Indian dance

DANCE OF INDIA: David Waterhouse - Editor; Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd., 35-C, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Marg, Tardeo, Mumbai- 400034. Rs. 550.

THE EARLIEST author to write comprehensively on the different forms of Indian dance was Enakshi (Rama Rao) Bhavnani who, in 1965, published her book The Dance in India. This unique treatise deals with the origin and history, foundations and the art and science of dances in India - classical, folk and tribal. The numerous photographs reproduced in this book are of real archival value. The next eminent writer to deal with the subject is Kapila Vatsysyan whose publication Indian Classical Dance is an equally illuminating work.

With the widely growing interest in and popularity of Indian dance, the need and search for authentic exposition became imperative and many scholars came forward to fulfil it. Seminars and Natya Kala conferences were organised not only in India but also in countries abroad and one such conference was held in far- off Toronto in Canada in 1985 entitled ``Dance of India: Culture, Philosophy and Performance.'' The book under notice contains 20 papers, most of which, but not all, were presented at the conference. The long period of gestation in publishing the contributions was due to various factors.

Nine scholars, who presented papers are Indians and the rest are from different countries but all are ardent students of Indian dance. The editor himself is the author of many books and articles on art, music and dances of India.

In the opening chapter, ``Chronology and context in the study of Indian dance'' he has given the readers a bird's-eye view of the papers with his crisp and scholarly comments. The introduction traces, in minute detail, the origin and growth of the different styles and also furnishes notes on the contributors.

The articles cover subjects which deal with the actual theory and practice of Indian dance as also highly abstruse concepts like ``Tantric dimensions of Indian classical dance''. Rosemary Jeanes Antze of Canada, who studied the court dance tradition of Bharata Natyam in Mysore, writes glowingly on Venkatalakshamma, a legendary figure in the sphere of dance in Karnataka. Although born into the Lambani community, she trained under Jetti Thayamma, the then high-priestess of dance in Mysore. As the Asthana Vidushi of the Mysore Durbar, Venkatalakshamma distinguished herself for her matchless abhinaya.

Exponents of Kathak will be pleasantly surprised to read the article on that style by Mandakrata Bose. This Sanskrit scholar and prolific writer, presently in British Columbia, has published a critical edition of the ``Nartananirnaya'' of Pundarika Vitthala which she thinks is an early textual source for Kathak. Dance lovers will be interested to know that although the colophon of this work mentions that it was written to please Akbar, Pundarika Vitthala was a Brahmin scholar, who hailed from a village called Sattanur in Karnataka. He later became the court musician of the Great Moghul. It is for the Kathak scholars to decide whether the evidence is conclusive or suggestive.

Joan Erdman of Chicago, who is presently writing a major work on the great dancer, Uday Shankar, has written about Uday Shankar's first company of Hindu dancers and musicians. One of the most versatile dance maestros of all time, Shankar passed through many vicissitudes in his early life. The uniqueness of this article is that it is based on an unpublished account of Uday Shankar's life written by his father, Pandit Shyam Shankar Chaudhury, in 1932.

Sunil Kothari, who secured a doctorate for his thesis on the dance-drama tradition of South India, has contributed an article on ``Dhruva-s and Daru-s'' which will be extremely useful to teachers and students of dance. No aspect of the subject has been left uncovered in this scholarly article.

The paper ``Chhau dance of Purulia'' by Durgadas Mukhopadhyay, will be interesting for lovers of this style. V. Subramanian (Canada) has written on ``Class and caste in Indian dance and music'' and points out that the Brahmin community was visibly dominant for centuries authoring scientific works in Sanskrit.

The other interesting articles include ``A modern psychological interpretation of Rasa and Bhava'' by Lipi Mukhopadhyay and ``The interpretation of Abhinaya'' by Rajika Puri. In the latter article, the writer has reproduced Bharatanatyam gestures in Labanotation now popular in the U.S. Anne-Marie Gaston (Canada), a veteran dancer, has written on ``Classical East Indian dance'' and its changing choreography.

The book is a collection of articles written by experts analysing the teaching and performance of Indian dance in the changing social context.

T. S. PARTHASARATHY

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