Miti Desai, a Mohiniattam dancer gave a lecture demonstration in studio Swastika, last Saturday titled, “The Centre from which it all spins – Mythology, Belief and Transcendence”. She begins by asking, “What is the Indian worldview?, What is the Vedic worldview? What is the purpose of Indian classical dance?”. The purpose of Indian Classical Dance, she stated, is to “reach the formless through form”. Explaining the philosophical underpinnings of classical dance, she implied that while each dance has its form, its shape and geometry it is not a mere physical exercise, it is meant for the dancer to experience something beyond the form. The poetry on which dance is choreographed, is also similar. It seeks to evoke visual forms of mythological gods and goddesses – describing the image of Krishna or that of Shiva. However, she states that the purpose of even this imagery/ visual form is to enable the artist or the audience to experience something intangible and formless. Form is only symbolic of the formless.
Her dance sharings were preceded by an explanation of the symbolism in each of the choreographies. She would tell the mythological story and decode the symbolic meaning of Hindu mythical gods – Krishna and Shiva. This narrative of “reaching formless by engaging with form” resonates with the dominant Vedic worldview in Hinduism, that idol worship is a means to experience god in his or her formlessness. She also traces the roots of classical dance to Vedic philosophy and “Shastras”. By situating her dance sharings in this socio - cultural rubric and decoding the meaning of the poetry and the choreography, she made her dance cognizable and accessible for the audience. The intimacy of the space, the proximity with the artist allowed one to appreciate the performance from a perspective very different to the one we experience in auditorium.
However, when we invoke the term “Indian Classical Dance” we are faced with a crisis or a problem question,“What is Indian Classical Dance?”. A similar question with roots in the same post-colonial identity crisis was posed by A.K. Ramanujan, “Is there an Indian way of thinking?.” He posed this question to the world in the form of his seminal essay that goes with the same title. This question, has been re-introduced multiple times in the context of different disciplines and activities– Is there an Indian way of film making, of designing or even eating. His essay, while posing a question also offered a method to reflect on this question i.e. asking the same question multiple times with a stress on different words. For example - “Is there an Indian way of thinking?” could be interpreted to mean is there one or many ways of Indian thinking. “Is there an Indian way of thinking?” implies if there is a certain kind of thinking that could be branded as Indian? Or “Is there an Indian way of thinking?” would be a question about the existence of such a thing as Indian thinking. In approaching this question, one begins to understand that what constitutes “Indian” or “Indian thinking” is very elusive.
Applying the same method to classical dance, we could ask “Is there an Indian Classical way of dancing?”. Framing it as a question modifies a cultural assumption into a thought experiment. For starters, we can safely say that there is more than one way of dancing the Indian classical. Firstly, because each dancing body dances differently. Then, there is no Indian Classical dance in the absence of the different forms that have been identified as classical. Hence, when we speak of Indian classical dance, we have to speak in terms of which form. It is the early 20thcentury reconstruction which seeks to create a common past for all these dance forms. Asking this question shakes (atleast a little) the typical potted identity of classical dance which traces itself to the principles of Natyashastra, to an itemised repertoire and to a few key figures who institutionalised the form. This need for a homogenised singular identity decontextualizes the form, erasing its more immediate regional context, language and landscape it is connected to.
So when Miti Desai spoke of the purpose of Indian Classical Dance, the absence of the regional spoke louder. Mohiniattam, the dance of the enchantress, emerges from Kerala and its socio-cultural practices and to only situate the form in the singular overbearing narrative of classical past is turning a blind eye towards the regional. Even if we were to speak of a shared purpose of all the classical forms, it becomes important to acknowledge how this purpose gets instituted. When classical dances are a modern reconstruction of region specific community practices, could the purpose of “reaching formless through form” be an age old transfer of knowledge among all forms?