Opera, Bharatanatyam and Odissi for peace and inclusivity ft. Rama Vaidyanathan and Sujata Mohapatra

 

The Delhi Peace Festival was organized at the Stein Auditorium on 19 November 2025. The foyer had a pleasing flower rangoli with diyas floating in the vessels. Delhi had still not experienced the biting cold that was to come in the new year. Founded in 2021, CPPA is a global, volunteer-driven initiative. With chapters in 15 cities, CPPA provides platforms for music, dance, theatre and storytelling, turning artistic expression into a bridge for connection and collective growth across cultural, social and political divides. 

The performances began with one person speaking about the world being a place of negative and positive energies, and one dancer enacting the dialogue. Through gestures and stances, she depicted love and support, division and communities, tolerance, hope and compassion.

Aastha Mohapatra

The first performance was by Aastha Mohapatra, an operatic soprano. Though I have very little acquaintance with operatic music, I found a lot of calm and hope in the music. The song was about unwavering hope and that peace begins with a simple gesture. The song evoked hope and calm in a world rattled by war. 

Guru Rama Vaidyanathan

Guru Rama Vaidyanathan performed the first piece, based on 7th century saint Thirumoolar’s composition ‘Thirumanthiram’. The verses are in Tamil, and the piece was titled ‘Swaroopa’. The composition is based on one of the fundamental tenets of Indian philosophy – look for Him in the smallest objects, in the smallest atom. Experience Him in the subtlest manner. 

 

Shiva manifests Himself in this universe around us and it is up to us to see Him. He is inexplicable, indescribable. He has no beginning or end. He doesn’t emerge, he doesn’t perish. He is all around us, sometimes in a subtle manner, like in the fragrance of the flower. But in the chaos of life, we need to experience Him, see Him in the smallest of the particles, in subtle forms. 

The poet uses the word ‘loka’ which in Tamil means ‘see, look’. Experience, feel. The recorded music was by Dr S. Vasudevan, in which he was on nattuvangam, with vocals by Kathik Hebbar, mridangam by Sumod S. Sreedharan and flute by Mahesh Vishwadasa. 

 

Rama looked gorgeous in aharyam that had red and shades of green. She started with chakkars, arms extended outwards, as her eyes looked searchingly all around. To me, it looked like the movement or rotation of the earth or that of the atom, the smallest particle. She looks at the leaves, experiences the gentle breeze, smells the fragrance from the flowers. 

 

Her eyes look beseeching and astonished as she smells the lotus. The sun moves in its cycle of day and night, light and darkness. With leaps, she took the stance of Shiva playing on the damru, the snakes all around him. 

 

As Rama moved her fingers up and down, Shiva’s jata were shown, the Ganga flowing from them, with the various living forms it supports – the birds, the fish, waves and water flowing. She finally took the stance for Shiva with hastas, a flat open palm and the thumb on it. 

 

Rama, as always, did mesmerizing nritta and her depictions of Shiva in nritya – the damru, the snakes – were spell-binding, covering the entire stage. The music, vocals and nattuvangam for the piece by Dr. Vasudevan were an experience in themselves. 

Sujatha Mohapatra

The next piece was delivered by another dancer who has the power to transport you to the journey that she is taking. I had seen her husband, Odissi guru Ratikant Mohapatra, perform the tale earlier, but Odissi veteran Sujatha Mohapatra had her prowess own and abhinaya here. 

Shabari was an old woman serving her guru in the forests. In return, he had promised her that Rama would certainly come to her during his exile. She performed penance in her youth and did rishi sewa, and was now an old woman, all wrinkled and bent. 

 

She prayed to Rama, chanting his name with every breath. Every pore of her being was dedicated to that bhakti. When she tasted the ber and took a bite of each fruit before offering it to Rama, it was not sacrilege, but love of the supreme kind. She did not want to give him the bitter fruits. 

 

This tale is famous among the tales of bhaktas. Shabari showed that devotion matters more than ritual; her acceptance meant that tolerance is beyond caste and custom, which was the heart of the festival’s theme.
Sujata was dressed in white and purple Odissi aharyam. 

 

For Shabari, her devotion towards Rama was supreme. She was quiet but bold enough to break the moulds of caste and rituals. Sujata started with a pushpanjali and then showing the amazing attributes of Lord Rama. 

 

 

He wears peetambar, he carries the baan and sharasan to vanquish the evil, there are arrows in his quiver. ‘Rajiv lochan’, eyes like lotus, jata tied into a knot, ‘Ramabhiramam bhaje’. Shabari was shown as an old, bent woman walking with a stick. 

 

As she sees Rama coming, she falls at his feet. And then she remembers the boon given by the rishi. She takes his lotus feet and holds them. 

 

She washes his feet and wipes them with her pallu. Embracing them, she offers himself at his feet, calling herself the lowest of the low. It is then she gets the fruits (ber) for him. She tastes and rejects the bitter ones and offers only the sweet ones. She bows at his feet. 

 

The food offered to the gods is supposed to be untouched by human consumption, but Rama accepts the offering of the half-eaten fruits lovingly. The tale is the same one told many times over, but firstly, it is the creation of Tulsidas ji, the bhakta-poet who created the Ram Charitmanas and whose chaupais are eternal. 

 

And Sujata, through her abhinaya, infused life into the verses, as if the incident had come alive on stage, moving the audience. The vocals were very powerful. The evening ended with a song by Aastha. Rama and Sujata both are veterans and in the face of such perfection, one can only bow. 

Pics: Anoop Arora