hi people..Am back after almost a weeks time.Its been really hot here and i am depserately hoping for some rain.Last weekend was good enough.Both Vijay and I were able to spend sometime with each other and catch a couple of old tamil movies.Of course..my cooking spree continues with the latest experiment being "Cabbage mint Masala rice".Well..for all mint lovers, u can also try out mint rava upma..it tastes yummy!!.Known to aid digestion, mint also adds lovely aroma and flavor to the food..so mix it with anything and ...it will set your mouth watering.Okay now getting back to the original thread..As I stated in my previous post, this post also deals with some more aspects of nritya.
As a bharatanatyam dancer, its very important to have a strong command over the sense of tala,abhinaya,timing,linear balance, and grace.Apart from these,its an added advantage to have a decent knowledge of mythology,the vedas and the puranas. Traditional bharatanatya was performed in the temple courtyards and the songs were usually in praise of the various Hindu dieties.Dance was infact viewed as a way to attain salvation and was an inseparable part of prayers offered to the Lord.Hence, knowledge of mythology helps the dancer to interpret a situation from mulitple angles.This is especially useful when one is working on the Varnams and Padams..wherein the performer is required to depict several episodes of a heroic character's lifetime.
Now lets move on to the concept which is exhaustively dealt with in bharatanatya. "Prema" or love is the most important emotion on which most of the dance situations are based.Prema can be further divided into three categories namely,Vatsalya Prema(affectionate love).Eg.A mother's love for her child, Rathi Prema (Physical/carnal love)eg. love between a husband and wife and finally Bhakthi Prema (Spiritual/devotional love)eg.A devotee's love for his Lord.Out of the three Bhakthi Prema and Rathi Prema are favorites and hugely chosen for most occassions.
My personal favorite though is Bhakthi Prema..hmm..why?? possibly because I can relate very well to it and hence able to potray it the best.Well..another viewpoint is that all forms of love ultimately lead to bhakthi prema.In my opinion,bhakthi prema is the highest degree any love can attain.Be it love towards a person,love towards your profession or love towards your hobbies. Any form of love when done with total dedication and a pure heart attains a divine stature.Instances of these can be found from Lord Krishna's life...Yashoda maiyaa 's Vatsalya Prem for mischevious lord Krishna ultimately attained that status of Bhakthi Prema which took her to salvation.Likewise, Radha's rathi Prem for heartthrob krishna was so intense and pure that she became one with the Lord (nirvana)and even today, is considered to be the epitome of love. In bhakthi prema one finds immense peace of mind and happiness which is precisely the feeling one gets if one does his/her job with total involvement and dedication.Probably, our object of love then becomes God and our love for it becomes Bhakthi or devotion.
hmm..I think I should stop here for now...this discussion on Prema takes us to another post on Madhurashtakam ..soon to follow:)
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