An all-rounder in the wings
ANJANA RAJAN
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A nattuvanar has to be versed in many an art, says S. Shankar in the on-going series on accompanists.
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MULTI-FACETED Sadasivam Shankar in New Delhi Photo: S. Subramanium
The nattuvanar — one who conducts a dance performance by playing the thick metal cymbals and reciting the drum syllables to which the dancer executes footwork — has a legendary status in Indian classical dance lore. When Nataraja performs his Ananda Tandava, so it is said, Mahalakshmi herself plays the cymbals.
In the more tangible realm of history, nattuvanars were the hereditary gurus who taught and developed the dance forms of South India, particularly Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi.
Then why have nattuvanars been given short shrift even by the saviours of Indian classical music and dance, All India Radio and Doordarshan?
The point is raised by Sadasivam Shankar, better known to his friends as Ayappan, who has been working as a nattuvanar and mridangam artiste in Delhi for well over two decades. "Nattuvangam is not merely reciting memorised jatis and tapping the cymbals together. You have to know all the aspects of dance. You need to know music and you have to understand the approach of each dancer. Those who are not well versed in these aspects are not qualified to call themselves nattuvanars," he says. "Yet, despite a nattuvanar having such a background, so many have come and gone down the years. They have never been recognised as graded artistes by AIR and Doordarshan."
It was Shankar's varied musical background that helped him take up his career as a popular accompanist for dancers of the Capital. "I first began learning Tevaram singing under Tirukalar Sundaram Deshikar. I must have been six when I started. I used to sing regularly at the Kapaleeshwar temple in Mylapore (Chennai). Then my mother felt I should learn mridangam, and I must have been around 10-11 when I began to learn under Kumbakonam Rajappa Iyer."
Shankar's mother, S. Thangammal, was an accomplished singer who had trained for 25 years. "But she sacrificed her career for the sake of us children," he recalls. But her interest and an accident that happened to his father, V. Sadasivam, combined to launch him on his professional journey.
"My father, a singer and nattuvanar, used to live alone in Delhi while we were based in Chennai. Once he fractured his leg and to help him out, I came here. At dance performances where he was the nattuvanar, I started accompanying on the mridangam."
Under his father's wing, Shankar had the opportunity to accompany senior dancers like Yamini Krishnamurti, Sonal Mansingh, Swapnasundari, Jamuna Krishnan and others. "The first dancer I played the mridangam for was Saroja Vaidyanathan. My first trip abroad was also with her," he recalls gratefully.
Dance and nattuvangam
Shankar, trained in his youth in nattuvangam under Tirukokaranam Kalyanasundaram Pillai of Chennai, found himself taking up his father's mantle after the latter's demise in 1990. "He had a student, Abhilasha, whom he was training in dance. When he passed away, I took over her training and conducted her arangetram. In 1994 I conducted another arangetram."
Today Shankar continues to teach dance to Delhi youngsters, besides regularly accompanying dancers.
"I have been working with Geeta Chandran for some time now, and I have just returned from a trip to Russia with Rasika Khanna." Unfazed by the spectrum of dancers and styles, he points out, "Every school is unique with valuable features."
What he does suggest is that the dancers get together and persuade the relevant agencies to establish a grade system for nattuvanars.
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