Indian dancing

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF INDIAN DANCING

Till recently the South Indian Bharata Natyam had been confined to women only, chiefly devadasis, or female temple dancers. These women ate the counterparts of the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome. Like the latter, their lives were originally meant to be dedicated to the gods, but also like the latter their cult degenerated into harlotry.

In recent times male dancers have challenged the monopoly of women in the field of Bharata Natyam. This is as it should be, for we have already seen that the dance art in legend was a blend of tandav and /asya, vigorous and soft movements.

There was one other part of India that was, at first, spared the Moghul heel. This was Bengal. Here, the Benisauhar and Prasanna Raghab, both natya treatises, were composed just as the conqueror was knocking on the door. But even after the last Hindu ruler of the province had surrendered to the Moghuls, Bengal remained a storehouse of Indian art. Its poets, Vidyapati, Chandidas, and others, kept the flame of Hindu culture burning steadily. Song and dance reached their zenith in the days of Chaitanya, known as the Dancing Saint.

With the advent of the British, dancing, among other arts, suffered a temporary eclipse in the big cities and towns. Alien culture was thrust upon our people to the detriment of our own arts. But in Bengal the poet Tagore kept alive the ancient traditions of att in Shantiniketan, the Abode of Peace, where guru and chela, master and pupil, drew knowledge from the same fount. In the temote south, in Tanjore and Malabar, amongst the villagers, Bharata Natyam, and Kathakali, the traditional and vigorous dancedrama of Malabar, continued to be practised. The impact of foreign culture often temporarily submerged our arts yet never completely effaced them.

Thus Indian dancing has survived the changing times, centuty after century. Having its birth in religion, it continues to stir and exalt the spirit. Irrespective of the varied forms it may assume, it will remain, for all time, an expression of Indian religious fervour.