Sacred Dance of India

Author(s): Mrinalini Sarabhai
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 21

Krishnattam Kali. held in the palaces of the Zamorin or in the Guruvayur temple. And owing to the rivalry and quarrels which then existed amongst the Kerala rulers, the Krishnattam players seldom' went outside the territory of the Zamorin. It was time for the art to become an image for every man to enjoy aesthetically and for the dance to go back to the people from whom it originally came an art in a new perception, more beautiful, clothed in more stylised expressiveness. The Raja of Kottarakara wrote the story of Rama in a language that mingled Sanskrit and Malayalam and what was in the beginning called Ramanattam, became Kathakali as more and more stories were introduced.
Training for the young boys began in the 'Kalari' or gymnasium. Originally, 'Kalaris' were used for training boys to be soldiers. But even this military training took the form of dance. On festive days, young men as in ancient Greece, showed their prowess to admiring audiences. There were Shanghakali, Shastrakali, and even long narrative poems were enacted with a great deal of humorous episodes interspersed within the frame of the stories.
Human compulsiveness is to create myth out of reality, to make each event a fantasy, each episode a reflection of the tension between good and evil, and a reaffirmation that truth will always be victorious. Kathakali as an art is a forceful custodian of Hindu thought, a protection of basic values perhaps reduced to the simplest terms, but nevertheless powerful in approach and appeal. For the audience to have an immediate awareness of a situation, as the enlightened of old appealed to Brahma, the Supreme One, 'give us an entertainment that will be understood by all,' Kathakali is one of the most imaginative of the communicative arts. Take, for instance, the simplest episode of Sudhama, the Brahmin classmate and friend of Lord Krishna. Sudhama's wife, poor and miserable, begs her husband to go to his friend for help, not for her sake, but for the children. Sudhama goes unwillingly. What can he take to the Lord when he calls upon Him? His most precious possession is a handful of beaten rice, wrapped in an old rag.
His mind is filled with misgivings. He does not want to ask the Lord for material possessions. Yet he has no choice. Krishna receives him