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| Gopika Varma, Rama Vaidyanathan and Shantha Ratii |
In March 2023 at the Stein Auditorium in IHC Delhi, Shantha Ratii Initiatives (SRI), Singapore, presented ‘Swati Sougandhikam: A King’s Poems’. As the name suggests, the performances were based on the kritis of Swati Tirunal. The performers were Guru Rama Vaidyanathan in Bharatanatyam, Guru Gopika Varma in Mohiniyattam and Guru Shantha Ratii in Kuchipudi.
Swati Tirunal, the 19th century maharaja of Travancore, was a seminal composer whose compositions dominate the field of classical dance and music even today. Every newborn Malayali child listens to a lullaby that Swati Tirunal uncle had composed for him. Swati Tirunal was born in 1816 in the month of April, on the 16th day. He was sworn in as the king when he was barely 4 months old. He was a prodigy, excelling in academics and arts. He could speak various languages. By the age of 16, he was ruling his state. His foresight led to a change in the legal, educational and medical systems of the time. He was compassionate towards people. He was a poet among kings and a king among poets. He created 400 compositions spanning both Hindustani and Carnatic music, and in different languages. He collaborated with the Tanjore quartet and introduced the violin to the Indian music system. He brought the mridangam into dance performances. He was introduced to dance by a dancer who worked with the Tanjore quartet. He fell in love with her. Later in life, devastated by the deaths of his father, sister and all three of his first wife’s children, he became a recluse and eventually passed away at the young age of 33.
Rama Vaidyanathan introduced the compositions of Swati Tirunal. She chose a keertanam in ashtarag maalika.
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| Rama Vaidyanathan |
The nayika enters the sanctum of Lord Padmanabha in the evening and stays on the whole night. There are ashtaprahar in the night and with each prahar, the raaga changes till it becomes Bhoopalam, the early morning raaga.
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| Rama Vaidyanathan |
Each stanza has a layer of passion and also that of bhakti. The first line says, ‘O Lord, you recline on the serpent and your eyes are like the lotus.’ The second says, ‘You have pearl-like white teeth; the cool breeze brushes me and exhausts me. The cooing of the birds pains me.’ The fourth says, ‘My friends mock me since you have an uncanny resemblance to Lord Manmatha.’
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| Rama Vaidyanathan |
Rama depicted the nayika saying that her pain is assuaged a little when, in the middle of the night, she dreams of him. The sixth line says, ‘She extolls the beauty of his lips, which resemble the bimba fruit.’ She wants him to embrace her. He is bejewelled, dressed in all his finery, and reclines on the serpent. She begs him to accept her passion and devotion towards him.
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| Rama Vaidyanathan |
Rama wore a soft orange sari. Her abhinaya depicted the attributes of the lord with great fervour, his reclining posture on the coiled serpent, his bright shining teeth and red lips, his finery.
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| Rama Vaidyanathan |
Her nritya showing the pining nayika was sensuous, how it hurts her when the breeze blows and the birds coo. How she ignores all the jibes her friends make about her and him, asking only for his devotion and his embrace, with his arms wrapped around her.
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| Rama Vaidyanathan | |
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| Rama Vaidyanathan |
Her nritta is always a lesson to watch – how she covers the stage with expansive moves, how her hands and feet move in a chiselled manner and how she incorporates the mood of the composition into her jatis.
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| Shantha Ratii |
Shantha Ratii is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, cultural activist and filmmaker who is trained in Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali and martial arts. Her gurus in Bharatanatyam, Kathakali and Kuchipudi include Gurus Adyar Lakshman, Kalanidhi Narayanan, Oyur Govinda Pillai, Raja and Radha Reddy, Vempati Chinna Satyam, K.P. Bhaskar and Neila Sathyalingam. She performed Kuchipudi pieces.
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| Shantha Ratii |
In the first piece she presented, ‘Chaliye Kunjan Mo’, the gopi tells Krishna that she is overwhelmed by the beauty of the spring, the flowers, the fragrant breeze. The peacocks are dancing by the Yamuna. And though you are used to flitting from flower to flower, Shantha depicted, today you are entrapped in my heart. However, he feigns disinterest. It was a very lyrical piece.
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| Shantha Ratii |
The second piece, ‘Aliveni Nindu Chhe’, was about a sakhi who is pining for Krishna. She finds the full moon useless, the fragrant flowers useless, when her Krishna is not with her. She praises the beauty of her sakhi and tells her to go and fetch him. The nayika even offers her ornaments in return to the nayiki or sakhi.
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| Shantha Ratii |
The composition was in raag Kurunji Mishrachaputalam. She tells the sakhi that the sandalwood paste does not soothe her, though she fans herself. The sakhi is asked to remove the lotuses as they remind her of Lord Padmanabha.
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| Gopika Varma |
Mohiniyattam Guru Gopika Varma was the next performer. She performed a sensuous padam. The nayika is describing her handsome lover who held her and kissed her.
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| Gopika Varma |
He was not Kamadeva, since he did have a form, not Shiva because he did not have a third eye. He was not the moon since he had a flawless face. It could have only been the Lord Padmanabha himself. He holds her gently and kisses her. It was a sensitively portrayed piece.
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| Gopika Varma |
The second piece was the culmination of the festival. It was a keertanam, a well-known bhajan, ‘Chal Man Tu Kashi’, which reiterates Swati Tirunal’s unfailing bhakti. The maharaja had never been to Kashi, but he wrote this poem about Kashi for a darshan of Vishweshwara. He is asking his mind to go there.
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| Gopika Varma |
The Lord Vishweshwara controls the cycle of birth and death and the Ganga flowing through the city washes off the sins of the bhaktas who come to bathe in it. The Lord Padmanabha reclines on Sesha and is lotus-eyed, while Shiva is three-eyed. They are both compassionate.
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| Gopika Varma |
In her showcasing the composition she depicted the pooja of the shivling and the movements of the damru, since he is the one who rids us of the pain of birth and birthing, the arrogance and vanity of youth, and then of a painful death.
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| Gopika Varma |
The depiction of the cremation of the body featured the sounds of fire crackling. The body turns to ash, which is scattered. The Ganga falls on the jatas of Shiva and then flows on. An interesting observation was that the tilaks of Shiva and Vishnu are both three-pronged, just in different directions.
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| Shantha Ratii, Rama Vaidyanathan and Gopika Varma |
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| Shantha Ratii, Rama Vaidyanathan and Gopika Varma |
The final piece was a combined tillana in Dhanashree, aditalam. The final stance was Gopika as the serpent, Rama as the reclining Padmanabha and Shantha as Lakshmi at his feet, ending in an arti of the lord. The instrumentation, with idiekka and others, was consummate. It was a sharp, austere performance by the greats.
Pics: Anoop Arora
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