‘Metroman’ E. Sreedharan has donned a new role to revive Ashtapadiyattam, the mother-source of regional dance forms Odissi, Bharathanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Kathakali, and Krishnanattam, to its original form.
Along with Chennas Dinesan Namboothiripad, Tantri of the Guruvayur Sreekrishna temple, the guiding force behind a movement to revive the dance-drama, Mr. Sreedharan, a fan of Ashtapadi, is one of the trustees of the Shri Guruvayurappan Dharma Kala Samuchayam Trust floated for the revival process.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said the trust had been able to come up with a revived version of Ashtapadiyattam with the first chapter Desavatharam, with the support of Sree Sankaracharya Sanskrit University, Kalady.
“The mudras, steps, and tunes have been created to the original level of perfection of what the 12th century Sanskrit poet Jaydev and his wife Padmavati had created. It was staged in the presence of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu by 60 artistes at Guruvayur on May 21. We are in the coming up with the dance-drama for the remaining 11 chapters of Ashtapadi and it will be completed in one year,” he said.
The trust has plans to stage the revived version in Kochi and Kozhikode and set up a research-cum-training centre at Guruvayur for reviving the other art forms that are on the verge of extinction.
Mr. Namboothiripad, who was also present, said the trust has plans to go for deemed university status for the centre and to set up a training and manufacturing centre for costumes of dance forms.