Sculptural portrayal of dance
Subashini Pathmanathan
Bharatha Natyam is a world famed Tamil classical dance form. It has
its origin in the Tamil land of India, Tamil Nadu. Tamils have taken up
this classical dance form as their own property gifted by God. The
Tamils anyway consider Bharatha Natyam as inherited property. They
preserve carry out, and spread this spiritual art based on Hindu
philosophy. Like seven Indian classical dance forms, all South Asian
dance forms are completely based on Natya Sastra.
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Performance portrayed in sculpture |
Sri Lanka is separated by eighteen miles from the Indian coastal
line. Since the historical times onwards, both countries maintained firm
ties with one another. Sri Lanka and India share a common religion,
culture, costumes, tradition and linguistic links. Tamil is a state
language of India, which is also used in Sri Lanka. Hinduism and
Buddhism were originated in the Indian subcontinent.
All Hindu temple structures, architecture, religious rituals,
traditions and customs are well preserved and protected in equal
treatment in both countries. The majority of Sinhala Buddhist population
share strong close cultural links with the Indian subcontinent.
Sinhala alphabetic letters also reflect the Indian state languages
such as Telugu and Kannada.
According to historical evidence the milk was earlier taken from the
Delft Island of Sri Lanka every morning for religious practices at the
Rameshwaram temple. It reveals close ties between India and Sri Lanka
since early days.
Archeologically Sri Lanka is influenced in temple structures, tower
sculptures, paintings and worshipping idol postures. The hand and foot
gestures of temple sculptures still reflect influence in classical
Bharatha Natyam.
Bharatha Natyam is originated from the temple dance Sathir. Earlier
the temple dancers were named as devadasis. The name Devadasi means the
handmaids of the god. This devotional art form was considered as part of
rituals, and the temple dancers were kept in high esteem. Similar
customs were also practised in the northern Sri Lanka.
The temples of south India are famous for tower sculptures. The tall
towers are full of sculptures.
Pillars, walls and in and around the mandapams of the temples there
are sculptures. Most sculptures on the temple towers depict the ancient
stories and epics. The sculptures inside the temples mainly depict dance
poses of various gods as well as humans. Of all sculptures the most
famous ones are found on the tower of the Chithamparam temple. They
depict 108 thandava karnas of Shiva.
The popular belief is that Shiva danced these 108 thandava karnas in
64 temples. However all the Karnas have been brought together in
Chithamparam temple kopura sculptures. A remarkable feature is all these
karnas are danced by female dancers. The same thandava karnas are
depicted in the famed Bragatheswarer temple in Thanjavur, but the dancer
is Shiva himself. Unfortunately only 83 thandava karnas (poses) still
exist in the Bragatheswarar temple.
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Sculptural version of ancient Indian dances |
It is believed that the Emperor Raja Raja Cholan, who built the
Thanjai Bragatheswarar temple, installed the sculptures of 83 karnas of
Shiva. These works ceased with the end of his rule. Among these 108
karnas, some are difficult ones.
One popular dance form of India is Odissi. It is considered as the
East Indian Classical dance form. Moreover it is believed to have been
originated in the Kalinga Pradesh, and the poses depict the Kalinga
Desha sculptures.
In Odissi, the body position is in the thiripanga position, where the
body is displayed in three curved positions. One is head position, the
other is from the shoulder to the navel, and the last one from the navel
to the feet. Most stances, postures and movements of the Odissi dance
postures resemble the Siva and Vishnava temple sculptural poses.
The male dancers in Odissi called kothipuwar. Earlier they dressed
themselves as females. Later the female dancers started dancing, and
were called Maharis.
Most Sri Lankan Hindu temple sculptures naturally have deep influence
of Tamil Hindu classical dance form, Bharatha Natyam. |
