Vigour and technique in Shiva tandava at Shivaarghya 2025 by Ganesa Natyalaya
Yes, as the name conveys, Shivaarghya is a festival that pays an offering to Lord Shiva, the Nataraja – he who is the primary dancer, the one who dances the dance of bliss, anand, and anger, raudra, he who played the first notes on his damru. Shiv hi sunder hai, Shiv hi satya hai. The late Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan held this dance festival in spring, around Shivratri, at her Ganesa Natyalaya in Delhi each year. It showcased a marathon of solo male dancers from all over India, paying their arghya to Shiva in various classical dance forms. Since her passing, Guru Rama Vaidyanathan, her uttaradhikari and daughter-in-law, has added even more verve to the event and raised its profile further.
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| Dr. Sridhar Vasudevan |
This year, the first to perform was a Delhi favourite, the polymath Dr. Sridhar Vasudevan, in Bharatanatyam. The piece was titled ‘Rasarnava’.
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| Akash Dwivedi |
The second was Akash Dwivedi, trained in Kathak under Pt. Jai Kishan Maharaj with guidance from all the great gurus in Kathak.
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| Ajeesh Menon |
He was followed by Ajeesh Menon from Kerala performing Mohiniyattam.
Bhabananda Barbayan - Sattriya
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| Bhabananda Barbayan |
By the time I reached, the fourth dancer in the lineup was on stage – Bhabananda Barbayan, performing Sattriya. His first piece was a vandana extolling the beautiful attributes of Lord Krishbhan. His concluding piece was ‘Dashavatar’.
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| Bhabananda Barbayan |
The abhinaya techniques were taken from Ojapali. Bhabananda’s costuming was very stylized. He wore a costume made out of a white saree with a blue border. The back also had creased pleats and his pink arm bands stood out. Through his very graceful and lissome movements, he took stances for the dashavatar of Lord Krishna.
Bharat Gangadhar Devanpalli - Bharatanatyam
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| Bharat Gangadhar Devanpalli |
The next performer was Bharat Devanpalli from Mumbai, performing Bharatnatyam. He wore a green dhoti. His first presentation was a Hamsanandi jatiswaram, a pure nritta piece in taal roopak. His nritta was neat, with an array of clean jatis. Hastas were expansive and he moved all around the space with ease. He squatted with first knee and then the other touching the stage.
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| Bharat Gangadhar Devanpalli |
The next piece was an abhang by Sant Tukaram, ‘Sunder Te Dhyan’, in raag Misra Yaman, talam adi. Here, Sudama and Sant Tukaram draw parallels in their devotion for Krishna. The bhakta gets a darshan of Krishna with bansuri and mor mukut, and calls out for Him, describing his beauty. Lord Vithala stands with his hands on his waist. He wears the pitambar and chandan. He is the one who wears the makarakrit kundal. The peacock comes to him, admires him and offers his feather to him to wear on his head. He wears the koustabh mani on his chest. Bharat depicted Krishna dressed as a cowherd and playing with his friends, ending the piece in chakkars. The abhinaya was expressive.
Tribhuwan Maharaj – Kathak
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| Tribhuwan Maharaj |
The sixth dancer was Tribhuwan Maharaj, the ninth generation of the Kalka Bindadin gharana of Lucknow. He and Ragini are carrying on the tradition of their father Jai Kishan Maharaj and grandfather Pt. Birju Maharaj. Tribhuwan presented a Shiv stuti which was a dhrupad composition in raag Gunakali in rupak tala, 7 beats. Tribhuwan has developed a style of his own. He was dressed in green and yellow this evening. In his nritta, in the composition ‘Dev Dev Adidev’, he depicted the attributes of Shiv with gestures and stances – jata, Trishul, snakes as ornaments, bagambar, damru, Kailash, bhasm on his body, Ganga on his head, tripurari, Uma as his consort and Nandi as his vahan. The nritya was well-defined and graceful. The nritta interludes had meticulous footwork with upaj and uthaan, paran and tukde, chakkars with pushp hastas. In the nritta, in teen taal, he presented tihais, paran, footwork, leaps, and in the last bit, pulling the foot forward with the toe rubbing the ground. His very slick performance was applauded.
Binesh Mahadevan and Poojith Menon – Bharatanatyam
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| Binesh Mahadevan and Poojith Menon |
On the stage next were Binesh Mahadevan and Poojith Menon, a father son duo from Chennai, performing Bharatnatyam. They looked great in their purple dhotis. Binesh Mahadevan is a disciple of Guru K. Lalitha, who was also the guru of Dr. Saroja Vaidyanathan. Their first piece was titled ‘Lalitha Vandanam’, and it was a nritta vandana in ragam Gambeeranattai, adi talam. In nritta, they paid an ode to their guru and to Ganpati. They took stances as Shiv and Shakti with coordination and expressions that were very genial and beatific. The goddess was shown as the Parashakti who vanquished the asura Raktabeej with her trishul. She went around killing all the demons till she met Lord Sundareshwar, whom she married, and her third breast fell off. Ganpati is her son and she rides the lion as her steed. The final piece was ‘Dashavatar’, in which they enacted all the avatars of the four-armed Lord Vishnu, who reclines on the shesha – meena in pralaya, kurma in samudra manthan, varaha holding the earth on his horns, Narasimha as Prahalad’s saviour, Vaman blessing Bali by putting his foot on the bhakta’s head, Parashuram, Rama, who was helped by monkeys, Krishna with his morpankh, Balaram as the cowherd and, finally, they showed Shesha, Lord Vishnu reclining on him and Lakshmi pressing his feet. It was an impressive presentation. The nritta and nritya aspects of their performance were good.
Nilava Sen – Bharatanatyam
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| Nilava Sen |
The following performance was by the star performer of the evening. Nilava Sen is a disciple of Rama Vaidyanathan, and he is rightfully carrying the flag of his guru. His dance can, in a few words, be described as perfect yet effortless, chiselled yet flowing, immaculate yet expressive.
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| Nilava Sen |
He presented ‘Shambhu Natanam’, written by Patanjali muni. The piece is composed in raag Laatanta Priya, set to khanda chapu tala, and was followed by ‘Eppo Varo Varu’, a composition of Gopala Krishna Bharatiyar in raag Jonpuri. The choreography was by Guru Rama Vaidyanathan. He was dressed in a yellow dhoti. When he took the stance for Shiva, his lifted leg was almost horizontal and from there, he rotated it to the other side. He took stances and gestures to show Shiva as Shashishekhar, Neelkanth, holding the conch, vanquishing with his trishul, Ambikanathaye, lingaye, Ganga and jata knotted on his head, Nandi as his steed, third eye on his lalaat, natya priyaye, playing on the damru, wearing the bagambar. His incredibly expansive nritta in the entire sequence made the stage look small. He leapt high and sailed through the air so powerfully that a young girl sitting right below the stage ducked her head involuntarily. The footwork was very thorough, hastas sharp, with very expansive moves for damru, for the tiger. He performed a squat after a leap, with one foot behind him. He took chakkars and covered the entire stage.
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| Nilava Sen |
If the first piece was vital with extraordinary stamina, agility and meticulous technique, the second was rich in abhinaya and emotional longing. ‘Eppo Varo Varu’ is a composition in which the bhakta pines for the lord. Nilava depicted the pain the bhakta goes through – his heart is broken, he yearns to hear the sound of his damru, to be blinded by his aura, he waits for the lord to come and take his hand and take him away. There is no way of finding him, not through dhyan nor through pooja, as he is caught in the vicious cycle of birth, growing, old age and death. It was some very exhilarating and moving work.
Vinay Tiwari – Bharatanatyam
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| Vinay Tiwari |
Next up, Vinay Tiwari presented a Tanjore quartet varnam in raag Bhairavi, rupak taalam, choreography by Guru Rama Vaidyanathan. Vinay is a disciple of Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan. In ‘Mohamana’, the nayika asks Lord Shiva to come to her as she is tormented by the pain of Manmatha’s arrows.
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| Vinay Tiwari |
Vinay looked stunning in his red aharyam and red painted hands. He took stances for Lord Shiva as he stood with his back to the audience. His nritta was both very powerful and very graceful, as always, as he went up and down in broad plie, with expansive hastas in left and right moves. His leg lifts for Shiva’s stance were nearly horizontal, and he also performed sideward leaps, chakkars with leaps and turning back in a squat. All the jatis were presented with precision. But both the nayika and Vinay were thwarted somewhat when technology cheated – the music got interrupted multiple times and the recording would not start from where it had stopped. Nevertheless, he sportingly maintained his charming smile and completed the piece after a while, showing Kamdev shooting his arrows at the nayika, who burns in pain. Vinay moved all over the stage, even diagonally, to complete the jatis.
Akash Mullick – Marga Natya
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| Akash Mullick |
Following Vinay was Akash Mullick performing Marga Natya. He is a disciple of Guru Piyal Bhattacharya. Marga Natya is based on Natya Shastra by Bharat muni. Akash wore yellow and red aharyam that closely adhered to the prescriptions of the Natya Shastra. Beyond being just a classical dance form, Marga Natya focusses on self-realization, embodying the philosophical and spiritual essence of Natya Shastra.
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| Akash Mullick |
He presented the ‘Shadji kapaalgeeti’ and ‘Panika Vidhi’. The nritta was very expansive wherein, standing in broad plie, Akash rotated his hands in smooth, waving movements. He moved in circles on the stage, bent backwards and did horizontal leg lifts to show Shiva in the same fluid moves.
Dr. Sinam Basu Singh – Manipuri
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| Dr. Sinam Basu Singh |
Dr. Sinam Basu Singh was next, performing Manipuri. He presented the ‘Kamdeva Nartan’. His aharyam and ornaments were classic, especially the ornaments on his feet. He depicted the various actions for flowers and turning them into arrows to shoot from his bow. As Kamadeva goes around to pick flowers, nature has creepers intertwining on the trees and the arrows go on to bring the entire creation under his spell.
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| Dr. Sinam Basu Singh |
His next piece was ‘Ardhanarishwara’, keeping in view the concept of the evening. The Jagat Janani and Jagat Pita were shown through comparisons between the two – bhasm and kumkum on their bodies, bhasm and karpoor on shiva, chandan on Parvati, jata on one and beni on the other, naag on one and ornaments on the other, kapal mala on one and mandar mala on the other. It was one who became two for creation and then were united as Ardhanarishwara, half and half, to become one again. It was a very lyrical performance.
Vidhun Kumar – Bharatanatyam
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| Vidhun Kumar |
Vidhun Kumar is a disciple of gurus Priyadarshini Govind and V. Mydhili. He began with ‘Ganesh Mallari’. He sat in a squat with a side leg stretch, taking stances for Ganesha Gauri suta, lambodar, vighnanasaye. His nritta was expansive and he used crisp hastas to show the attributes of Ganpati, his gait and elephant ears. He made good use of his height and came diagonally right up to the edge of the stage. Next he presented ‘Adum Chidambaramo’ on Nataraja’s cosmic dance. Squatting with a glint in his eyes, he took stances for Shiva, damru in one hand and agni in the other, leg lifts, showing Ganga, jata tied into a knot and on the waist, a loincloth of tiger skin. He was very agile in his leaps and leg lifts. He looked every bit Nataraja incarnate on stage.
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| Vidhun Kumar |
The next piece, a choreography by Guru Priyadarshini Govind, was a ninda stuti which was interesting as it presented the celestial conflicts in Shiva’s family. The composition started with ‘Om namah shivaye’. It talked about the kutumb or the family of Shiva. The snakes are wound on Shiva’s body. The expressions and movements of snakes that Vidhun took were intense and they scared the mouse, who is the steed of his son Ganapati. The snakes dart their forked tongues out at the mouse. When the peacock appears, the snakes get scared in turn – the peacock is the steed of Murugan, Shiva’s second son. The peacock was shown to fear the lion, who is the stead of Ma Durga or Parvati. The conflict was shown expressively. Gauri has the sun and Shiva has the moon as his ornament. It was a very interesting composition and choreography.
Vishavdeep Sharma – Kathak
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| Vishavdeep Sharma |
Vishavdeep Sharma from Punjab is a disciple of gurus Narain Prasad, Nandini Singh and Prerana Shrimali at Kathak Kendra. His first piece was ‘Chaturang’, exploring the four aspects of music and dance. He explored the various aspects of Radha and Krishna – kanti, mridu vadanam, suhridpriyam, kaustabhdharam, pitambar dharam, Gopinath, Govind. Radha and Krishna were depicted through gat, ched-chad, bansuri. The nritta interspersed had upaj, tez aamad ka tukda, mor ki gat and uthan, all executed with ease. It was a very smooth and fluid performance. The second piece that he chose was on the character of Ravana. As we know, Ravana was an ardent Shiva bhakta – he was a yogi who had done a penance to appease Shiva in order to attain immortality. The entire scene was depicted through abhinaya – how Ravana dresses as a yogi and sends the golden deer to lure Sita. When she is left alone, he forces her to come out to give him alms and then abducts her. The last bit was enacted well and was moving. Jatayu comes to the rescue of Ma Sita but is mutilated and left to writhe and die in pain. The polarity in the character of Ravana was brought out well.
The following performance was that by Himanshu, which I shall be reporting later in the report.
Sanjeev Kumar Jena – Odissi
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| Sanjeev Kumar Jena |
Sanjeev Kumar Jena has been trained under Guru Bichitrananda Swain. His first piece was a pallavi based on raga Ananda Bhairavi. It was a pure nritta piece which was graceful and lyrical with clean and expansive moves and precise footwork. The next piece was abhinaya-dominated, showing the tale of Shoorpanakha. The demoness seeks revenge on Rama for chopping her nose off. The demoness was shown to be enjoying the season and the wilderness. She is enjoying the peacocks, the waterfalls, the winds, theflowers, running after deer. She sees Rama and when she smells him, she experiences the pangs of desire for the good-looking Rama. She feels the arrows of desire and undergoes a dramatic transformation into a beautiful woman. She wears the ornaments and beni and goes coyly towards Rama. Rama chooses to ignore her and sends her to Lakshman. The very annoyed Lakshman chops her nose off and she transforms into a demoness seeking her revenge. It was a good portrayal.
Venkat Dikshitulu – Kuchipudi
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| Venkat Dikshitulu |
The sixteenth dancer was Venkat Dikshitulu from Hyderabad. He is the son and disciple of Guru Lakshmi Shankar and also the disciple of Smt. Chavali Bala Tripura Sundari. The first composition he chose was ‘Jatadhara Shankara’, a raag Todi kriti from Oothukadu’s Saptaratnas, which celebrates Shiva’s anand tandava and divine glory. The sanchari depicts the Gangaavtharanam as the Ganga descends on earth. He looked picture perfect in his aharyam. In very expressive abhinaya, he told the story of how King Bhaagirath prayed to get Ganga to earth from the heavens. Only Shiva could have borne the flow of the powerful Ganga flowing down. Venkat depicted how Shiva knotted his jata or locks to contain Ganga in them. His stances for the snakes, chandra, damru and Ganga in a trickle from his locks were well-executed and graceful, coming with ease.
Dr. Himanshu Shrivastava – Bharatanatyam
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| Dr. Himanshu Shrivastava |
Dr. Himanshu Shrivastava is an established Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher, Sanskrit scholar, writer and painter. He is a senior disciple of Gurus Saroja Vaidyanathan and Rama Vaidyanathan and was under the mentorship of late Guru Kamalini Dutt. Himanshu has, over the past years, developed the art of storytelling through his form. He builds a deeply researched concept, around which he weaves his evocative choreography using the technique of Bharatanatyam.
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| Dr. Himanshu Shrivastava |
At Shivaarghya, he performed an abridged version of his ‘Gopeshwar’. The tale goes that when Krishna, Radha and the gopis danced the raas leela in Vrindavan, the rhythm and the sound of the vanshi travelled to Shiva in Kailash, and he too wanted to join in this cosmic dance. But no man is allowed inside – only the gopis are inside with Krishna. He is denied entry and asks Yamuna to tell him how he can enter the raas sthali. Yamuna tells him that he cannot enter since he is not a gopi, so he transforms himself into a gopi, inside and out, and can then join the raas as Gopeshwar. That is how he is worshipped in Vrindavan.
Himanshu wore a black dhoti and carried a white veil and a huge damru as props for his aharyam; he had a black tilak on his forehead. But what really was intriguing was how he had painted his feet with mahavar in a V shape, a white line on the edge with a drop in the centre. Along with his ornaments he wore a golden sacred thread. To the music of the composition, ‘Saamb Sadashiv Mahadev’, Himanshu took stances for Shiva, his snakes, damru, nandi, jata joot, trishul, trinetra and bagambar. The gestures and stances were taken with elan, as if Shiva was there himself to portray his self. The nritta was expansive and powerful; in his left, right and backwards, forwards movements, he covered the entire stage, from one hand to the other. He performed leaps and in his horizontal leg lift, he was perfectly balanced, even taking a rotation. As he reached the pause in the composition, he picked up the huge damru and started to play it. It was a moment of goosebumps as he went around playing it held high in his hand.
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| Dr. Himanshu Shrivastava |
Shiva hears the notes of the flute coming from Vrindavan and goes there to participate in the raas leela. But when he arrives, there is no one in the kunj. Shiva asks Yamuna where the raas is being held and how can he get access. Himanshu used very evocative, almost cinematic, fluid movements to show the waves of the river and Yamuna rising from them. Impatient and peremptory, Shiva asks Yamuna to tell him how to get access into the raas – he is, after all, the lord of the three worlds, so it should not be hard. Yamuna tells Shiva that he cannot enter as no man has ever been allowed there. Krishna is the only man allowed. She then gently mocks him, saying you have snakes all over you, and you wear a rundmala and a bagambar and smell bad. You are anything but a gopi. Shiva tries a disguise but fails. She calls him bhayankar, with dhuni smeared on his body. Yamuna further explains that he is half nari and half purush. Shiva then agrees to shed his bagambar and take a dip in the Yamuna in order to acquire the gopi tatva. The depiction of the gopi vesh was expressive. Shiva emerges from the water with dripping hair, chandan on his body instead of ash, bindi and kumkum, his lips red. He lifts his ghagra and walks with a swing in his gait. The veil was a white net dupatta worn over the head. Himanshu did a lasya gat and nritta wearing the veil. Here comes the perspective in the tale – in his gopi vesh, Shiva hears the rhythms of the raas but is not able to find the nikunj or the gopis, ‘na gopi, na murli, sab soona’. He lifts his veil to look but cannot find the raas mandal. Finally, Shiva sits down to meditate. He concentrates on his breath and the kundalini rises.
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| Dr. Himanshu Shrivastava |
It is only when he finds the gopi inside, not outside, that he discovers the raas was always in his hridi mandir, his own heart, and suddenly his inner raas mandal manifests itself before him. It is then that Shiva is transformed into Gopeshwar and dances with Krishna in raas leela. After the inner transformation, Himanshu danced the raas with elan wearing the white veil and also playing the damru, taking chakkars and leaps with expansive hastas. A dancer told the story of the abandoned gopi who was found after abandoning his male ego, dancing with abandon. The performance rightly got a standing ovation.
Gaurav S.S. Bhatti and Pritam Das – Kathak-Bharatanatyam duet
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| Gaurav S.S. Bhatti and Pritam Das |
The finale performance was a duet between Gaurav S.S. Bhatti in Kathak and Pritam Das in Bharatanatyam. The duo has proficiency in movement, rhythm and fluidity, so their performance, based on Ardhanarishwara Stotra, wedded anand and ecstacy. They used as symbols the flow of the three nadis in the body - Ida, Pingala and Sushumna – which added a layer of depth to the concept; Ida nadi symbolized Shakti and Pingala, Shiva, while their union is the Sushumna.
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| Gaurav S.S. Bhatti and Pritam Das |
Their costume was a stylized grey-blue dhoti which I think seemed a little cumbersome. They alternately performed nritta and chakkars with expansive moves, going all over the stage. As they both sat on opposite sides of the stage with their backs to each other, they applied gulal on their chests. It was red for Pritam and yellow for Gaurav as kumkum and karpoor respectively. What followed was rotations on knees, chakkars with lotus hastas, gyrating towards each other and applying streaks of gulal on each other’s face.
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| Gaurav S.S. Bhatti and Pritam Das |
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| Ashish Gangani on pakhawaj and Vidit Singh Chauhan on vocals in 'Sam' |
Sitting or standing behind each other, they depicted the opposite attributes of Shiva and Parvati as described in the Ardhanarishwara Stotra. One like champa gaur, and the other karpoor gaur, groomed hair and matted locks, one wears the kumkum and kasturi, with Pritam looking in the mirror, and the other who wears ash. One wears anklets and the other snakes as nupur, one wears the kankan and the other bhujang, they have eyes like lotuses, Ma has a pair and Shiva has three. One wears mandara pushp mala and the other kapal mala, one wears divya clothes and the other who is digambar, wearing only the tiger skin. The goddess of creation and the god of destruction, the mother and father of the universe.
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| Gaurav S.S. Bhatti and Pritam Das |
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| Sayani Chakraborty on nattuvangam and Salim Khan on sitar in 'Sam' |
The duo expressed these through stances, movement, gestures, footwork with leaps and chakkars, the oneness of the two opposites. Gaurav exhibited his agility in slanting chakkars and Pritam his footwork. Finally, Pritam knelt in front of Gaurav, his palm rising and Gaurav’s thumb descending till they met to show the union of Shiva and Shakti. They took chakkars back to back, moving back and forth in a crescendo with the music. They were accompanied by live music, which added to the magic of the composition. 'Sam ' featured rhythmic compositions by Ashish Gangani and music by Rohit Saini and Vidit Singh Chauhan, with live vocals by Vidit Singh Chauhan, konnakol by Sayani Chakraborty, pakhawaj by Ashish Gangani and sitar by Salim Khan. It ended with a huge round of applause.
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| Dr. Sinam Basu Singh with C.V. Kamesh and Rama Vaidyanathan backstage at Shivaarghya (courtesy Facebook/@basusinam) |
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| Dr. Karan Singh and Ashish Mohan Khokar |
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| Dakshina Vaidyanathan Baghel |
Shivaarghya is the product of endless hard work by Guru Rama Vaidyanathan, C.V. Kamesh (who was on tech, music, lights etc.), Dakshina and Sannidhi Vaidyanathan and the Ganesa Natyalaya disciples. They put their heart and soul into creating a marathon by male dancers from all over the country and in all forms. It was an exhilarating experience thanks to them.
Pics: Courtesy Instagram/@swarna_saroja
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