Primordial exhilaration of Marga Natya and masterful Bharatanatyam at Soukariyam

Santanu Roy and his guru Samrat Datta

Late reporting is not acceptable and so I apologize to my readers for the long delay in putting up my reports from 2023 and 2024. This event was Soukariyam - the aesthetic, held on 1 December, 2023 at IHC in Delhi. 

Santanu Roy and his guru Samrat Datta

The first to take the stage were Bharatanatyam dancer Santanu Roy and his guru Samrat Datta. They presented Dasamahavidya. As Santanu explained, Dasamahavidya depicts the ten forms of Parashakti Devi in Tantric philosophy. The number ten has great significance in human life. The dasa dishi, dasakarma, dasamandala and dasavataram all have the number ten. The Dasamahavidya or the dhyana mantras of the ten devis are a reflection of human emotions, the nine rasas, but also the stages that humans go through in their journey to ultimate completeness. 

The duo performed a piece set to dasa raag mallika and tala mallika. The nritta they performed was well synchronized, featuring expansive moves with neat footwork. Devi Kamala was shown through the elephants that stand beside her, showering her with lotuses. Samrat Dutta took the stances for the devi in a squat, swaying gently. Kali was shown with a red tongue that hangs from her mouth and the weapons she carries to destroys evil. 

 

Santanu played the huge manjira as Samrat took the stances for Goddess Tara who has motherly instincts and saved Lord Shiva when he drank the poison. Goddess Chhinnamasta was depicted as the one who cuts off her own head and holds it in her hand. Goddess Dhumavati was the vridhaa or old woman, all bent. Samrat Dutta depicted her walking with a stick. Her gray hair spreads out like smoke, her flag bears a crow and she is widowed. She is associated with fear (bhayada) and negativity. 

 

Goddess Tripura Sundari was depicted by holding a white cloth in the background. She is the most beautiful, holding five arrows and having four arms. Pitambari is shown as the yellow goddess. As Shiva lies below her, she sits on him and copulates, shown by a yoni depicted in a broad plie by Santanu.
The two, Shiva and Shakti, meet in the sahasrara chakra. The other forms, Bhuvaneshwari and Matangi, were shown by the duo taking stances. What stood out for me was the footwork, wherein one could see the rotation in the foot. I asked Santanu if Samrat Dutta had incorporated marga footwork in the choreography and he confirmed that he had incorporated bhoomi charis in the depiction of Kamala and Lalita and aakash charis in the depiction of Chinnamasta and Bagala.

The two dancers have mastered their technique and have a perfect mutual understanding when it comes to taking stances and synchronized movement. Their gestures and abhinaya are sensitive. Watching them always turns out to be an experience. The performance reached a crescendo when Samrat Dutta stood in a posture for the devi on a red cloth and Santanu put a garland around his neck, smeared his forehead with sindur, showered him with small beads or rice grains and offered arti, pushp and dhoop as the chants of Maheshwari, Chitteshwari, Charachareshwari resounded.

Tanya Saxena

Tanya Saxena was the next Bharatanatyam soloist to take the stage. Delhi rasikas and Bharatanatyam circles are hardly strangers to this young, graceful and inventive soloist, disciple of Gurus Saroja Vaidyanathan and Rama Vaidyanathan, who is continuing her learning under her mentors Gurus Kamalini Dutt and A. Lakshmanaswamy. Tanya too has worked very diligently to master her nritta and her abhinaya. She has a subtle way of expressing emotions. 

 

She presented a Tanjore quartet varnam in raag Khamas, aditalam. The nayika tells the sakhi to get her lord, who resides in the holy city of Madurai. Sundareshwar had appeared as a little boy to beat up the pandayan who was building the dam when the city got flooded. He is wedded to Meenakshi. The nayika tells her friend, oh please go and get him as Manmatha is shooting his arrows at me. I cannot bear the onslaught; get him to me without any further delay. 

Tanya looked picture perfect in her green and red aharyam. She depicted Lord Sundareshwar standing on his left leg. His temple stands on the banks of the river and a dam is being built. When the pandya taking care of the construction falls asleep, Lord Sundareshwar appears carrying a stick and beats him up.

 

 

 

The nayika offers flowers, threads them and makes a garland. She makes chandan paste and applies it. She is keen to have the husband of Goddess Meenakshi as her lover. She yearns and tells her sakhi to get him soon, even going to the extent of gifting her ornaments to get him quickly.

Pinki Mondal and Aakash Mullick

The next duo of dancers was very fascinating for me. The dance form was a new one for me – Marga Natya – and the performers were Pinki Mondal and Aakash Mullick. Their costuming also looked very different and the painting on their bodies and their jewellery had a primitive look about it. In fact, the texture of the performance – hastas, footwork and body swaying – was something I had never seen before. 

Pinki Mondal

Aakash and Pinki are highly trained and multifaceted artists. Kalamandalam Piyal Bhattacharya has with dedication revived the old traditions of Bharat Muni in nritta, geeti and abhinaya. His research has incorporated Natya Shastra and Abhinava Bharati by Acharya Abhinava Gupta. The purpose is to make them powerful instruments for self-realization and rise above the ordinary. 

The first piece they performed was asharitavardhman vidhi. It was a nritta piece meant to be the first offering of nritta to the ultimate consciousness. The taal patterns were meant to show drag and stretch. Shankh and jhhanjhh were the main instruments. The dancers used swaying movements and fluid hand and foot movements. Their aharyam was yellow and red. 

Aakash Mullick

They depicted the various attributes of Shiva – rudram, bhootadipate, amarpati, bhuvaneknatham, prannath, trilokasye ekam eesham. The vocals and the music, as also the rhythm, had a primitive flavour to it. The next piece was Shakji Kapal Geeti. This was presented by aakash alone. The Kapal Geeti has its origins in story of the skulls that came to life and sang the praises of Lord Bhairava. The movements were of a similar nature. They stood with their backs to the audience and the footwork had leg lifts and 180-degree rotations. The composition talked about the ghanghor naadaam and the munda munditmukham.

The following piece was Panika Vidhi. Panika Vidhi is one of the seven mahageet mentioned by Bharat Muni in the Natya Shastra. There is no prescribed literature to it. The composition is made with taala patterns from Sangeet Ratnakar and the Bharat Bhashya. The piece was presented by Pinki Mondal. The ascension was in shudh nishad and the descension in komal nishad. Pinki performed the piece showing snakes using hastas and gentle swaying movements. The attributes of Shiva were elaborated – bhujang, shashi tilakam, pasupate. 

The final piece was Nayshadik Kapalgeeti. It is one of the Gandharva kapalgeet. It describes the appearance of Shiva after the vanquishing of Gajasura. Aakash and Pinki performed it together. It was characterized by chakkars, leg lifts and balancing stances. Shiva was depicted as vikatmukha, vibhrans, vidhvanskaram. There were many primordial sounds incorporated into the songs and the music. The entire experience of the performance was akin to sitting in a temple in a cave, watching rituals being performed in a primordial manner in the midst of chants and primitive sounds, with the lord being worshipped as Shiva or Bhairava. It was an experience that can barely be put into words.

Pics: Anoop Arora