Indian dancing

BHARATA NATYAM

Bhairavi, Chakravagam, Todi Vasanta, and Sankarabaranam ragas.

3. The third item is the Sabdam. It is an interpretative dance, expressing through abbinaya, of mime, the purport of a hymn of devotion, or a romantic lyric. While the Bhakti, or devotional rasa, predominates in the Sabdam, this dance can also interpret other rasas, of sentiments.

The Sabdam concentrates on abhinaya, ot acting, and the feet play a less important part than the hands and body. The Sarasajaksulu, in which are portrayed Krishna and the gopis, and the Venuda, a hymn to the Blue God, are fine examples of the intricate but eloquent gesture Janguage of Bharata Natyam.

4. The Varnam, the longest of all the dances, is rather elaborate. In it, both wrtta, or pure dance, and abhinaya, or acting, play equal parts. Love is usually the theme of the Varnam. The dance ends in a furious tempo with quickly changing patterns of the feet and tapid thirmanams.

The Todi Varnam, the Kalyani Varnam, and the Ragamalika Varnam, ate three of the most popular varieties of the Varnam. From. these we have selected the last to illustrate this type of dance:

The dancer starts off on a slow tempo, assuming a series of poses which gradually quicken. Then come ¢hirmanams, or flourishes of the hands, getting faster and faster, and the mrtza ends, after several leaps and bends, on three pronounced beats of the feet.

Now follows the abhinaya portion of the Varnam. The acting dramatizes a single theme, but in various ways, according to what is known as the sanchari bhava. Fot example, the singer chants: ‘Why dost thou slumber, O Lord of the City of Sri Ranga?’ The dancer seeks to interpret the refrain in different ways through the language of mime, lending it colour and sweetness, thus: (a) ‘Why dost Thou slumber in Thy Yogasayana on a bed of Durba grass, O Beautiful One who takest of the ten avatars?’ Or (b) ‘Why dost Thou slumber on Thy bed of a banyan leaf, O Lord who, as Vamana, measured the universe in three paces?’ Or (c) ‘Why, on the thousand-hooded serpent, sleepest Thou, O wearer of the conch and the disc?”

This variation of the samcari, or sanchari bhava, lends warmth to the entire Varnam. The abbinaya, though intricate, at least to the

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