UA: Mostly, what are the kinds of poetry and poetry forms used in poetry accompanying classical Bharatanatyam? The Carnatic Trinity: Sri Syama Sastri, Sri Thyagaraja, Sri Mudduswamy Dikshitar With Bharatanatyam spilling beyond south India, poetry in many North Indian languages are also being used: Hindi (Tulsidas, Kabir), Marathi (Tukaram and other Abhang composers), Gujrati, Bengali (Rabindranath Tagore). These poets composed in a variety of south Indian languages. Other popular modern composers include Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar, Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi, Papanasam Sivan, Poochi Sreenivasa Iyengar, Ravikiran. Generally medieval Tamil and Sanskrit poetry is extensively used: Poets like Kalidasa and Adi Shankara from (1 st – 2 nd centuries), Andal and Alwars (5 th -10 th century), Kannada Dasa poets like Purandaradasa (15-17 century), Annamayya and Telugu poets( 12 th century- 20 th century), Sanskrit poets like Jayadeva (12 th century) Most modern Bharatanatyam songs are, however, derived from compositions of relatively modern composers like the Carnatic Trinity (Tyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Sama Trinity) and the Tanjore Quartet (Chinnaswamy, Ponniah, Vadivelu and Sadanandam) considered the fathers of modern Bharatanatyam. We do use Christian poems in Bharatanatyam – several poets in Kerala (including a priest) have written songs for Bharatanatyam. In modern Bharatanatyam, it is hard to use Sangam poetry (though we use some selected verses), as it is very hard to understand the ancient language. The later medieval period saw many assorted minor literary works and also contributions by a few Muslim and European authors. It is during this era that some of the grandest of Tamil literary classics like Kambaramayanam (very famous poet Kamban) and Periya Puranam (lives of the 63 saiva saints complied by Sekkizhar) were authored and many poets were patronized by the imperial Chola and Pandya empires. From the 6th to 12th century CE, the Tamil devotional poems written by Nayanmars (sages of Shaivism ) and Alvars (sages of Vaishnavism ), heralded the great Bhakti movement which later engulfed the entire Indian subcontinent. This was followed by the early epics and moral literature, authored by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist authors, lasting up to the 5th century CE. The early Sangam literature, dated before 300 BCE, contain anthologies of various poets dealing with many aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion. The history of Tamil literature follows the history of Tamil Nadu, closely following the social, political and cultural trends of various periods. Ponniyin Selvan: Magnificent Historical Drama UA: Who/What are these classical poetry forms that are foundational to the practice of Bharatanatyam? Tamizh poetry is very old, dating up to 4000 years. There has been a profusion of composers in local languages in more recent times as the support for artists moved away from the Kingly courts. In addition, poets also wrote in local languages: example Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamizh. The poets and playwrights wrote in Sanskrit in the various courts of India’s rulers. VS: Sanskrit was the preeminent literary language in India for many centuries. Can you trace the relationship between the two genres historically? UA: Bharatanatyam is performed to the accompaniment of poetry in Sanskrit and other South Indian languages. I interview Vinitha Subramanian, in what was a fabulous exploration into the connections between Indian poetry and classical dance. She has scores of arangetrams to her credit and has staged several dance dramas and thematic presentations such as Jungle Book – Seonee, Ganga- A River’s story, Nouka Charitram, Navahavarna, Roopa Viroopa, Ek, and Agasthya, just to name a few. Vinitha Subramanian, the Director of Natyalaya School of Dance in Austin, has been teaching in the Central Texas area for over 35 years.
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