Nattuvanars for development of bharatha natyam

Subashini Pathmanathan

The Nattuvanar community belongs to the Isai Vellalar castes, who were the mentors of the art. Their contribution for the preservation and development of this art is immeasurable.

Padmashree Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai

The Devadasis are the female members of this community and Nattuvanars are the male members of this community. Both the members of the community were serving in the temples, by preserving and protecting various temple art forms. The Nattuvanar taught Sathir dances to their female members of their society (devadasis). The Nattuvanars were the Thavil players, (drum players), and the Nathaswara players. They served as temple musicians. Bharatha Natyam evolved out of temple rituals.

During the British period the temple dance faced an eclipse and sathir dancers were looked down, as a result of this; the Devadasis faced many difficulties for 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, princelings and zamindras’ palaces. Later Sathir was renamed as Bharatha Natyam with certain modifications and reforms. The abinaya queen Balasraswathi, belonged to the Isai Vellalar caste. She impressed the general public through her dance, mainly by her facial 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 the society, the services of the male members of the Isai vellala caste were much more in demand in the society. Still this art was vested in the hands of the male and the female members of the Isai vellala caste. Yet the high caste section of the society was reluctant to learn the art or perform the art in public.

Due to this, this art was considered as the art of a particular caste. But with the passage of time, many of the high caste family members like Rukmani Devi, E. Krishna Iyer, played important role to rescue the art from further oblivion.

In 1947 by passing the Devadasi act in the Madras state- legislative assembly, Devadsis 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, Ella Pillai, Thandayutha Pani Pillai, were some of the outstanding Gurus of the Pandanallur School and Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai, and S. K.Rajaratnam Pillai, were some of the outstanding gurus of the Vazhuvoor School. Teaching dancing in the 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 parampara (generation) in the dance world. Those who reside at the residence of the guru by serving the gurus and studying the art continue the ancient traditional Guru Kula method.

The Nattuvanars hardly dance while they teach, but they teach the students through explanation and illustration the art orally. The students grasp the full ideas in their minds 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.

The works of the Nattuvanar is not only teaching the dance but also co-ordinate the dance with the accompaniments, and conducts the whole programme.

Learning this traditional art under traditional 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 work, and 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.

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page