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Conveying meaning through dance required attributes such as postures and gestures with symbolic elements,” says historian Shrinivas Padigar, a scholar of ancient inscriptions and a retired professor of Karnataka University in Dharwad. Nataraja: Dance as part of a divine ritual may have its base in the Indus Valley. It is considered the earliest known Hindu sculpture (pdf), and is from around 2nd century BCE, and maybe the first to feature the dwarf Apasmara. Indeed, the Gudimallam linga of Chittoor district in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has an erect phallus on which an image of a standing Shiva is carved, a remarkable merging of Shiva’s aniconic and anthropomorphic forms. Linga or phallus: another feature seemingly carried over from the Indus Valley. The favourite is probably Indra, who loosely corresponds to Zeus, the Greek god of thunder. Many, including dancing ones like the Maruts, the Ashwins, and the Adityas, are already in vogue. In any case, there is no shortage of such icons. Perhaps some of the talented individuals among the Vedic people themselves get elevated to that status. In these profound works, fighting prowess, generosity, creative talent, leadership qualities, and many more such qualities-all aspirational-get attributed to gods. Somewhere in the region, the Vedas, ritual Hinduism’s foundational texts in Sanskrit, are being composed right then. So much so that the imagery enters the tribe’s oral tradition: hymns, poetry, and chants. Accentuated by the leaping campfire flames, the enraptured shrieks, and overall excitement, it leaves a vivid impression. Music, dance, and singing follow and the best of performers take the lead.Īt one moment, one among those dancers, his face wearing dramatic ritual makeup, strikes a ferocious warrior pose.
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Soma, their favourite ritual drink, is generously served. As the sun begins to set, a central campfire is lit, around which the clan huddles up. The men have just returned from battle and are preparing to celebrate victory. Let us, for the purpose of charting the possible path these new gods took towards popularity, imagine one such tribal settlement. This dweller of cremation grounds-he is often imagined covered in ash from funeral pyres-today can be found even on the grounds of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) campus in Switzerland, where he symbolises the high-energy collisions of particle physics in his Nataraja form. Over centuries, the matted-haired, animal-skin wearing, hash-smoker has evolved into many things, including a hermaphrodite, for many people. This priest, a trained engineer, told me the dance tradition is symbolic of Shiva’s primordial performance-the dead are believed to be finally joining Koothu Perumal, lord of the dance in the Tamil language, and another of Shiva’s epithets.
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I am still a novice when it comes to the porul (crux) of koothu,” Rajkumar told me, directing me instead to Ragothaman, a priest at a local temple. “My grandpa could have given you more details. For the 38-year-old, who uses only his first name, playing the drums for this street dance has been a family tradition, yet one he was too modest to hold forth on. There I met the wiry Rajkumar, head of a group of percussion artistes who lead Saavukoothu. My curiosity kindled, I began visiting the city’s crematoria, hoping to bump into its dancers or even witness it. One of the experts I spoke to hinted that apart from mainstream dance forms, even something as raw as Saavukoothu could be linked to Shiva. My search took me to Chennai, capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and home to perhaps one of the greatest collection of ancient Nataraja statues under one roof at the Government Museum in Egmore.