Samskriti – Not just culture
Music, dance, painting, sculpting, metal casting and many more art forms have been an integral part of our Bharathiya way of life. Bharat probably is the only country which has close to 10 classical dance forms, 2 Classical Music forms and many forms of drama along with hundreds of forms of folk music, dances and art forms.
Sangeeth, Nrithya, Natak aur Kala – Music, Dance, Drama and Art
Bharathamuni’s Naatya Shastra is considered as the original treatise on Music, Dance and Drama and it is the foundation for all forms of Sangeetha, Nrithya and Naatya in Bharat. It has 36 chapters with 6000 Sutras describing the complete gamut of performing arts and is said to be composed in between 800 BC to 500 BC.
Sangeetha (Music), Nrrithya (Dance), Naatya (Drama), Chitrakarma (Painting), Murthikala (Sculpting), Dhatu Vikshepa (Metal Casting) and many more art forms have been an integral part of our Bharathiya way of life. Bharat probably is the only country which has close to 10 classical dance forms, 2 distinctive forms of Classical, many forms of drama along with various forms of folk music, dances and art forms. Here I discuss these forms and their uniqueness. I shall touch upon how the evolution happened from folk to the more classical forms. There is a world of itself in the music, dance and other art forms of each Jathi. In this program I bring the import for these art forms of various communities and their development and also an introduction to the classical forms of music and dance. This introductory workshop takes about 6-8 hours.
Chatusshashti Kala 64 Art Forms
Kala means performing art in Sanskrit. The scriptures talk about Chatusshashti Kala or 64 Art Forms. The mastery of the Chathusashti Kalas, formed an important basis in the development of a Samskari (cultured) individual in many parts of Bharat.
Kala means performing art in Sanskrit. The scriptures talk about Chatusshashti Kala or 64 Art Forms. The mastery of as many of the 64 traditional arts known as the Chathusashti Kalas, formed an important basis in the development of a cultured individual in many parts of Bharat.
It is believed that Bhagwan Krishna possessed these arts. After slaying of Kamsa and completion of the Upanayanam Samskara (the thread ceremony), Krishna and Balrama went to the ashram of Guru Sandipani (Said to be an Avatara of Shiva) in the city of Avanti (Ujjain).There within a span of 64 days, Krishna learnt Shodasha Vidyas (sixteen types of sciences) and Chatusshashti Kala (sixtyfour arts), each of which would take a normal person two to two and a half years to accomplish. A person who knows all the Chathusshasti Kala (64 Art forms) was known as “Chathusshasti Kala Rudda” or knower of all the 64 Kalas. Lord Krishna is known by that name and Devi Lalita Tripura Sundari is also known by that name. Let us know what these 64 Art forms were. It is interesting to know that Thieving or Robbing was also one of them.
In Tamil there is a term “Sakala Kala Vallaban” which when translated means “One who is adept in all the Art forms”. The “Lalitha Sahasranama” (The thousand names of Goddess Lalitha) describes her as the upholder of the 64 art forms. What are these 64 Kalas? Can anyone really master then? Who were the great people who had mastered them?
This 3 hrs workshop gives insights into this unique world of Bharathiya Kala Prapancha.
Bhasha, Bhusha, Bhavan, Bhojan Language, Costumes, Houses and Food
As we travel from one place to another in Bharat we find that the Bhasha (Language), Bhusha (Costume), Bhavan (Dwellings) and Bhojan (Food) change every 50kms. This is an interesting phenomenon in Bharat.
As we travel from any place to any other place in Bharat we find that many things change every 50kms. This workshop is to understand the various diversities of this Land. Why these changes were necessitating? We will see here how the Language, Dress, Houses and Food change. This one day workshop will be in the form of a story of two white necked eagles flying from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and sharing the sights they see below. This workshop will elaborate upon the Bhasha – Language, Bhusha – Dress, Bhojan – Food and Bhavan – Houses of the people living in the various Janapadas cultural regions of Bharath. This aspect will bring out the ‘Anekatha mein ekatha’ unity in diversity of Bharath.
It is said that these aspects of life Bhasha, Bhusaha, Bhojan and Bhavan keep changing every 50 kms as the geographical zone changes, climatic conditions change, agricultural porduce changes, water quality changes and the environment with respect to the hills or plain etc. also change. If we were to travel from Kanyakumari in the south to Kashmir in the north along the east coast, central region and the western coast; we will find all these three changing every 50 kms. But the very peculiar fact is that even in this humangous diversity there is a deep underlying Tatva (Element) of Unity.
Bhojan Paddhatis Eating Right
Food surely affects our body, does it affect the mind, intellect, memory, emotions and feelings? What is the best diet for a person? These are the questions for which we can get answers in our traditional Bhojana Paddhatis.
There is a story that is narrated in one of the Puranas about the Devas getting bored and confused about what to eat. This situation had arisen as in heaven anything and everything was available by wish. So the Devas go in a team lead by their king Indra to Lord Vishnu who is the God of maintenance. Lord Vishnu tells them that He remembers of giving this knowledge to somebody but once He has given it He doesn’t remember it. At this point Goddesses Lakshmi reminds Him that He had given the Knowledge to Sage Kakabhusundi. So the Devas along with their King Indra descend to Earth and after paying their respects to the Sage Indra asks Kakabhushundi ‘O! Great learned one please tell us what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat, and how to eat. We came to know that Lord Vishnu had given this knowledge to You.’ To this Kakabhushudi tells ‘Hitha Bhuk, Mitha Bhuk, Ruthu Bhuk, Ruch Bhuk’. Details about this vakya shall be discussed in the future programs.
There are certain usages about food like “Annam Brahmethi Vyajanaath” meaning “Understand that food itself is the Supreme Godhead” and “Yatha Annam thatha manam” meaning “Your mind behaves like the food you eat”. How did these usages evolve? What were the categories of various kinds of food? What were the benefits and ill effects of these? How to plan a personal proper balanced diet? Has diet got to do something with geographical area, age, season etc.? What is the importance of fasting? Why were Vrathas with certain food restrictions made? In this 3hrs workshop the participants get to know his/her food better.
Various regional apparels of Bharat
Wearing of the Dhotee and the Saree would be different for Jathi (Communities) as their work, work styles, raw materials, processing of the raw materials, finished goods, processing of the finished goods would be very different and accordingly they would wear them differently.
Wearing a Dhothi by men and a Saree by women was the Parampara of this land. But how this was worn was associated with the Sanskriti. Hence the same “9 haath ki saadi” (9 yards Saree) or the “Panch haath ki Dhothi” (5 yards Dhothi) was worn regionally in a different way and according to the profession the different people wore them in a different way. Here I open the aesthetic world of apparels of Bharat. And as there were 108 Janapadas we had minimum that many ways of wearing them and when we bring in the Jaathi (Profession) and Varna (Mental Potential) then the styles become innumerable or infinite. I cover at least some 25 regional variations with some pictures and in some cases videos demonstrating the wearing of these traditional outfits.
Famous Musicians, Dancers, Dramatists and Artists of Bharat
Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, T. Chowdiah, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, Rukimini Devi, Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai are some of the people from early 1900 who worked for the revival of music and dance in spite of the British persecution.
The British during their Colonisation tried to systematically destroy many aspects of Bharathiyata this is a fact of history Music, Dance, Drama and many other Performing arts were part of this; they took a huge beating and almost got completely destroyed. Without going too much back into History of Music, Drama, Dance and Art forms I would like to bring to light the people who helped in reviving many of these art forms which the British tried to systematically destroy.
But for these great people many of the art forms wouldn’t have survived. Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, T. Chowdiah, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, Rukimini Devi, Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai are some of the people from early 1900 who worked for the revival of music and dance in spite of the British persecution.
Hindustani Music: Amir Khusrau (1325–1253), Tansen (c. 1500 – 1586), Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860 –1936 and Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931) are some of the famous people who worked for keeping the tradition the Hindustani Music alive and reviving it too.
Karnatic Music: Iḷanko Aṭikaḷ, Sarngadeva (1175–1247), Purandara Dasa (1484 – 1565), Venkatamakhin (1630s), Tyagaraja: (1767 – 1847), Muthuswamy Dikshitar (1775 – 1835) and Shyama Shastri (1762 – 1827) are some of the eminent people who worked to keep the tradition of Karnatic Music and reviving it too; the last three were known as the Holy Trinity of Karnatic Music Tradition.
Bharathanatyam: Natya Rani Shanthala (1100 to 1131), The four Nattuvanars (widely known as Tanjaore Bandhu) namely Chinnaiya, Ponaiyah, Sivanandam, Vadivelu (1798 to 1832), Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai (1869 to 1954), Rukmini Devi (1904 to 1986), Balasarswati (1918 to 1984) and Mrinalini Sarabhai (1918 to 2016) were some of the great people who worked to keep the tradition of Bharathanatyam and worked hard to revive it in spite of the British persecution.
