Reflecting at THE ATTIC

Almost twenty days past the 19th of March. The day FROM THE ATTIC performance series got premiered. After all the buzz, hectic hours of work, endless phone calls, piles of paperwork and sleeplessness, there is a certain quiteous that has returned to my everyday life. Much has changed forever though after the March mid week. I have made many friends and some foes. Many many have come forward to appreciate my work. People I respect, shared the evening with me, spent time understanding my thoughts and showed respect to my work. An evening that in many ways introduced my pre -occupations to the world. I am being asked to speak, share my work at various forums and Attic has managed to interest everyone in history, art and performance.

As I return to a normal pace of everyday routine of work, classes, writing, my reading and the stillness of my life, I am reflecting. What is the one thing that stands great people apart. My Gurus, Sarasama, the Tiruvazaputhur Kalyani Grand daughters, TSP mama, TNR Sir, Ramachandran Sir, Raghu mama and the many others. The women dance gurus of mine, may not be women of letters but were/are certainly not illiterate. I recognize literacy as a quality that nurtures equanimity, a sense of neutrality and personal integrity.

Life to these women has not been too fair. Actually, life is not fair to anyone but it is how we face that adversity that makes us the people we are. I found my teacher Sarasama's  ability to talk with ease and humor always very fascinating. She would hardly speak about her personal life. She was always surrounded by her students. She found a good quality (albeit funny) in everyone and appreciated them for it. Her humor was in many ways her shield from the harsh realities of life.
Jeeva teacher too is a bundle of joy and fun. Their endless childish bickering and arguments would have me in splits. TSP mama managed through the years on his wheelchair with his gregarious sense of humor and jokes. TNR's one liners are my staples, while Ramachandran sir (a man one would consider to be more serious) would break into an unexpected joke or impression, much to our delight. As far ad Raghu Mama is concerned, I would sing in between peels of laughter.

The core of their art (all of theirs) is couched in a simple innocence. Even while the world burdens them with layers of misnomers, criticisms and betrayals, it is the sheer strength of their personal integrity that stands them high.

Their strength also is "உற்றது சிந்திக்கும் உணர்”. Their knowledge of people and the world was/ is not  "paasagyanam" but a deeply intense “patigyanam". They seem to interact with people and the world with the intense philosophy of "மேவாமல் மேவுதல்” that is to work the ways of life without letting it affect their deeply held personal value.

I am stunned into silence when I reflect upon these. The merit of a teacher's integrity upholds their ability to for ever create an impression of unattainable purity both of their art as well as their heart, in the minds of their pupils.

I am indeed a very fortunate disciple of such gurus of great merit. If you too are, believe me when I say, their breed are a rarity and you can feel quite chosen.

Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh
Reflecting at the ATTIC (a reflection of my Gurus's shining integrity)

Venkatamakhi, my musical mentor at THE ATTIC

The search for a  lost dance form or repertoire means it is a holistic search for its historical context, the narratives, voices etc. Putting each piece of this jig saw will reveal a better picture. Its a very exciting process but one that needs patience and perseverance.

Any research work unless with un disputable evidence is an intellectual guess. It has to ofcourse have  a methodology and a studied approach. During my work in trying to reconstruct some of the lost dance forms, I had (have) many many challenging moments. One of the most important aspects of the dance reconstruct was the identification and placement of the musical form and structure.

With the music in place, 70% of the dance would be done, i knew. But that wasn't as easy. The periods I was working on was the Nayak period. The 16th, 17th centuries. Now in the history of Indian music there are many systems that have been used from time immemorial. Bharata talks of an important system called the Sankirna Jati which is very similar to the paalai system that has been elaborated in the Sangam and later sangam texts and was in vogue clearly in the Tamil country. Incidentally Mahendra Varma Pallava had the title "Sankirna jati Mahendra Varma". This must mean that he was adapt in this system of music. According to me, the deciphering of the most important musical epigraph at Kudimiyanmalai (Pudukottai district) has to be done with the help of this system elaborated in the Natya sastra, although someone like Weidess has done phenomenal work on the inscription already. With much respect to him and his contribution this will throw a clearly light.

Coming back to my work, the challenge in understanding one important aspect of music which is the raga system (scale) was its contemporary evolution into the clearer 72 mela system and its earlier more lucid form that led to Venkhatamakhi's  seminal work called Caturdandi prakashika.

Dandi means stick or a holder. In this case he speaks of the four (catur) directional forms in music that are primary and significant of his times. They are Aaalaapa, Thaaya, Gita and Prabandha.
Aaalapa  as the name suggests is a rendition of the scale in akaaram. There are several sections in an aalaapam like the ayittam, eduppu, mukthaya etc.
Then is the thaayam which is very similar or the precursor to what is sung as Tanam today. It is set in talam and has to use the " ta nam ta ta nam ta" syllables.
Gita is the poetic section where there is a specified tala to the poem and it uses many varieties of lyrical meters and talas. Example is a gita in Jhumpada tala
Then comes prabhanda which is also a lyrical section. It has a lucid poetic free form. Its sections include the Suladi  etc and has a structure of a composition like varying tempos of vilamba, madhyama (slow, medium) etc.

If I had to reconstruct the dances the music had to reflect the sensibilities of this system and its early and later forms as this alone will allow me to see the shape and form of the movements in the dance. A detailed study of Caturdanti Prakashika allowed me to comprehend its similarities with its earlier counter parts like Sangita ratnakara, Sangita Kalanidhi etc, its contemporary works like Sangita Sudha and later works like Raga Lakshanam of Shahaji.

The division of ragams into desi (regional) and margi (pan national) is quite different from the Janani and Janya raga system. Many of the ragas we assume as suddha or rakti (mainstream) ragas now were grouped under the Desi or regional varieties.
Then the prayogams and raga lakshanam vary vastly from what we have imbibed today in our karnatic music concert singing format.
Someone like Venkatamakhi who is considered the landmark of the present system of music we follow was assimilating from many of his earlier sources. Which meant, I had to see those as well. For example for the reconstruction of a particular dance music, I had to seek the tribal lineage of Maharastrian medieval folk traditional music to correlate to the text and its descriptions of the music and dance.

I gave grief no end to the musical stalwarts who agreed to work with me by dumping on them large portions of information on what was done, how, what was allowed, what not etc. All this, many a times am sure left them wondering what they had agreed to from a crazy person like me. But their genius and comprehension of the importance of what I was seeking, combined with divine grace, gave me music that will transport both a connoisseur of karnatic music and a commoner alike in a time capsule to the bygone eras when music was free flowing and far from the present day concert (music and dance) format. It will reflect the complexities of the historic periods, the political assimilations and spiritual intercourse in all its glory!

R.Nithya and R.Vidya (very talented singers who are also my dear friends)  worked very hard at learning the various genres from these composers and accepting all my crazy research reflections, they know and feel the value of what musically awaits us at THE ATTIC.

Many times, I indulge in the feeling that Venkatamakhi is watching over us. He is perhaps...
Join us at FROM THE ATTIC to feel the magic.

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Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh
Venkatamakhi, my musically mentor at  THE ATTIC

GYANAM (?!?) A Funny SIVAGYANAM at THE ATTIC

This is an experience I must share with my friends, readers, aspiring researchers and everyone. During my doctoral work one of the most important places of work for me was the Saraswati Mahal library, tanjavur. I still go there at least once in two months for all my continued work. It is a haven     for researchers. However, I always warn my friends and students that it's a place for precious primary sources and hence will be a tedious process. One must be familiar with the very elaborate cataloguing systems first. Learning to read through a catalogue is an art in itself. The TSSML has over 32000 manuscripts. That's right! The various subjects are catalogued and divided into languages, sections, type of manuscript, volumes etc. And then, there is the old catalogue and the newer eons that are in tandem with the GOML ( government oriental manuscript library) etc. So, if one needs to refer any work, they have to know where exactly it is, it's catalogue number etc to begin with. Then there is the issue of finding the right person to help you approach the section. I was lucky in the sense that as my initial work was a methodic understanding of my primary sources, the TSSML realised quite early that I was there as a serious scholar. I had to pour over several manuscript versions of even some published treatises in order to read the original of a reinterpretation, or the colophon.

Here is where my story begins. As I had written in one of my earlier blogs, TSSML became a home
away from home for me for over six years. Half a month there, every month meant I knew everyone by face and name. I would go in the morning at 9am and work till 5.30 when the clerk would ever so politely neck me out, only to return the next day. Many visitors to the gallery either presumed I had taken  permanent employment with  TSSML ir that there was a shooting going on there,

While everyone was always eager to find an opportunity to talk to me or converse with me, all I
wanted was to be left in peace as I wanted to work, un disturbed. But I could never avoid an occasional hi, an enquiry about my next film, the experience of having stood next to prabhudeva or something like that. I would usually give a very annotated answer and quickly return to the business
at hand. Thankfully, the pundits at TSSML were awesome, helpful and knew the gravity of my work and would give me the needed space.

While I began to believe all was going just fine as for my reference and notes taking at TSSML was
concerned, God decided to play a trick on me. Well that's the best reasonI can come up with for what am about to explain. All my references I would usually write down in a notebook, date wise. But
when I discovered an un copied, unnoticed most valuable Telugu manuscript of the dance repertoire  that I was searching for, I was elated! Overwhelmed, I ran to Big temple that evening, sat in a corner and studied the colophon that I had copied down and read it a hundred times. I was stunned at what
destiny had dropped on my lap!  The most treasured document that was the key to unlock my quest to  find all the preciousness that I later found at THE ATTIC.

The next day, I sat at my desk at TSSML and realised that it was a large manuscript and I was going
to need every page of it. Therefore a Notes taking wouldn't help. I wanted to microfilm the  manuscript and take a copy so that I can append it as pat of my work and will be useful for dance historians in the future, I thought. TSSML being a government library, has the posting of an AO (administrative  officer). I had to submit to him a request letter asking for the micro filming. The Telugu pandit who was helping me told me that it would be best if I spoke to the AO and handed over the letter In person for speedy process. I remember vividly the first day I walked up to his desk. A stalky, dark man, in white and white pants and shirt, chewing paan he gave me a toothy smile (laugh, gurgle if you may) at and said "Good afternoon maadaaam ! Pluleesh sit down" the Telugu pandit who came along and was sitting beside me for courtesy was a very clever man, he excused himself and slipped away. I, being the protagonist of this whole story, of course had to sit through from lunch break till the day's bell rang at 5 announcing the closure of the library. From that day on, everyday I would make a special morning prayer to Brihadeeswara that I should escape the sight of this AO,  lest my day would be spent at his desk answering questions that he would torrent at me. The torture of the experience is truly inexplicable but I am here going to give you a sample of a few question and answers. I urge you to imagine this with a generous interspersing of hearty, loud laughter ( something like heeeheeeeheee), completely tamizhaised English, a need to speak ONLY in English no matter how torturously hideous the grammar is,  constant shaking of the legs, cups of lukewarm tea and mosquito bites.

AO: maaadaaam, good morning. What, research aaa? Sit down sot down. So, what is this Mozhi
movie story all about?
Me: ( looking at my watch) hmmm what do u mean story sir, please watch the film.
AO: oh hoo!  I have no times to wa(r)tch all this movies and all. Tell me maaadaaam, how was you
working with Maniratnam ?
Me: it was good. So when will I get my requests for micro film approved sir?
AO: it's ok maaadaaam. What salary film stars get? I heard vijay gettings five crores. Ish it true aaa?!!!!!

Me: don't know sir. U have to ask vijay that.
AO: heheheheeh so how much do you get madam? At least say me that noooo!!!

Me: smiling and sipping the damn tea
AO: two years ago I arrange one dance program in Hyderabad, their dance super madam.

Me: ( relief that he is back to a subject) oh really! Whose dance sir?
AO: don't know name and all but they do spitting and all on stage and dance, very nice maaadaaam.

Me: spitting !!!
AO: yes yes bharadanatyam boring for me...but  madam this is like that korattti dance nooo....like that and all...

Me: sir,.. My request
AO: of course madam tomorw itself I will try and do it.


2009,2010,2011 and 2012 came and went with hundreds of such dreadful encounters but the
microfilm request approval never  did. May be it was that AO's ticket to stall me and have inane chatters, maybe it was his way of showing me that no matter if I was a known face, he was in power there. I would have submitted atleast seven request letters in those years. But not without spending
hours hand coping the manuscript. By the beginning of 2012, I had fully hand written the entire palm leaf manuscript by myself. No more micro film needed. I appended my own hand written copy along with my doctoral work.

Thanks to AO sivagyanam (yes, that was his name) I was able to hand write and therefore thoroughly assimilate every word of the valuable manuscript that I had discovered as my most important source.

Thank to sivagyanam, when I look back today I realise he was the much needed comic interlude amidst long, tedious hours of pouring over palm leaves and paper treatises( even without lunch
breaks).
So, researchers who visit MSS libraries must be prepared not only with catalogue sieving skills but also for the onslaught of sivagyanam -s.

God bless him and good news, he is no more the AO at TSSML. See I told you, God was playing a trick on me. It is truly SIVA GYANAM!



Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh
Gyanam at THE ATTIC
www.fromtheattic.in

Staring into the depth of the faces at the Attic

In South India one cannot ever talk of sculptures or paintings without speaking of the Cholas! They are the holy grail of South Indian fine arts. No doubt. But often we will hear modern scholars eulogize chola art by comparing them to the later works of art like that of the Nayaks or Marattas. The truth is Chola art is incomparable. Which not only means they are extremely fine and beautiful but also that arts of other periods can't be looked at from the same prism. 

The one thing I have often heard about Nayak art is how it has very garish colors and disproportionate structuring. While I am not a fine art student, I would always think there is more to the understanding of these paintings than just calling them poor cousins of their Chola counterparts etc. The Nayaks ruled the South of India for over a 150 years. They have left an identifiable mark in temple renovation, construction and specially frescoes. One look at the bright colors, large figures and the strokes one will be able to say they are "Nayak" frescoes. Therefore they must have had a method and an idealogy. 

The art of painting during the Cholas period was highly evolved. They had a great sense of proportion, symmetry, color and aesthetics. If the Nayaks painted over them on the inner walls of the Tanjore Big temple, they surely noticed these and yet had a reason to do what they did. So, an artiste/ painter who saw such marvellous works didn't paint over them to spoil the originals. If that was their mindset, one of destruction or discontinuation of past glory and tradition they would have done many changes to the structure of the temple in a more obvious way and place. Instead they only added pieces of structures to  accentuate the original's awe. 
So then what drove them to draw over? 

To answer this I kept looking at the paintings of the Nayaks. As if a deep, penetrating stare will give me the answers. When you do stare at them, the way I did, you will find the characters almost staring back at you. In the art of painting there is a technique called caricaturing. The modern understanding of caricature is that they are exaggerated for an element of humor. But the elemental quality of caricature is to evoke a life like portrait image using simplistic or exaggerated ways. With larger eyes and mouths, louder colors and motifs and out of proportion images the Nayaks perhaps were trying to say something? A caricature always is to convey. It was for the immediate audiences and consumption. It was a socio-political statement. It is a next step in evolution of painting technique were the characters even when not real, were portraits of humans of their times. Even the images of Gods and Goddesses perhaps drawn with a striking resemblance to human beings. 

This would also explain the use of natural characteristics in actual sizes like the big nose, eyes, stalky hands, legs etc. Portrayal of acquired characteristics like finer lines, a paunch (that is reflected in the Nayak sculpture at madurai temple of the King himself in middle age. See my earlier blog for this reference). And the depiction of real colors, costumes, textures, hair styles, moustaches, beards etc reveal their evolution into depicting real people on their paintings. This was a few steps before the picture portrait era and a few more steps before the photograph era. Every Nayak painting was a  a weighty portrait. It was to convey to the people of the immediate context about important people, characters, features around them. Hence they needed the spaces that were in use in the temples etc. And therefore perhaps the painting over the Cholas at Tanjore temple with  the exaggerated features and proportions perhaps. 

The other important aspect is  the thicker lines or outer sketches that are starkly different to the other finer Ajanta or Cholas paintings. The pen as a brush or stylus for lines was adapted from the persian term "kalam". This concept of an inked pen to draw outlines filled with colors was employed from a persian influence both on cloth and walls. Just like painting on wet walls or damp walls was the fresco style of the Cholas, the Nayaks perhaps had the pen stylus painting. It was called "Kalamkaari" and was greatly patronized by the Vijayanagara Kings and therefore adapted by their feudatories, the Nayaks.  You will be surprised to know that Achuytappa Nayaka gave away villages near Tanjore to Kalamkari artistes as he realised the water (cauvery) in that rock bed had natural Alum (color fixing agent) in the water!! Kalamkari was traditionally used to also say/ convey stories, legends and myth.

Maybe the Nayaks who made these exaggerated frescoes had many stories and incidents to depict through their paintings (mythological and contemporary). The fact that these caricature like paintings may have been drawn with life like closeness and resemblance to actual people means, we are holding an entire visual documentation (like modern photos) into an era that we believe had not actually evolved to that stage. Their paintings of dancers and musicians means we are staring into the actual faces of our predecessors perhaps. WOW! 

This revelation allows me to take a closer look. And what do I see into the depths of those big eyes, fluttering pallus, bright fans, big maustaches and long breads....that's what you will find out at FROM THE ATTIC

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Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh
Staring into the depth of the faces at the Attic

Covenant with the Attic

He was the most illustrious of his dynasty. The moment we hear his name our minds will wander to the temple city of the South- Madurai 

He ruled from Madurai between 1623-59. This mighty king was not just a great ruler but also a very keen connoisseur of the various arts. It was in his court that the legendary Nilakanda Dikshita, nephew of the celebrated advaitin, Sri Appaiyya Dikshita was. He was also patron to Sri Kumara Gurupara Swamigal who wrote the beautiful Maduraikalambakam describing the various lilas (acts of playful deliverance) of Lord Sundareshwara, the presiding deity of Madurai.

According to the traveler's accounts of Taylor in the Oriental Historical Manuscripts "He was seated on a the beautiful gem studded throne placed at the natakashala where he would spend his evenings watching dancers sing, dance and perform the various dances in the light that glows from the torches that would illuminate the room"

He was a great patron to Tamil scholars, painters and sculptures. Speaking of sculptures, did you know that there are several sculptures of this famous King in the Madurai temple which depict him as a young lad (as a Prince), a youthful king in his prime and then also as a middle aged man (with a paunch) and a beard! 

When you walk around the Aarukaal Pitham  of the Minakshi amman temple at Madurai do not forget to see Him standing majestically with his reigning Queens in tow!!!

When I was shooting for a production of Mr.Bharathiraja called "tekkatti ponnu" I was travelling every month for several days to Madurai, Dindugal and Theni. To me that was God sent time to spend with my "heroes" I would wander around these palaces and temples for hours in between my shoots, staring at each of the stones, sculptures and paintings. In my research, when ever I would have doubts, pauses in thought process, a hiatus, I would go back to stare at these faces, places and take a waft of the atmosphere in...and there I would somehow find an answer, a solution, some what like a covenant between them and me! Will tell you more in detail

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Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh

Covenant with the Attic

Tekkatti Ponnu stealing her moments with her
heroes

Nataka shala- covenant 

The Tales of From the attic- Fascinated with the fingers that sing!

This  blog is inspired by another blog written by the renowned Danseuse and scholar Lakshmi Viswanathan ji as part of her column "seen and heard" in Narthaki.com ( see below for the link to her blog). Her article is titled "hasta mudra".

The concept of using finger signs for communication is age old. Man, from his most primitive times must have identified this as a very effective method to communicate with the world. I distinctly remember my teacher, S.Ramachandran sir teaching me on the first day of my chola tamil epigraphy class some of the symbols that were used by early man before he created the first Brahmi letter.

He was a trader and was importing/exporting cows and products of a cow. In Aramaic a cow is called Aalif. To denote a cow he created a symbol that had two "U" inverted towards each other. The upper U denoting the horns and the lower U denoting the body of a cow. I was so fascinated by this. It was from this symbol that the Brahmi "A" and later the Nagari "A" developed. The term Aalif lending it's first phonetic Aa. It is this very same concept we hold even today in dance while showing a cow. The simhamukha mudra ( middle and ring finger showing the body, index and little finger the horns).

As a dancer, even as a child, I was taught to think of everything as gestures. All my thoughts had to be communicated without words, just as effectively. After a bit of training, this starts coming naturally to most dancers. We begin to use our hands and eyes to speak. In fact they speak sooner than our words, most often. Simple words like go, come, sit, me, you etc start getting complex layering through what I call as intonation or dhvani. Now, one may wonder what intonation can gestures have, after all intonation is associated with words. But, it does. What kind of a go, whom are
 you asking to come, when are you asking them to come, are you ordering that they sit, or
are you begging them to sit down a moment, are u addressing yourself arrogantly, pitiably, sweetly,
sensuously, is the person your addressing a man, woman, man who is your lover, secret lover,
husband, human husband, God-husband, friend, your mother so on and so forth lend this complexity
of intonation to the gestures. The more experience one gains, they will be able to differentiate and delineate these subtle changes through simple gestures. The brilliance of dance gestures are that, apart from the ones that are used for decorative purposes (Nritta or pure dance) gestures, we use mostly gestures that are drawn from everyday life for abhinaya. illangoadigal in silappadikaram calls them ezil (beautiful) Kai (gestures) and tozil (meaningful or used in depiction) Kai. It is the appropriateness of the gesture for the particular emotion combined with the artistic flourish with which a dancer uses them that makes it look exotic and dance-like. This beautification is also perhaps why we often hear commoners say that they can't seem to understand the gestures and what we are communicating with it. I think, if the gestures are not merely done with flourish or simply reproduced as taught but are done with the appropriate intonation, it will surely communicate itself without
explanation to even a novice.

Having said that, I must write about what Lakshmi ji has raised and spoken about in her blog. The
importance of dancers holding the mudras clearly. Using proper, well held mudras is considered
almost unfashionable and un-senior like by many dancers off late. Infact, in the name of abhinaya exclusives several have dispensed with well held out gestures and resort to loosely held hands in positions of easy ( hardly any difference between a pataka saying come/go, to a say a Chatura which can mean little or konjam in tamil) or folded/cupped together near the navel. It is wonderful to read a lovely blog on the importance of hasta mudras in dance (BN), a need of the hour. I say so because, abhinaya is not merely mukhaja (facial) alone. Neither is it just Angika ( body) alone. Resorting to too much of eyes alone or just a lot of body language while simply not using hands or minimal usage of hands is a new trend.

I wish to recall a performance of this same senior dancer (Lakshmi Viswanathan ji) at The MusicAcademy well over a decade ago. I was there as a mere teenager in the audience. She presented a Kshetrayya padam. It was about the devotee being witness to the Goddess, walking
back to her apartments in the wee hours of the morning after a night long union with The Lord at His
bed chamber. She was tired, she was weak in the knees, she wore a crumpled saree, disheveled hair
and needed the help of her sakis to walk back. I remember all this, not from the descriptions that were announced but from the gestures of the dancer. She did use her body language, her facial expressions
and move languidly across the stage. But, it was the subtle gestures that captured the essence of this most erotic poem that lent it beauty and piety,  all at once. The rati mudras she used, the mudras for Union, for kissing, for making love, for heavy eyelids, the heavy breasts of the heroine that made her walk slowly, underscored the erotic so gracefully yet allowing no room for unwanted overdoing that could have easily led to vulgarity.

The on going debate as to whether erotic padams/javalis etc are approtriate for concert stage, respectable audiences, can they be taught to young girls etc can be effectively addressed with proper understanding of the significance of hastas in the delineation of such compositions. Many modern Dancers do away with much of the traditionally used mudras and adopt body movements to express the erotic sentiments for example: some twirls instead of say an alapadma that can be rounded above the head to show the same intoxication in love.They also use strategic lighting to heighten the effect. They add more intimate details (not thought through gestures) in the name of sancharis with long drawn pre-story and after story which go often beyond the purview of the actual poem at hand, addt to this the word for word English explanation- we have successfully effected a culture shock in some, distaste in some others of the audience. They are are all torn between judmental gander, appreciation for the portrayal and  admission to mild tickling of the senses.

Using strong mudras Was the technique that the devadasis used in their  abhinayam.  a very strong set of mudras, hasta that represented all poetry, including the most erotic of sentiments. They never did away with it. Even while they sang, they have held their mudras perfectly. what makes for good abhinayam is not these mudras alone. It is the aforesaid intonation that the dancer lends to each hasta that will allow the fingers to speak a language that everyone can understand. Her eyes, body etc are only aiding this process. A very good textual example of what am saying can be seen in the documentation of the hastas for padams done by some devadasis in a work titled abhinaya navaneetam. This documentstion is a mere capture of what can be apparently noted but in performance these mudras, along with music would transform into real emotions at the deft hands of each of the dasi, each time !

The contrary of lack of clear mudras is also a dangerous trend. Over rigidity in the name of
perfection, cleansing of the system without any space for the the body and mind to speak is an over simplificatio of this very complex, intelligent system of communication. Some institutions and schools do tend to do that as they are learning by the book and hence are devoted to the system.

When K.P.Kittapa Pillai restructed the navasandhi kautuvams, he has used simple Adavus (movements) and hasta to denote esoteric dances like the kamala nrittam, urdhva nrittam. Simple as they are, deviating from the treatises and sculptures that elaborate on the various karanas (
units of dance ) involving the entire use of the limbs, these Adavus and the kamala mudra (lotus)
hand gestures etc do effectively communicate the dance form of that particular deity symbolically, albeit as a eulogy.

Recently in one of my lectures, someone asked me about the performance of Ajapa Natanam. It is
such an esoteric dance concept that is cosmic in nature and so sukshma that a sthula representation of
it, using music, movement etc would be an enthusiastic attempt but never in its entirety. I have several times enjoyed portraying this Ajapa Natanam in my Varnam (mohamana en meedil) as my imagination of Tygaraja dancing on the chest of Narayana upon his Pranan of inhalation and exhalation. But after a few minutes of this portrayal, I would come back to the gesticulation of dancing as it would render a completion to my thought process.
I also distinctly remember what Nandhini Ramani ji said about the padams of Balamma. She said, while Balamma improvised every time, she did have clear mudras for each line that she performed and taught. It was again the intonation that perhaps gave it it's depth every time and that's what made each performance of the same composition unique.

Dancers are taught to speak through our hands. Lakshmi ji ' s understanding of the importance of hastas has made her talk to us about it. It is imperative to assimilate the importance of hasta abhinaya
 and hasta dhvani (my coinage) before we loose a little more of it to trends and fads. I second her.

The Italians are known to be by nature highly articulate with their gestures. They are loud in their hand movements and therefore theatrical. We dancers, are better Italians! we sing poems with our fingers! If we speak it with clarity, conviction and commitment, all of us can hear it and enjoy it!

thanks to Lakshmi ji for mooting this inspiration to share my thoughts about hastas through her writings.

Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh
Fascinated with the fingers that sing!

This the link to Lakshmi Viswanathan ji's blog
http://narthaki.com/info/sh/sh6.html

From the Attic- Warned but not badgered by the cracks in the ladder!

Fifteen minutes after I was born, my father knocked on the doors of Pandit Sethuraman, renowned numerologist and astrologer. He recorded my birth chart and wrote at the bottom of the page that I will attain fame and name and it will be very hard to protect me" and then named me Swarnamalya (as a name sake after my mother's favourite attai, Swarnambal). 

Swarnambal was beautiful, strong woman force in our family. She was many things to many people. She was a child who had undergone child marriage and widowhood, a teenager who had to be mother-like figure to her younger siblings, a befuddled twenty-something whose beauty and strength were her enemies, the woman who bolted away with a man who showed her a way to a second lease of life and therefore devalued by her own kin who of course didn't hesitate to take her support for their life and living. Sometimes despondent, sometimes blissful, but at all times austere, controlled and unblemished and very very strong woman (voice)- this was her.

Combination of my stars and the soul of Swarnambal perhaps, I seem to have inherited the spunk for contentions, thankfully with the strength and neatness from her too.

 My neighbour Kausalya Akka (student of Chitra Visveswaran) was a constant presence in my childhood life and my memory holds vividly, the feeling of my baby hands holding her dance arangetram brochures, imagining the pictures to be me. I wanted the costumes, the jewels, the make up and the glamour, and I was encouraged.  Bharatanatyam had come a very long way by then. Socially it was not sacrilegious to want to become a dancer anymore. I was a free, young woman to choose what I wanted to become. Our society had come of age!

As a child or teenager or even later in all my dancing years,  I have never heard my  Guru, K.J.Sarasa (who belonged to the nagaswaram, nattuvanar family of Karaikal Sri Jagadeesan Pillai) make any proud mention of her lineage etc. She was a very strong woman (see my blog on my guru to know more about her). She gained a lot of voice within the sorority of dance as well as the society at large. Even then, she seldom spoke of her ancestry, barring the ambiguous mention of her lineage to the dancers in the court of Raja Raja in the arangetram brochures of her disciples. A couple of stray interviews about her childhood and early years do mention some facts but they all quickly focus on the economic constraints she faced, her learning under Vazuvoorar and her move to migrate to Chennai. I have personally tried speaking to her about her lineage but was shot down very quickly by her. It seems she had unflattering memories, economic limitations and other social debases that she was only willing to let die with her. She didn't want it any other way and I didn't probe. 

To Madras, she was a new age Bharatanatyam guru who had a stamp of approval from the turnpikes of  tradition (vazuvoor). In her own words. her Guru had blessed her to become a nattuvanar (dance teacher) for what she lacked in beauty and glamour of Baby Kamala and others she gained in her lilting voice, strong layagyana and dynamism. Thus the daughter of Karaikal Jagadeesan Pillai became, Guru K.J.Sarasa. Even as a teenager learning dance in her class, I have observed how she would curve ball the various social forums that held the new-age Bharatanatyam's locus and social concurrence. She was a young woman, willing to build on a new, cosmopolitan distinctiveness to her personality. As a brilliant guru who was training phenomenal young girls into groomed classical dancers (Ratna Papa, Jayalalitha, Padma Subrahmanyam and many others) she was Ramaiyya Pillai's protege (he himself carving a niche in cinema and public life through his choreography for Kamala and others),  was a resident of Madras (Mandaveli) and therefore an accepted entity into the urbanite. 

For decades that followed even until after her demise, her laurels are always traced back to her training years, her certitude as a matriarch in leading her band of sisters, her glowing student body and social recognition for all the above in the form of awards and honours. Her immediate ancestry had been buried and done so, willingly by her. 

This willingness of hers to loose her ancestral identity could be seen when I observe her life and career graph. She would speak the urban language (Tamil of course) that reflected her "modern" adaptations. She learnt to sign her name in English and would do so with great pride. Open to choreographing for new age compositions and making way for any au -courant trends in Bharatanatyam, she was an accepted traditional practitioner cut and sewn successfully into the fabric of modernist Madras. She didn't rebel or resist change. Not only did she go with the flow but also was in some ways a forefront example of how such an operation could be done. She so successfully turned the tables of gender, race and ancestry, the same evils that buried several of her sisters (from the fraternity) so consummately towards her. She is hailed as a "Nattuvanar", one of the first females to wield the cymbals for dance in a very strong male domain of Nattuvanar parampara.

It is interesting to see the relationships and reactions of her male counterparts like Swamimalai Rajaratnam Pillai, Dandayudapani Pillai and others who were her seniors, her brothers (related and she addressed them as "anna") who became her colleagues and contemporaries at work. 

Almost always she ran the race with this newly built identity. Rarely I have witnessed the enfeebled ancestry in terms of discussions, down the memory lanes, attitudes or actual family members, only to be very quickly nipped and tucked and trimmed at the edges to fit in. Her participation in this post colonial social operation also extended to her being sometimes a part of controvert movements against any social constructs that she was so carefully demolishing. That which she belonged to and had let go but that, some other sisters of hers hadn't. 

As a student of Tiruvazaputtur Kalyani grand daughters too, under whom I trained later to quench my thirst for more on the Devadasi dances, repertoires and thereby life and norms, I got to see a very similar phenomenon in them too. When I met them the first time, they addressed themselves as family of Wodeyar's.  Even though I had gone to them for learning the art which was an identity only relatable to their matriarchal lineage, i.e; Kalyani ammal and her daughters the Kalyani daughters, they insisted I understand and think of them as family of Wodeyars.

These are all very important social and personal revisions that many many women from the hereditary communities for dance made, post the 1947 Devadasi Abolition Act.  How many of these personal transmutations were successful and how many of them willingly participated in this process, forms the various biographies of these women and their community at large. Its a very complex social order that is nonpareil and therefore challenging. It has issues of gender, caste, colour, religion, social sanctions, methods, western and foreign movements, politics of various parties in the Indian soil, policies and views of colonial sovereigns, feudal and capitalistic concerns and finally personal choices.

It is extremely significant to react to all this through studied approaches. No amounts of high strung emotions or simpleton views in black or white based only on some racial or political illiberality will help. 

From the time I was a toddler, through the times of being an obsessed teenager and in my later years I have been engaged in these thoughts on dance both at a practical level and for the last decade on an academic level too. I ask, I seek and I reflect. It is what my gene has given me. What perspectives I have gained through earned academic degrees, long years of practical learning and interactions, steadfast gathering of facts and preparedness for public deliberations of all this cannot be outcry-ed with simple hysteric intolerance. This country is not the place for that. 

We will revisit our past at all times,  for that' s the way we shall calibrate to our future. We need policies, social understands, cultural curation and political insights. We cannot hole ourselves up. That is not going to happen. We are not willing to loose our identities and stay muted, are we? 

 I am Sarasama's pupil and Swarnambal's blood, a combination that put me in ascendance and authority to write and speak. That I will more and more. 

I answer all the various social and anthropological questions I have raised in this blog and more in my forthcoming book on the Devadasis. There have been voices before and there will be more. I am one among them. I speak with social and academic warrant. 

Await the book...

Dr.Swarnamalya Ganesh
Warned but not badgered by the cracks in the ladder!

                                            My Parama Gurus- The Kalyani  Daughters

Me in their foot steps

Dikku teriyada Attic !

Dear all,

I realize this blog is also quite not as immediate to my previous on as I would have desired. But a lot of travelling had me on my toes, literally. But here I am, to continue the journey.

Im sure you all remember my eulogy to a great mentor in Dr. T.N.Ramachandran sir of Tanjavur. He is a saiva siddhanti and a great scholar, thespian of academia. Now,  I need to talk about how my journey continued from his home (home in this context is his protection  and shelter to my ameteur  and rigid views:-). In Shakespearean terms I was  "Sighing like furnace...sudden and quick in quarrel..." I was very much a young researcher with a lot of ideas of right and wrong, of who's views are credible and who's aren't and who's writings should shape my own understanding of history, art etc. He would patiently hear several of my emotional ramblings. Most of his responses to my childish queries were/are by themselves worthy of publishing. Here is one such from a random interaction with Sir on a sunday afternoon. Him seated and swinging on his oonjal and me seated on a plastic chair opposite him at the mutram of his tanjavur home.

Swarnamalya (childish and argumentative): Sir, Aasai mugam marandu pooche of Bharatiyar is about a young girl having forgotten her beloved Krishna's face. But if she loves him so much why would she even forget him in the first place?

TNR Sir: Do u understand the entire meaning of the lines "
Aasai mugam marandu pooche idai yaar idam solven adi toozi, neesam marakkavillai nenjam enil ninaivumugam  marakkalaamo?"

Swarnamalya: O! sure 
O! friend I have forgotten his beloved face, how can I explain this? my heart hasn;t forgotten the love yet the face has been consigned to oblivion by my mind, is it fair?

TNR Sir: The mind is our most reliable ally and our trusted source. It's very function is to bring memories update whenever required. Because it is the process of budhi, chit, manas and ahankaaram that creates every thought and therefore every memory.

Budhi is the intellect of man. It is the first place which processes a thought. All thoughts. This is the "arivu". It then passes it to the next keeper.

Chit: this is understood as the rationale of a person. We rationalize the received thought which is why it is called "chintanai" where we ponder upon it and take it to the next level.

Manas: this is the heart, Up until now what the head was doing, now the heart takes over. This is where we develop emotions, attachments, detachments, likes and dislikes etc. It allows the thought to become personal, subjective and closer. That is perhaps why love and other emotions are always an appeal to the manas or heart. 

Ahankaaram: This is the ego or the self. The processed and curated thought is now well stored and also acted upon. If I love someone I confess love, if I am angry I show that emotion, if I miss someone I evoke memories about that person willingly to soak in that moment. It is independent, very individualistic and uses the other faculties in aid to represent itself. 

"Dear friend", in this case could be even a soliloquy by the girl to her mind, which is supposed to be her friend and ally. I have been failed by you. I have no capacity of anamnesis. For the lovely face of my Krishna, I am unable to recapture. Who can help me from this state of amnesia? To whom can I complain about this internal malfunction of my system? The system that  never is supposed to fail a person?

I do remember (thankfully / unabashedly) the love he showered upon me. I am unable to still conjure up the face, the lines or the smile". 

There are three aspects to all consequences in man's life. There is the present that happens to him over which he has no control at all. There is a bundle of piled up consequences he has to face as an accumulation of his past deeds and then, there is what he can do based on his present experiences. These are the Prarabdha, sanchita and aagaamya karma-s. When her mind, heart stops listening to her, when she is unable to control them to retain a memory that she so wants to, she blames her mind of treachery, as if it's not her own. This is due to the fact that no matter want we will, our prarabdha is a consequence we have to endure. What a pool of greater memories of his touch and love that the heart  (her heart or nenjam) chose to remember is perhaps her predestined sanchita. A girl who's consequence was that she meet Krishna and become the object of his love and desire for a while, is her bundle of experience of her life. "What can I do?" Her lament of how to handle this predicament is her aagaamya karma. Do I rely upon my faithful, unfailing heart which savours his embrace and loving words or do I still allow my mind which duely failed me? How can I trust now? Whom can I trust now? What can I trust now? What use are my external eyes that can never work without the help of my mind? what use is this life if  my own preceptions were to fail me this way? (kankal irundu payan undo?)

When I heard this...U can imagine how silent, introspective and "shut up" I would have become. So introspective that, from then on, this argumentative researcher became a searcher. He made this haughty head pause to begin to look within.

I have always believed that the characters that we reflect through our arts viz-a-viz these Nayikas (in viraha or seperation, anger- Khandita etc) is not just a representation or encounter of their emotions but an interaction too. I once wrote a research article on Sigment Freud's Psychoanalysis and Bharata's Rasa theory. I found so many parallels and a constant interaction between the seeing and being seen. 

In this case, the girl is lamenting the failure of one of her own trusted faculties. She is desperately trying to use her heart to see if she can glimpse through the visages of what she remembers as feelings but forgets as memory. She is unable to hyperventilate upon any of her memories that bind the libido to the object. Her ego (ahankaaram) hopes to conjure up the image of him which is a lost memory to the mind but a yearning to her body and heart. 

This poem of Bharatiyar according to me is an oblique reference to the death of one's own power over their mind. She laments this failure. But she also knows fully well that this powerlessness is due to the agony of  seperation from Krishna. 

 The only way she can recognize him now is by touching his lips with hers perhaps? It is only the encounters that can come to her rescue. She has to distinguish her and the other within herself to identify Him.

Bharati's words TNR sir thus continued are,

"aasai mugam marandu poche idai yaar idam solven adi toozi

neesam marakka villai nenjam enil ninaivu, mugam marakkalaamo?"

not ninaivumugam (face from memory) but ninaivu mugam. Ye ninaive (O! mind) how can u fail me?

As a dancer, some where between the dance and imagination I  interact with her. I am her. This her is several characters, several women whom I understand, empathize with, absorb, imitate, interact, imagine and thus become. In this process my "self" is emancipated. 

The explanation for these two lines and how it has allowed me to find my thinking roots and wings is testimony to Sir's teachings. As I said, I was to be a mere spectator of my own self who' s perspectives to art, thought and literature changed after every interaction with Sir.

This is how he slowly nudged me towards my own space, even as I staggered cluelessly.

SWARNAMALYA GANESH

Dikku teriyaada attic !

P.S: I wish to share here a small video of my performance of a nayika in separation. But she is different from Bharati's woman, she is haunting herself with memories of him and loves the self imposed torture. 

this video's 7.20 th min is when the pallavai of the padam begins

P.P.S: didnt have the time to edit it to the exact start. 

In all,being a Women: difficult, tedious and absolutely joyous!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0eMEmQLN6A&feature=player_embedded#!

It was laundry day at the Attic !

Hi everyone, I know I have been silent for too long. I was first silenced by the loss of my dear Guru. I then took upon myself to throw that melancholia into finishing much of my research work that was pending. That done, now I am finally back to filling these pages. I have to say. So much to share. I was wondering where to begin. I was pondering if I should continue from where I left off or have a new take off point for the narrative. Then my talk at the ABHAI- Association for BHaratanatyam Artistes of India happened. It was part of a seminar on "socio-economic issues of bharatanatyam dancers-then and now". I was invited to speak for "now". Just as I was preparing to address some of the issues that they had specified to me, I realized there are so many cob-webs around us. I wish to share the paper I read out there with all of you. This is a growing concern for not the dancers alone but to the entire society, I believe. I have also made some suggestions as possible steps solutions. Read on...

"1. Bharatanatyam is a very inclusive art. In a trans- national environment that it is being nurtured now, it would be almost prudish to strongly advocate classicism, allegiance, orthodoxy, or even parameters of performance for, these very terms are themselves still in a rediscovery and redefining stage.

 2. Is Bharatanatyam over inclusive? We must know one thing, a classical practice cannot be over inclusive and still remain classical.

 3. Dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries are constantly facing issues of understanding and accepting the immediate histories and identity. Therefore performing allegiance to them is always questioned. If that allegiance will ensure quality, rigor and a certain accountability to classicism then it is for the dance practitioners to engage in such a deliberation. At an alpine level it would require a clinical approach to ring in and weed out elements of a classical form using academic history but more importantly performative historicity of the 18th, 19th centuries which are essentially our immediate past. But that is a topic for serious academic discussion and I shall keep it for later.

 4. With audiences and their tastes changing, funding structures for performances changing, even their very objectives, supply being enormously higher than demand, dancers have to come to terms with the fact that BN has become a global art. We are no longer dancing to aficionados and discerning rasikas (no, not even in the sabhas). We need newer reflective, critical updating of performative rules and values, as I said earlier, in the understanding of dance techniques and also the discourse that surrounds it all.

 5. There was a time a little over half a century ago when BN might have been endangered due to the cross roads it was at, precariously positioned between the disengaged devadasis and the pre occupied non-hereditary dancers. We have certainly come a long way from there. Today the problem is not whether it will continue as an art of prominence and identity but in what direction? Until a few decades back, questions of respectability were being asked. Will a dancer continue dancing after marriage etc? But today that is not the problem at all. Everyone is dancing, all the time. We are at a time when newer problems have arisen.

 6. What is the direction of this continuum? Where is sustainence? Will merit ensure you reach far and deep into the various performance arenas of national and global repute? What is the purpose of this maddening competition?

 7. There is Darwinism at play here. Nothing wrong. That is a universal rule. BN in the past too has always operated on the survival of the fittest. Therefore, we need to quickly address the question of “fittest”. In a world where e-invites, facebooking, twittering and public relations stands paramount it is passé to stick to old world norms of “waiting in the wings for your turn”. Truth is there are no wings and certainly not a turn. BN today is a commodity. Are we to buy what is sold with amazing publicity employing tremendous marketing skills or are we to look for quality. I am not suggesting that quality is available only in thrift shops and so give up upscale mall shopping. That’s not pragmatic. Its alright let us embrace the popular, but the climb there must be fair and based on certain universal principles.

 8. It is futile to ask for cleaner scrupulous standards in offering platforms from organizers, you will be in solitude if you remain in your “shell”, not socialize, “know” the “people”, you will be damned if you do not send out a million request letters, applications, photos, phone calls, house visits and the jazz. So what do we do?

 9. I know of dancers who don’t want to do these things and then some who cannot do these things at all for genuine economic reasons. Then what?

 10. I have been asked to address some issues concerning one, my being an actor. I think India and Indians came of age a long time ago. The concept of stigma of multiple careers or roles has long vanished. There is a healthy example in Dr.Vyjayantimala Bali to show that entertainment business and classical dance will go hand in hand and stay parallel. I am a dancer from the age of five while I became an actor almost a decade later. With my comprehension of the perfomative history that is handed down to me and with my own research I work on principles that stay within the abuttal of classical BN. But that is for dancers, funding and platform agencies to see and recognize. If anyone is to have pre-conceptions about multiple career choices of dancers, especially when that choice is entertainment and media related then they are not only short sighted but also in denial. Personally, I believe that using that as a reason to debate on a dancer’s adherence to classicism (if at all that’s the concern) would be begrudging of that dancer’s vantage to media attention and other public absorptions rather than issues of adherence and classicism. Let us not forget that devadasis at the turn of the 20th century started appearing in cinema and also in stage plays like harischadra natakam, pavazakodi etc. Therefore cinema is not a bad word, actress is not a dirty word and popularity is not a cuss word!

 11. The second issue is me being a researcher. The problems of a research student, scholar trying to reconstruct older dance forms etc and the difficulties in that realm, are for another discussion. But in general BN for the longest time now has largely separated scholarship and practice. I have seen a lot of eye brows being raised when I used to say I am a researcher. I have seen scholars and dancers schuff at me when I went ahead to do my masters in Bharatanatyam seven years ago. The other issue I have noticed is that age is a huge factor. The pre-conception that younger people really can’t be scholars is also seen. Dancer/ scholars are far and few. It is too primitive to discuss the issues they face yet. But scholarship for dancers will encourage a comprehension of historicity and enable a firm identity. To that extent it is a social issue. Also isolated scholarship in dance without practice sometimes throws the art and science of BN vulnerable to angled, partisan-ed and even jaundiced views and constructions. Therefore, it will be great to have a generation of scholar/dancers who can put in perspective the art in entirety. This is of course not to take away anything from exemplary scholars who contribute to dance history.

 12. Any occupation receives the “professional” status in a society when its presence contributes constructively to the society’s growth and its absence levels a vacuum. The dancing community until the nationalist, colonial iron hand vanquished it from temples, had a very important significant role in the religious sphere of the society’s everyday life. When that very practice came under the scanner the dancing ritual was the first to be hit. We are soon moving towards a time when the diaspora and the dancing fraternity is assimilating not only non-hindu but also non-religious dancers. If questions of ownership of Bharatanatyam as a hindu art are raised in a few decades (God forbid) are we well prepared to face it? Can we rediscover a context for today’s dance and through that to dancers in order to enable a more significant place and relevance to the society it breeds in? I mean not ideal relevance like cultural and aesthetic upliftment which have themselves become matters of personal choice and global assimilation. I mean purpose and relevance like that of say doctors and lawyers perhaps? This was my response to a question that was raised by my good friend and dancer Jayachandran.

13. I wouldn’t dare give one solution to all the above problems. But here is a start, nevertheless. BN dancers are all over the world. The diaspora has an equal stake in BN as we do. Let us not remain in denial. If we consider Chennai as the “hub” of BN practice and performance, then it must create a guild. A guild that recognizes (using fair parameters of economic and resume professional artistes) giving them IDs to entail them fare and portioned opportunities on performance platforms, assess to funding agencies, medical insurance etc. Kautilya in the Arthasastra suggested that unmarried women dancers must be given governmental jobs as spinsters (to spin the yarn). Such was the socio-economic vision of our ancestors. Must not we follow suit? It is appalling to note that dancers have no retirement, let alone retirement benefits.

 14. This guild must take on issues of foul play and come as a mediation body in case of dispute. It must have a grievance redressal cell to help young dancers deal with issues of sexual harassment, exploitation by so-called patrons, organizers, scholars and others. It is all happening. We can pretend “holier than thou” but it is an open secret. It could take up issies of maximum and minimum wages for dancers and ensemble members. It must also enroll and encourage amateur dancers. Those who want to and absolutely must, can continue their marketing and purchasing of opportunities but should never be identified as a professional artiste. The audiences will be made to know the difference. In order to get a professional status they must fall within some stipulated parameters for both performative standards, experience, income and integrity. A time when fair application, audition and selection process must encourage dancers to become marketing savvy, promotion through innovative social networking can be encouraged and the “lobbying” with silk sarees, undue flattery, other “favors” and money cannot buy you platforms and awards.

 15. The guild must later bring under its fold artistic groups like the Bhagavatamela artistes, kaisiki natanam artistes”, folk artistes, contemporary and experimental artistes etc for these are our brothers and sisters and we need to fend for them as well. We are after all what we protect!

16. In short, we are a large number of dancers, scattered all over. We are not a community yet. Can we become one? The immediate history of this art was the disengagement of the artiste community and its rites of passage, assimilation and strict rules of adherence. Now, it seems that that community- ship is the need of the hour again. This is truly the hour of retrospect.

 17. In all…IT WAS LAUNDRY DAY FOR DANCERS, WE WASHED LINEN ALRIGHT, DIRTY OR OTHERWISE…THE IMPORTANT THING IS ARE WE GON
NA COME CLEAN?

 SWARNAMALYA GANESH
AT THE LAUNDROMAT- WITH QUARTERS ET.ALL

here is a  poster done by a person named Shashank on facebook. its perfect for this article, I thought. 

The first light that led me to the Attic

Sri Gurubhyo namaha
I vividly remember the day a rickshaw pulled in front of Raniannadurai street.
My mother and I were walking into the big house. Being a student of Kutralam Ganasan Pillai herself, my mother had very specific choices of whom I should train under and in what sampradayam. I was barely 3 years old.
Sarasa ma was warm and welcoming to my mother as they knew each other from before and was only too glad to take me in. Unlike a few other Gurus in the city who had adviced my mother to wait until I am 7 years old, sarasa ma readily agreed to take me in. She said, if a child has the potential, let us catch her young.
My house was a few streets away and I used to be dropped at class every day. All I remember of the first few years was sitting on her lap watching all the senior girls dance.
She would take classes for hours, tirelessly. She would sing so melidiously and expect the students sitting around, to sing as well.
My salangai poojai was a grand affair. She had trained a mere 8 year old for a two hour debut. Gowri akka (the singer) , Ramdas anna (the mridangist, the great Tanjavur Ramdass) would be at all rehersals from day one. I remember even having regular classes to their music. Such was the musical atmosphere that I got training in.
There was never a timing or a strict fee structure. Sarasalaya was a home. I would reach there after school and spend all evening learning, teaching, singing and dancing. No one would be asked to leave after their class. Knowledge was free flowing. It was upto the dancer to grab as much as she wanted or could.
My arangetram was a huge story. Sarasa ma told me she reposited great dreams and faith in me and hence was inviting the who’s who of the dance world for my arangetram. I was so nervous and didn’t want to disappoint her. She specially composed the Bharathiyar song “ninaye rathi endru ninaikuren adi” along with the Basant Bahar tillana for me. I was thrilled and even today at sarasalaya, basant bahar tillana is known as the piece done for me, by teacher!
Every program was a learning curve with her. She never taught us abhinaya by giving us specific hands or gestures. In her teaching, there was so much freedom that even in class we were encouraged to improvise, interpret. If ten girls are dancing at the same time, teacher expected ten different versions of the same piece. On stage if we improvise, she would admire the effort and move along with us.
As a dance guru and researcher, today when I look back I am amazed at how she effortlessly she blended the gurukula system of imparting knowledge with modernity.
She never sat us down to teach the values and ethics behind sampradaya. Infact, sarasa ma in many ways stands as the melting pot of Old world gurus blending into the cosmopolitan, english-speaking dance teachers of madras. However, the learning atmosphere she provided instilled a great sense of understanding in me for music, dance and their rich traditions.
Over the years she has always been proud of the fact that I sing too. She would always make me sing for others in class as they reherse. I have spent several days over the many years I have learnt with her in class, not only dancing and singing, but also eating, picking out her silk saree for the evening’s concert, ironing them, helping her pick her jewellery for her evening’s concert etc. All through such times she would talk nine to nineteen. From Ramayya vadyar’s classes, music of Bala ma, music nuances in tanjore quartette, to madras dance politics and madhuri dixit’s dance. She had a gift of the gab. Her humor was subtle and very well known.
Being a non-performing Guru, I have never seen Sarasa ma dance much. Even in class she would rarely get up to demonstrate. But the few occasions she has, those are etched in my memory.
On an april afternoon several years ago, she, suddenly, very instinctively got up to demostrate a line from a padam. As the afternoon sun streamed into the hall, her diamond nose-stud (the only ornament she wore on her person that day) shining away, she sang and did abhinaya for the lines “Rama rama prana sakhi…” I think that day changed my life. As a young teenager I had decided that day, that I wanted to become a dancer just like her. And I wanted to wear a nose-ring, just like her too !
Over the many years, she has inspired me to become what I have. All my research and dancing and teaching I owe to her. In 2005, when I did a production based on Silappadikaram, I requested her to do a guest appreance as Madhavi’s dance Guru for me. She was so thrilled. She decked herself up. Puff-sleeved blouse and saree, maatal, odiyaanam, vanki, bullakku et all; and came to the studios. When I played the music she asked me to teach her what I needed her to do. I was stocked and stunned. But she insisted that I direct her and pushed me to do so. That to me is the greatest of day’s of my life.
Vijayadasami at sarasalaya is like new year for me. I begin my dancing year on that day by seeking her blessings and dancing to her music and singing, sitting at her feet. It recharges my artistic batteries to run for the whole year, with her blessings and guidance. This year too was very memorable. Unlike other years when we wouldn’t have much time to perform several pieces, she asked to dance a alarippu, jatiswaram, vrttam and a pada varnam. It was as if she she knew that this was going to be the last Dasami she is going to take class for me.
All my students have the greatest fortune of taking her blessings too. I took them all one day to her. We danced at sarasalaya koodam. She individually blessed all of them. Ranga mandira, both natya and sangeeta shala students respect and look up to sarasa ma and we lovingly follow the sampradaya she has imparted to me.
She is a very strong woman. Being the head of a large matrilineal family. Determined and strong willed. I have never seen her break-down. At the same time, she is also child-like. Loves food, loves to try out new kinds of food. She loves cinema and Madhuri Dixit’s dance. She also used to do great impressions of others and would make us all laugh in class. She is kind hearted and a lover of great music. I know sarasa ma loves sankarabharanam. I made it a point to sing atleast one sankarabharana kriti, padam, pada varnam or atleast a vrttam to her everytime I meet over the last year.
Needless to say I have so much more but cant put down over 2 decades of very eventful years here at once. I feel it is a divine ordain that I had the opportunity to learn from such a great Guru.
She is a pioneer and a leader, not only to women nattuvanar lineage but to the gender at large. I would like to believe that I have imbibed in me not only dance, music and teaching from her but also her strong personality and ability to face challenges and emerge a winner.
On January 2nd 2012, my Guru, my guiding light, my mentor, Sarasa ma attained the lotus feet of the Lord. I was there all day with her, hoping she may wake up and call me “Swarna…inga vaa paa”. She didn’t. It seems she has fulfilled all that she was born to do. She has been a good daughter, a great sister who took take of the entire family. She was a student par excellence, a shadow like follower of Vazuvoor Ramiah Pillai, a very devoted mother to her sister’s daughters. But above all, she was the greatest teacher. She imparted dance, music and values to her disciples as if it were the very air we breathe.
I will always miss you my dear sarasa ma, sarasa teacher. I also know that you will always look down upon me with affection and the protective motherly care and bless me, like you always have.
As I bid her good bye yesterday at 5pm I came back home and I danced for her, while her soul was leaving her mortal coil. For a Guru who had lived all her life for music and dance what else can I do? At that time, as I was overwhelmed, words just poured in my mind and I composed a song on her and sang it.
My tribute to her: describing her dark-hued (syamale) but very charming loving eyes (sarasija lochani), the one who always has a smile (hasite) and who resides in my heart (hrdaya nivasini)
You are a giver of happiness to all, all the time (sadaananda kaarini), you are the embodiment of sangeeta, music and dance (sangeeta kalaa samkshobini), you adopted all your disciples as your own child (sakala siksaa sveeharini) you have the untraceable divine lineage (niradhaara vamsini), you are pure and righteous (nirmala satya hamsini)
You are the consort of Sri Paramesvara (Parameswara nari) you are the torch bearer of the divine art of dance (pavitra nartaka kalaa vihari) you are a divine in mortal form who resides in the lotus of my heart (paramapurusha padmasri) you are hailed by the whole world, my mother ! (dharani prasidha maa janani)
Incidentally, Sarasa amma was very desirously of getting a Padmasri award. She aspired for it for years. Ofcourse she deserved much more. But this was the least and she aspired no more. But this country missed the opportunity to bestow upon her that honour till the very end. Her students are her wealth, her awards. I, hereby through this kriti bestow upon the greatest GURU in the world of arts, my mother, my mentor the Padmasri. She is a padmasri, for she resides in the inner most lotus of my heart, forever.

Swarnamalya Ganesh
Having lost the first light that led me to the attic!
P.S: Click anywhere on the red writing to listen to the kriti that I have composed on my Guru.