Indian dancing

INDIAN DANCING

uninitiated, is soothing after the cataract-like movements immediately preceding it.

The songs of Thayagaraja, Jayadev, Kshetrajna, and Arunacalakavi lend themselves well to this mode of interpretation. Songs expressed in mime are known as padams.

5. Finally, we come to the fifth and last number on the programme — the Thil//ana. This is, strictly speaking, a foreign element that has crept into Bharata Natyam. It is derived from the ragas of North Indian ustads, or composet-teachers, and has existed in its ptesent form for only a century. Finding these T/i//anas most pleasing, the nattwvans wove them into the existing South Indian dance fabric.

In the Thi/lana we again have pute mrtia in different fa/as. The variety known as Chr/akottu is usually danced to the adi tal, ot eight-beat rhythm, while that known as Kaskalakotiu follows double timing or four times the regular beat. The dance is set to one of several ragas including the Sankarabatanam, the Kafi, the Todi, and the Kannada. :

A Sanskrit verse picturesquely describes the Thi/lana Adi Tal depicting a dance of Krishna: ‘Krishna the Blue God dances in all varieties of moods and steps. His head sways, his eyebrows move and pose in all the arts of a clever dancer. The motion of his waist makes the girdle sing and the anklets jingle. One fancies that one is listening to the sweet voice of a pair of geese, as they nestle in dalliance. The bangles glitter and the rings shoot their shining rays. When with passion he moves his arms, with what grace the movements blend! Now he dances with the gait of girls and now in a manner of his own. The Lord of Love is the jewel of the passionate and he builds his dance in the depths of ecstasy.’

MUSIC, COSTUME, AND MAKE-UP The chief musical instruments in Bharata Natyam ate the mridangam and a pait of cymbals. The védwan sets the refrain, which is repeated by the chorus, if any. The cymbals provide the timing, while the mridangam supplies fractional measutes of the broad beats. The dancet follows the mridangam and cymbals. A tambura is often incor-

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