Kathak Music Beats

[Katariina Washuk]

Kathak (Devanagari: कथक) is one of the nine major forms of Indian classical dance.[1] Its origin is attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern India known as Kathakar ("storyteller"), who communicated stories from the Hindu epics and mythology through dance, songs and music. Its name derives from the Sanskrit word katha which means "story", and kathakar which means "the one who tells a story", or "to do with stories".

Kathak dancers tell various stories utilizing hand movements and expensive footwork, their body movements and flexibility as well as their facial expressions. Kathak often has a strong beat and can be danced in many taals. While proto-Kathak elements can be seen long before, Kathak evolved during the Bhakti movement, particularly by incorporating the childhood and stories of the Hindu god Krishna, as well as independently in the courts of north Indian kingdoms.[2][3] During the period of Mughal rule, the emperors were patrons of Kathak dance and actively promoted it in their royal courts.[4] Kathak performances include Urdu ghazal and commonly used instruments brought during the Mughal period.[5] As a result, it is the only Indian classical dance form to feature Persian elements.[6]

Kathak is a performance art that has survived and thrived as an oral tradition, innovated and taught from one generation to another verbally and through practice.[10] It transitioned, adapted, and integrated the tastes of the Mughal courts[11] in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly by Akbar, but stagnated and went into decline during the British colonial era,[12] then was reborn as India gained independence and sought to rediscover its ancient roots and a sense of national identity through the arts.[9][10]

The term Kathak is rooted in the Vedic term Katha (Sanskrit: कथ) which means "story, conversation, traditional tale".[2][3] Kathak refers to one of the major classical dance forms primarily found in northern India, with a historical influence similar to Bharatanatyam in south India, Odissi in east India and other major classical dances found in South Asia.[3][13] It differs from the numerous folk dance forms found in the north and other parts of the Indian subcontinent.[13]

Thumri was developed by the tawaif community who were called "nautch" dancers by the British. Their history as Kathak dancers have been erased in modern India Pallabi Chakravorty. (2008).[18]"Bells Of Change: Kathak Dance, Women And Modernity In India", also see "The Tawaif And The Item Girl: A Struggle For Identity" [19]

According to Mary Snodgrass, the Kathak tradition of India is traceable to 400 BCE.[22] The earliest surviving text with Kathak roots is the Natya Shastra,[22] attributed to sage Bharata. Its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE,[23][24] but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.[25]

The 2nd century BC panels found in Bharhut show the dancers in a vertical stance with their arms' positions already suggesting today's Kathak movements. Most of the dancers have one arm near the ear in a ''pataka hasta'' (Mudra). In subsequent years, the hasta was lowered to the bust level.[31]

The emergence of Raslila, mainly in the Braj region (Mathura in Western U.P.) was an important development. It combined in itself music, dance, and the narrative. Dance in Raslila, however, was mainly an extension of the basic mime and gestures of the Kathakars or story-tellers which blended easily with the existing traditional dance.

With the coming of the Mughals, this dance form received a new impetus. A transition from the temple courtyard to the palace durbar took place which necessitated changes in presentation. In both Hindu and Muslim courts, Kathak became highly stylized and came to be regarded as a sophisticated form of entertainment. Under the Muslims, there was a greater stress on nritya and bhavag - the dance's graceful, expressive and sensuous dimensions.

It should be remembered that the first Kathak dancers were, after all, Hindus who danced for Moghul overlords. Too much outward expression of religious belief was without doubt undesirable. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the wide use of 'abstract' dancing, intricate bell work (tatkar), dazzling turns and the fleeting, transient, glimpses of Radha and Krishna in Kathak arose both to remind the dancers about their reasons for dancing and (gently, unobtrusively) to deceive their courtly Moghul audiences. Perhaps tatkar and tukras formed the bulk of these first dancers' performances. Gradually more and more images, then stories of Krishna and Radha crept in.

Over time, the Kathak repertoire added Persian and Central Asian themes, such as the whirling of Sufi dance, the dress replaced sari with items that bared midriff and included a transparent veil of the type common with medieval Harem dancers.[38][39] When the colonial European officials began arriving in India, the Kathak court entertainment they witnessed was a synthesis of the ancient Indian tradition and Central Asian-Persian dance form, and the Kathak dance performers were called the "nautch girls" (or natch, a derivative of the more difficult to pronounce Sanskrit natya).[15][39]

With the expansion of British colonial rule in 19th-century India, Kathak along with all other classical dance forms were discouraged and it went into decline.[10][40] This was in part the result of the Victorian morality of sexual repressiveness along with Anglican missionaries who criticized Hinduism.[9][41] Reverend James Long, for example, proposed that Kathak dancers should forget ancient Indian tales and Hindu legends, and substitute them with European legends and Christian tales.[9] Missionaries recorded their frustration in Church Missionary Review when they saw Hindu audiences applaud and shout "Ram, Ram" during Kathak performances.[9]

The seductive gestures and facial expressions during Kathak performances in Temples and family occasions were caricatured in The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood, published at the start of the 20th century, 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" or "anti-nautch movement" in 1892.[9][12][41] Officials and newspapers dehumanized the Kathak dancers and the sources of patronage were pressured to stop supporting the Kathak performing "nautch girls" (also termed as devadasis and tawa'ifs in mid 20th century literature).[41] Many accused the dance form as a front for prostitution,[15] while revivalists questioned the constructed histories by the colonial writers.[42][43]

Not only did missionaries and colonial officials ridicule the Kathak dancers, Indian men who had been educated in British institution and had adapted to Victorian prudery joined the criticism, states Margaret Walker, possibly because they had lost their cultural connection, no longer understood the underlying spiritual themes behind the dance, and assumed this was one of the "social ills, immoral and backward elements" in their heritage that they must stamp out.[41] However, the Hindu families continued their private tutoring and kept the Kathak art alive as an oral tradition.[9] Kathak teachers also shifted to training boys to preserve the tradition, as most of the 20th-century ridicule had been directed at Kathak "nautch girls".[41]

The movement to end the colonial era and for an independent India, states Walker, also witnessed a revival of Kathak and more broadly, a cultural ferment and effort to reclaim culture and rediscover history.[45]

The Kathak revival movements co-developed in Hindu gharanas, particularly by the Kathak-Misra community.[45] Of these the Jaipur and Lucknow sub-traditions of Kathak have attracted more scholarship.[45]

The oldest Kathak department pat a degree college (university) was formed in 1956 at Indira Kala Sangeet University, a public university located in Khairagarh where Puru Dadheech instated the first Kathak syllabus for degree programs.[46] It was inspired by the diploma syllabus of Mohanrao Kallianpurkar at Bhatkhande College.[47]

According to a BBC Arts article, Kathak is unique in being practiced by the Muslim community of the India, and thus has a "historical link to Islam."[48] Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, a Muslim and a disciple of Pandit Chitresh Das in the Lucknow school, considers Kathak as a "confluence of Hindu and Muslim cultures", and has presented her performance in Pakistan.[49] In contrast, states BBC, Nahid Siddiqui (a legendary Kathak dancer from Pakistan, settled and nurtured in the UK), has a hard time practising and presenting her [Kathak] art in her birth-country of Pakistan".[48]

While most scholars consider Kathak as an ancient art, some such as Margaret Walker suggest the modern Kathak is a 20th-century phenomenon, more a form of cultural revival, if one relies on the music-related Indian documents.[50]

A modern Kathak, in all three major sub-traditions called Lucknow, Benares and Jaipur styles (gharana), states Bruno Nettl, consist of three main sections - the invocation, one pure (abstract) dance recital and one expressive dance.[15]

The invocation (vandana) consists of the dancer coming to stage and offering respect to his or her guru and the musicians on the stage. If the team is from the Hindu tradition, the dancer(s) combine facial expressions and hand gestures (mudra) to invoke Hindu gods and goddesses; while a Muslim performance replace the devotional expressions with a salami (salutation).[15]

The pure dance is called a nritta, while the expressive dance is called a nritya.[17] A Kathak performance can be solo, duo or team. In a technical performance, the speed and energy the dancers exchange with the audience increases in multiples, that is the tempo doubles or quadruples.[51] During the performance, one or more of the Kathak artists may come to the microphone, interact with the audience, explain something, tell an anecdote in a particular language, or rhythmically recite a song.[51]

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