Editing Bharatanatyam (section)

==History==
[[File:Thanjavur, Brihadishwara Temple, dance (6851706080).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2<!--fmt for low img-->|Dancers at Thanjavur, [[Brihadeeswarar Temple|Brihadeshwara temple]] dedicated to [[Shiva]]. The temple has been a center for dance since about 1000 CE.<ref>{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch |url-access=registration |year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch/page/n379 126]–127}}</ref>]]
[[File:Tanjore sadir temple dancer Gnyana seated - L’Ancien musee des colonies, Fedor Jagor, ca. 1850.jpg|thumb|Notable ''Sadir'' dancer ''Gnyana of Tanjore'', 19th century.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Roebert |first1=Donovan |title=The Celebrated Sadir Dancer Tanjore Gnyana (1857-1922): A Life in Words and Pictures |url=https://www.academia.edu/62345621}}</ref>]]

The theoretical foundations of dance Bharatanatyam are found first in ''[[Natya Shastra]]'', a Sanskrit text of performance arts and later in a Tamil text called Kootha nool taken from Tholkappiyam (250 BCE).<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{cite book |author1=Eugenio Barba |author2=Nicola Savarese |title=A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ky6MAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA208-IA69|year=2011|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-17634-1|page=208}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Peter Fletcher|author2=Laurence Picken |title=World Musics in Context: A Comprehensive Survey of the World's Major Musical Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2vDlcIyVjUC&pg=PA262 |year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517507-3 |pages=262 }}</ref>

''Natya Shastra'' is attributed to the ancient scholar [[Bharata Muni]], and its first complete compilation is dated to between 500 BCE and 200 CE,{{sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=xxiv, 19–20}} but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.{{sfn|Wallace Dace|1963|p=249}} Richmond et al. estimate the ''Natasutras'' to have been composed around 600 BCE.{{Sfn|Richmond|Swann|Zarrilli|1993|p=30}} The most studied version of the ''Natya Shastra'' text consists of about 6000 verses structured into 36 chapters.{{sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=1–25}} The text, states Natalia Lidova, describes the theory of ''Tāṇḍava'' dance ([[Shiva]]), the theory of ''rasa'', of ''bhāva'', expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, standing postures—all of which are part of Indian classical dances.{{sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{sfn|Kapila Vatsyayan|2001}} Dance and performance arts, states this text,<ref>{{cite book|author=Guy L. Beck|title=Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UzUMCAAAQBAJ |year=2012 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-61117-108-2 |pages=138–139 |quote='''Quote:''' "A summation of the signal importance of the Natyasastra for Hindu religion and culture has been provided by Susan Schwartz, "In short, the Natyasastra is an exhaustive encyclopedic dissertation of the arts, with an emphasis on performing arts as its central feature. It is also full of invocations to deities, acknowledging the divine origins of the arts and the central role of performance arts in achieving divine goals (...)".}}</ref> are a form of expression of spiritual ideas, virtues and the essence of scriptures.<ref name=mog17>{{cite web |title=The Mirror of Gesture |author=Coormaraswamy and Duggirala |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1917 |page=4 |url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924012568535#page/n5/mode/2up}}; Also see chapter 36</ref>

Historical references to dance are found in the Tamil epics ''[[Silappatikaram]]'' (c. 2nd century CE{{sfn|Ragini Devi|1990|p=47}}) and ''Manimegalai'' (c. 6th century).<ref name=":0"/><ref name="Lochtefeld2002p103"/> The ancient text ''Silappatikaram'', includes a story of a dancing girl named Madhavi; it describes the dance training regimen called ''Arangatrau Kathai'' of Madhavi in verses 113 through 159.{{sfn|Ragini Devi|1990|p=47}} The carvings in Kanchipuram's Shiva temple that have been dated to 6th to 9th century CE suggest dance was a well-developed performance art by about the mid 1st millennium CE.<ref name=":0"/><ref name="Lochtefeld2002p103"/><ref name=Kilger1993>{{cite book | last=Kilger| first=George|title=Bharata Natyam in Cultural Perspective | year=1993| publisher=Manohar American Institute of Indian Studies| location=New Delhi| page=2}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| footer            = Dance helped inspire musicians, poets, painters, singers, and sculptors in Indian history.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Allen G. Noble |author2=Ashok K. Dutt |title=India: Cultural Patterns and Processes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5808AAAAMAAJ |year=1982 |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=978-0-86531-237-1 |page=160}}</ref>
| align             = left
| image1            = Temple troglodytique dédié à Shiva (Badami, Inde) (14146091479).jpg
| width1            = 160
| caption1          = A 7th century Shiva in Karnataka
| image2            = Bharathanaatyam at Kerala school kalolsavam 2019 8.jpg
| width2            = 155
| caption2          = A Bharatanatyam pose
}}

A famous example of illustrative sculpture is in the southern gateway of the Chidambaram temple (≈12th century) dedicated to the Hindu god [[Shiva]], where 108 poses, described as [[karana (dance)|karanas]] in the ''Natya Shastra'', are carved in stone.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p107">{{cite book|author1=Constance Jones|author2=James D. Ryan|title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC&pg=PA107 |year=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-7564-5|pages=79, 107 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Vidya Dehejia|title=Art of the Imperial Cholas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=23F7vTn3hBMC |year=2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51524-5 |pages=101 }}</ref>

Bharatanatyam shares the dance poses of many ancient Shiva sculptures in Hindu temples. The Cave 1 of the [[Badami cave temples]] of [[Karnataka]],  dated back to the 7th century portrays the ''[[Tandava]]'' dancing Shiva as [[Nataraja]].{{Sfn|Michell|2014|p=37–38}}{{Sfn|Fergusson|1880|p=414}}<ref name=aliceboner /> The image, {{Convert|5|ft}} tall, has 18 arms in a form that expresses the dance positions arranged in a geometric pattern.<ref name=aliceboner>Alice Boner (1990), Principles of Composition in Hindu Sculpture: Cave Temple Period, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-81-208-0705-1}}, pages&nbsp;89–95, 115–124, 174–184</ref> The arms of Shiva express [[mudra|''mudras'']] (symbolic hand gestures),<ref>Fred Kleiner (2009), Gardner's Art through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives, Wadsworth Publishing, {{ISBN|978-0-495-57367-8}}, page 21</ref> that are used in Bharatanatyam.<ref name=":0"/><ref>Kavitha Jayakrishnan (2011), [https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/6356 Dancing Architecture: the parallel evolution of Bharatanātyam and South Indian Architecture], MA Thesis, Awarded by University of Waterloo, Canada, pages 21-27, 46</ref> The early 12th century ancient Sanskrit text [[Manasollasa]] discusses about the dancing movements like [[Natya]], [[Tandava]], [[Lasya]], [[Laghu]], Visama and Vikata, This discussion is similar to the content found in [[Natya Shastra]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/TxtSkt-mAnasOllAsa-Somesvara-Vol3-1961-0024b/TxtSkt-mAnasOllAsa-Somesvara-vol3-1961-0024b#page/n1/mode/2up|title=Mannasolasa}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nijenhuis |first=Emmie Te |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kGzESuCeK-sC |title=Saṅgītaśiromaṇi: A Medieval Handbook of Indian Music |date=1992 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-09498-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bharatanatyam - classical Dance |url=https://karnatakatourism.org/destinations/bharatanatyam/ |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=Karnataka Tourism |language=en-GB}}</ref>  

===Devadasis, anti-dance movement, colonial ban, and the decline===
Some colonial [[Indologist]]s and modern authors have argued that Bharatanatyam is a descendant of an ancient ''[[Devadasi]]'' ({{Lit|servant girls of Devas}}) culture, suggesting a historical origin back to between 300 BCE and 300 CE.<ref name=soneji30/> Modern scholars have questioned this theory for lack of any direct textual or archeological evidence.<ref name=amritsri73/><ref name=leslieorr8/> Historic sculptures and texts do describe and project dancing girls, as well as temple quarters dedicated to women, but they do not state them to be courtesans and prostitutes as alleged by early colonial Indologists.<ref name=soneji30/> According to Davesh Soneji, a critical examination of evidence suggests that courtesan dancing is a phenomenon of the modern era, beginning in the late 16th or the 17th century of the [[Madurai Nayak dynasty|Nayaka period]] of Tamil Nadu.<ref name=soneji30>{{cite book|author=Davesh Soneji |title=Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=24uaoBjDKQgC |year=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-76811-3 |pages=30–31 }}</ref> According to James Lochtefeld, classical dance remained exclusive to Hindu temples through the 19th century, only in the 20th century appearing on stage outside the temples.<ref name="Lochtefeld2002p103"/> Further, the [[Thanjavur Maratha kingdom]] patronized classical dance.<ref>{{cite news |title=Royal tribute to Thanjavur rulers |newspaper=The New Indian Express |date=2017 |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2017/dec/27/royal-tribute-to-thanjavur-rulers-1738354.html}}</ref>

[[File: Rukmini Devi.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Rukmini Devi Arundale]], pictured in 1940, proposed Bharatanatyam after Hindu temple dancing was banned by the British colonial government in 1910.]]

With the arrival of the [[East India Company]] in the 18th century, and British colonial rule in the 19th, classical Indian dance forms were ridiculed and discouraged, and these performance arts declined.<ref>{{cite book |author=Leslie C. Orr |title=Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F___xKcP8lMC |year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535672-4 |pages=11–13}}</ref> Christian missionaries and British officials presented "[[nautch girl]]s" of north India ([[Kathak]]) and "devadasis" of south India (Bharatanatyam) as evidence of "harlots, debased erotic culture, slavery to idols and priests" tradition, and Christian missionaries demanded that this must be stopped, launching the "anti-dance movement" in 1892.<ref name=marysnodgrass166>{{cite book |author=Mary Ellen Snodgrass |title=The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMGpDAAAQBAJ |year=2016 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-5749-8 |pages=165–168 }}</ref><ref name="Ghuman2014p97">{{cite book|author=Nalini Ghuman |title=Resonances of the Raj: India in the English Musical Imagination, 1897-1947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkVZAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |year=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-931489-8 |pages=97 footnote 72 }}</ref><ref name="Walker2016p94">{{cite book |author=Margaret E. Walker |title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=94–98 }}</ref> The anti-dance camp accused the dance form as a front for prostitution, while revivalists questioned the constructed colonial histories.<ref name=amritsri73>{{cite journal |title=The Hindu Temple-dancer: Prostitute or Nun? |author=Amrit Srinivasan |journal=The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology |volume=8| issue=1 |year =1983 |pages=73–99 |jstor=23816342}}</ref><ref name=leslieorr8>{{cite book |author=Leslie C. Orr |title=Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F___xKcP8lMC |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535672-4|pages=5, 8–17}}</ref>

In 1910, the [[Madras Presidency]] of the [[British Raj|British Empire]] banned temple dancing, and with it the classical dance tradition in Hindu temples.<ref name=pallabinilan30>{{cite book |author1=Pallabi Chakravorty |author2=Nilanjana Gupta |title=Dance Matters: Performing India on Local and Global Stages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQly7wn0C5sC&pg=PA30 |year=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-51612-2 |pages=30}}</ref>

The banning of temple dancing stemmed from the 1892 anti-dance movement and new, liberal colonial perspectives. What the English imagined nineteenth-century modernity to be did not include what they regarded Bharatanatyam to be, which they regarded as indecent.<ref name="Meduri">{{cite journal |author=Avanthi Meduri |year=2004 |title=Bharatanatyam as a Global Dance: Some Issues in Research, Teaching, and Practice |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20444589 |journal=Dance Research Journal |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=11–29|doi=10.2307/20444589 |jstor=20444589 |s2cid=144784756 }}</ref> Coming from a deep orientalist perspective, the morality of people who performed Bharatanatyam was called into question.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Thobani |first=Sitara |title=Indian classical dance and the making of Postcolonial National Identities: Dancing on Empire's stage |publisher=Routledge |year=2017}}</ref> Accusations of prostitution were thrown around. Some women from traditionally performing communities were used as a way to showcase obscenity.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Kannan |first=Rajalakshmi Nadadur |date=2019 |title=Colonial Material Collections and Representations of Devadasi Bodies in the Public Sphere in the Early 20th-Century South India |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27095513 |journal=Anthropos |volume=114 |issue=2 |pages=531–546 |doi=10.5771/0257-9774-2019-2-531 |jstor=27095513 |s2cid=214131186 |issn=0257-9774}}</ref> New reforms disregarded local issues like production of the arts for the sake of liberalism and felt able to impose disruptive reforms that reshaped lives at all levels and subjected people to new standards. Colonial reforms were largely unsympathetic to local traditions, and dismissive of the industry surrounding producing art.<ref name="Meduri" /> The adoption of Anglo-Indian laws that imposed certain restrictions and regulations on certain expressions of sexuality, and more so regulations on bodies and sex in general, which in turn affected traditional dance practices.<ref name=":2" /> Temple dancing became caught in a web of multiple political agendas, hoping to bend this burgeoning morality issue to suit their cause.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Ganesh |first=Swarnamalya |date=2015 |title=RENAMING "SADIR" AS BHARATANATYAM: What's in a Name? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26316557 |journal=India International Centre Quarterly |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=116–125 |jstor=26316557 |issn=0376-9771}}</ref> Colonial denunciations of the practice of temple dancing were caught up in liberal ideals of bringing modernity to India, where modernity was tied to Anglo-Protestant moral ideas about how bodies are viewed and how sexuality was presented.<ref name=":2" />

===Post-colonial revival===

The 1910 ban triggered protests against the stereotyping and dehumanization of temple dancers.<ref name=pallabinilan30/> Tamil people were concerned that a historic and rich dance tradition was being victimized under the excuse of social reform.<ref name=pallabinilan30/>{{Sfn|Kapila Vatsyayan|1974|p=23}} Classical art revivalists such as [[E. Krishna Iyer]], a lawyer who had learned from traditional practitioners of Sadir, questioned the cultural discrimination and the assumed connection, asking why prostitution needs years of training for performance arts, and how killing performance arts could end any evils in society.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Hindu Temple-dancer: Prostitute or Nun? |author=Amrit Srinivasan |journal=The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology |volume=8| number=1 |year=1983 | pages=79–80 |jstor=23816342}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Meduri | first=Avanthi | title=Bharatha Natyam-What Are You? | journal=Asian Theatre Journal | publisher=University of Hawaii Press | volume=5 | issue=1 | year=1988 | pages=5–7 | doi=10.2307/1124019 | jstor=1124019 }}</ref> Iyer was arrested and sentenced to prison on charges of nationalism, who while serving out his prison term persuaded his fellow political prisoners to support Bharatanatyam.<ref>{{cite book|author=Janet O'Shea|title=At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfA4uDwCKwC |year=2007|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-6837-3 |pages=35–36 }}</ref>

While the British colonial government enforced laws to suppress Hindu temple dances, some from the West, such as the American dancer Esther Sherman moved to India in 1930, learned Indian classical dances, changed her name to [[Ragini Devi]], and joined the movement to revive Bharatanatyam and other ancient dance arts.<ref>{{cite book|author=Janet O'Shea|title=At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfA4uDwCKwC |year=2007|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-6837-3 |page=7 }}</ref>

The Indian independence movement in the early 20th century, already in progress, became a period of cultural foment and initiated an effort by its people to reclaim their culture and rediscover history.<ref name=marysnodgrass166/><ref>{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=99–102 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ester Gallo|title=Migration and Religion in Europe: Comparative Perspectives on South Asian Experiences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TswFDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-09637-5 |pages=32 }}</ref> In this period of cultural and political turmoil, Bharatanatyam was revived as a mainstream dance outside of Hindu temples by artists such as [[Rukmini Devi Arundale]], [[Balasaraswati]] and [[Yamini Krishnamurti]]<ref name="PineKuhlke2013p5"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Janet O'Shea|title=At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfA4uDwCKwC |year=2007|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-6837-3 |pages=82–85 }}</ref> They championed and performed the [[Pandanallur style]] and Thanjavur styles of Bharatanatyam.<ref name="PineKuhlke2013p5">{{cite book|author=Paromitra Kar|editor=Adam M. Pine and Olaf Kuhlke|title=Geographies of Dance: Body, Movement, and Corporeal Negotiations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1FzAgAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Lexington |isbn=978-0-7391-7185-1|pages=5–6}}</ref>

Nationalist movements that brought revitalizing devadasis up as an issue to focus on viewed it as a way to critique the imposition of colonial morality on India. However, the revival movement was not without Western influence. Nationalist movements that also focused on devadasis revival were influenced by Western ideas of democratization of arts. Part of the revival movement was making the opportunity to dance open to more people.<ref name=":3" /> Nationalist movements that focused on revival were also influenced by Western ideology through their propagation that part of the revival movement is a reassertion of traditional values, as well as a moment to remind people of the country’s cultural heritage and reestablish a sense of identity.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Shah |first=Purnima |date=2002 |title=State Patronage in India: Appropriation of the "Regional" and "National" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1568182 |journal=Dance Chronicle |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=125–141 |doi=10.1081/DNC-120003123 |jstor=1568182 |s2cid=159713358 |issn=0147-2526}}</ref> Fighting for freedom from the British and fighting for civil liberties included debates about morality, and how gender impacts morality. The revival movement moralized devadasis by democratizing the art, while also decorating it with the female performing class.<ref name=":3" /> Figures like Rukmini Devi Arundale, who are credited with revitalizing Bharatanatyam, also shifted the practice to appeal to middle to upper-class women.<ref name=":1" /> Rukmini Devi Arundale is credited with helping develop the [[Kalakshetra style]] of Bharatanatyam.<ref name="Meduri" /> There was an emphasis on building a modern India through Indian nationalism, which tied in with protecting traditional artistic traditions. The decommercialization and sanitation of Bharatanatyam for the sake of protecting the spirit of the art is part of Bharatanatyam’s revival.<ref name=":3" /> Bharatanatyam’s successful revival meant that it was regarded as a classical dance tradition specific to India, as opposed to a cultural dance that had been changed by colonial censorship.<ref name="Meduri" /> It was becoming a modern nation to have a traditional dance that was practiced recreationally and was nationally recognized.<ref name=":4" /> With the standardization of Bharatanatyam, there came books based on historic texts, like [[Natya Shastra]], which described the different movements.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bharat Muni |url=http://archive.org/details/NatyaShastra |title=Natya Shastra}}</ref>  Evidence of a successful revival movement of Bharatanatyam through [[Indian nationalist movement|Indian Nationalist movements]] was the introduction of state-sponsored dance festivals in 1955 in an independent India. These festivals were put on to display art with religious, social, and cultural connotations that have some regional diversity on a common national platform.<ref name=":4" />

In the late 20th century, Tamil Hindu migrants reintroduced the traditions of temple dancing in British Tamil temples.<ref>Ann David (2007), Religious Dogma or Political Agenda? Bharatanatyam and its Reemergence in British Tamil Temples, ''Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement'', Volume 14, Number 4, Fall 2007, University of Illinois Press, [http://jashm.press.illinois.edu/14.4/index.html Archive]</ref>