, where the lyrics of the song
are conveyed using hand gestures (hasta mudras) and facial expressions (abhinaya). The
dancers internal emotions (bhaava) should be performed in a way that should be felt by the
audience. This is the reason why it is importanst to understand the lyrics of any song. Unless
the

emotions

are

felt

inside,

it

.... in short, Nritya = Nritta + emotions

is

difficult

to

perform

flawless

piece.

Natya (read: naat-yaa) --- combination of Nritta & Nritya. Natya is achieving a story
through speech, music, Nritta and Nritya. Natya is an excellent element of classical dancing
through which a dancer can express every known human emotion and feeling. Natya is the
dramatic element of classical Indian dance. The dancers take on the roles of characters and
perform a dramatic story through music and dance.
Bharata Natyam technique may be discussed under two broad based heads, namely nritta and
abhinaya. The nritta aspect has to be understood particularly as a technique of human
movement. In the Natya Shastra terminology, one may say that it utilizes all the major limbs
(angas) and minor limbs (upangas). However, this in itself does not give a clue to the exact
nature of the stylisation of Bharata Natyam.
In Indian dance the human body has been conceived of as a mass which can be equally
divided along a central median. Further movement is determined by the nature of deflections
from this median. It is only when the weight is equally divided that the completely balanced
samabhanga position emerges. In poses where there is only one deflection, the slightly
imbalanced abhanga position emerges. In postures with more than two deflections on
opposite sides of the central median, the thrice-deflected tribhanga position emerges. It is
the distinctive in Bharata Natyam is the fact that it conceives of movement in space mostly
along either straight lines or in triangles.
The head forms the first unit and lateral movements of the head are common. The torso is
seen as another unit and is hardly ever broken into the upper or the lower torso. The lower
limbs are seen either as straight lines or two sides of an imaginary triangle in space. The
upper limbs either follow the lower limbs or weave circular patterns along space which is
covered by the lower limbs. It is the latter aspect, along with the use of the torso as a single
unit that gives Bharata Natyam its particularity.
The dancer begins with samapada position which is the first basic position, with the feet
facing front. The body of the dancer is neither relaxed nor unduly taut. This followed by
turning of the feet sideways which is known as the kalai tiruppudal in Tamil. Then comes
the aramandhali is often termed as the ukkaramandhali the Tamil word ukkar means
literally means sitting. The entire movement pattern is built from the first movement in
which the feet are turned sideways, the knees are bent and the arms either extended out or
placed firmly on the waist.

In terms of geometrical design, the dancer is trying to achieve a series of triangles. The lines
joining the two shoulders may be conceived as the base of one triangle and waist as the
imaginary apex of an inverted triangle. From this apex a second triangle is conceived with
thighs as the two sides and the line joining the two knees as the base of this triangle. The third
triangle is formed by the space covered by the two calves and the line joining the two knees.
The arms reinforce this by forming other triangles on either side-the extended arm forming
one side of the triangle and the line joining the hand to the knee suggesting the second side.
Foot contact is important. In the first position, the entire foot touches the ground and weight
is equally distributed. The stamping of this flat foot on the ground is known as tattu. In the
same position, the second type of the foot contact occurs, namely where only the toes of one
foot touches the ground and the heel is raised; the third type of foot contact results when the
heel touches the ground and the toe is raised. These are the usual movements in the
aramandhali position. Then follows the permutation and combination of these positions by
the use of either one foot or both the feet.
Adavu
The unit which emerges as a coordinated pattern of the feet, knee, torso, arms and hands is
known as the adavu. The adavus form the basis of nritta technique of Bharata Natyam. They
are units which have been divided according to most oral traditions into nine groups. Each of
these groups is again sub-divided into several combinations or varieties. These adavus can be
set in a composition in any given tala (time cycle) and with a few exceptions all adavus are
executed in the aramandhali position. Symmetrical pattern is achieved by executing a
movement first by the right foot and then by the left foot. This method gives one half of the
body a seemingly static quality. The movement itself is conceived in relation to the ground
and vertical median. The first of these adavus is known as the tattu adavu, suggesting flat foot
contacts in the basic aramandhali position