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| Wednesday, 9 June 2004 |
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Role of Nattuvanars in the development of Bharatha Natyam by Subashini Pathmanathan The Nattuvanar community belongs to the Isai Vellala caste who are the mentors of the art. Their contribution for the preservation and development of this art is immeasurable. The devadasis are the female members of this community and Nattuvanar are male members of the community. The members of the community were serving in the temples, by preserving and protecting various temple art forms. Nattuvanar taught sathir dances to their female members of their society (devadasis), and they were the Thavil players, Nathaswara players and sometimes they served as temple musicians to some extent. Bharatha Natyam evolved out of temple rituals. During the period of Britishers temple dance faced an eclipse and sathir dancers were looked down upon. And devadasis faced difficulty for even their survival. With the passage of time, due to the efforts of the social and cultural reformers, sathir once again gained the reputation. They started performing in the temples, royal courts, princlings and Zamindras' palaces. Later sathir was renamed as Bharatha Natyam with certain modifications and reforms. The abinaya queen Balasrawathi impressed the general public through her dance mainly by her expressions and abinaya. Similarly Mylapore Gowrie Ammal also gained fame by teaching the nuances of abinaya in Baratha Natyam. When Bharatha Natyam gained considerable recognition and demand in society, the services of the male members of the Isai vellala caste were much in demand in society. Still the art was vested in the hands of the male and female members of the Isai vellala caste. Yet the high caste section of society was reluctant to learn the art or perform the art in public. Due to this it was considered the art of a particular caste. But with the passage of time many of the high caste family members like Rukmani Devi and E. Krishna Iyer played an important role to rescue the art from further oblivion. In 1947 by passing Devadasi act in the Madras state legislative assembly devadasis performing in the temples was prohibited. After this era, the dance moved to the public halls. High caste, high class, and middle class, young girls were attracted by the art and they themselves started learning the art. The social stigma of casteism in the art also disappeared. The Tamil cinema played a major role in stimulating the interest of the public by screening beautiful dance scenes in the religious cinema. This is also one of the major causes for the classical dance form to gain considerable popularity among the masses. The nattuvanars like Meenakshi Sunderam Pillai, Ellapa Pillai and Dandayutha Pani Pillai were some of the outstanding Pandanallur school. Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and S. K. Rajaratnam Pillai were some of the outstanding gurus of Vazhuvoor school. Teaching dancing in society conferred a status and respect on the traditional Nattuvanars. These traditional Nattuvanars are called traditional gurus. Many local and foreign students took up residence at the nattuvanar homes to learn the art. This was the main cause for the growth of Guru Shisya parampra (generation) in the dance world. Those who reside at the residence of the guru by serving the guru and studying the art continue the ancient traditional Guru Kula method. The nattuvanars hardly dance while they teach, but they teach the students by explanation and illustration the art orally. The students grasp the full ideas in their mind and reproduce it through their dance. This provides an opportunity to each individual student to understand the adavus, abinayas and facial expressions thoroughly. They rarely have group lessons; mostly they prefer to pay individual attention to each student. Their methodology of teaching is entirely different from that of the institutions. They do not have any prescribed syllabus or framed time limit for their teaching. They impart the training according to the personal ability and the standard of the individual student. For instance, the same Varnam or same Thillana are taught differently to different students mainly in the adavu korvais and abinayas. Beside these the students get an opportunity to learn the art under one guru that enables one to develop their own ideas and develop their own creativity in the art. They inspire the students to develop their ability fully. These traditional nattuvanars created their own shisyas (disciples). Through the disciples they gained their name and fame in the art world. The works of the nattuvanar is not only teaching the dance but also coordinating the dance with the accompaniments and conduct the whole programme. While conducting the programme the nattuvanar coordinates the dance, music, and instrumental music through hand symbols and sollukadus. This work is still called nattuvagam. Learning this traditional art under nattuvanar is a unique experience, unlike learning the art in an institution. While learning the art under the traditional guru one imbibes the art rather than merely learning the art as in an institution within a particular time frame and according to a prescribed syllabus. Today the most outstanding dancers of the world are the students of different traditional nattuvanars. These nattuvanars are not only the experts in the art of dance but also they are good music viduwans, veena players, natheswara viduwans, thavil viduwans, mirudagam players and good classical music composers. **** Back **** |
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