Bharatanatyam
Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form from Tamil Nadu, and the oldest such tradition in India. A single dancer stands alone on stage for two uninterrupted hours, wearing a bright silk sari with golden zari embroidery, leather anklets filled with small bells, and red kumkum powder outlining her hands and feet. She will not leave the stage. She will not change costume. The orchestra at the back of the stage plays drums, drone, and voice. Her guru watches over the performance as conductor. What she is doing reaches back more than two thousand years, through temple sculpture, Sanskrit treatises, and a tradition that was nearly erased by colonial law. How did it survive a government ban? Who fought to bring it back? And what exactly is being communicated through those precise, codified gestures of hands, eyes, and face?
The oldest written foundations of Bharatanatyam trace to the Natya Shastra, a Sanskrit treatise attributed to the ancient scholar Bharata. Its first complete compilation dates to somewhere between 500 BCE and 200 CE, though estimates range as wide as 500 BCE to 500 CE. The most studied version runs to about 6,000 verses across 36 chapters. Richmond et al. place the earlier Natasutras around 600 BCE. The text lays out the theory of Tandava dance associated with the god Shiva, along with rasa, bhava, expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, and standing postures. Every one of those elements lives in Bharatanatyam today.
A Tamil text from around 250 BCE, the Tholkappiyam, also holds early dance theory in a section called Kootha nool. Then come the Tamil epics. The Silappatikaram, dated to roughly the 2nd century CE, includes a story of a dancing girl named Madhavi. Verses 113 through 159 describe her training regimen, called Arangatrau Kathai. The Manimegalai, from roughly the 6th century, continues that thread.
By the 6th to 9th centuries CE, carvings in Kanchipuram's Shiva temple show dance as a refined, well-developed performance art. The southern gateway of the Chidambaram temple, built around the 12th century and dedicated to Shiva, carries carvings of 108 poses, called karanas in the Natya Shastra, cut directly into stone. A 5-foot image of Shiva with 18 arms displays dance positions in a geometric pattern, and the arms form mudras, the symbolic hand gestures that Bharatanatyam still uses today.
The dance known today as Bharatanatyam was called Sadiraattam until 1932. At a meeting of the Madras Music Academy that year, E. Krishna Iyer and Rukmini Devi Arundale proposed the new name to give the tradition a measure of dignity and respect. They also reshaped the Pandanallur style of the dance during that period.
The word Bharatam is read as a backronym. Bha stands for bhavam, meaning feelings and emotions. Ra stands for ragam, the framework of musical notes. Tam stands for talam, meaning rhythm. So Bharatanatyam, with natyam being the Sanskrit word for dance, is understood as a dance that harmoniously unites feeling, melody, and rhythm. A second interpretation traces the name literally to Bharata, the reputed author of the Natya Shastra itself, making it simply the dance of Bharata.
The older name Sadiraattam also carried other names: Parathaiyar Aattam and Thevarattam. Its history of being renamed points to how deeply political the question of naming was. The tradition existed long before any of those labels, and the choice of the 1932 name was itself a deliberate act of cultural reclamation.
Christian missionaries launched what became known as the anti-dance movement in 1892. They framed the dance forms of south India, calling them devadasi traditions, as evidence of what they described as harlotry and erotic degradation. The campaign characterized Bharatanatyam as a cover for prostitution. In 1910, the Madras Presidency of the British Empire banned temple dancing entirely.
According to scholar Davesh Soneji, the association of temple dancers with courtesanship is a phenomenon of the modern era, emerging in the late 16th or 17th century during the Nayaka period in Tamil Nadu. James Lochtefeld notes that classical dance remained exclusive to Hindu temples through the 19th century, only reaching stages outside temple walls in the 20th. The Thanjavur Maratha kingdom had previously been one of its main patrons.
The East India Company arrived in the 18th century, and British colonial rule hardened in the 19th. Officials and missionaries rejected Bharatanatyam on the grounds that it did not fit 19th-century Anglo-Protestant ideas about modernity, bodies, and sexuality. The adoption of Anglo-Indian laws imposed restrictions on expressions of sexuality and on the bodies of performers. Temple dancing became entangled in multiple competing political agendas, each trying to use the morality question for its own ends. Colonial reforms were largely indifferent to what the destruction of this performing art meant to the communities built around producing it.
E. Krishna Iyer, a lawyer who had studied directly from traditional Sadir practitioners, became one of the most vocal revivalists. He challenged the logic of the ban directly: why, he asked, would prostitution require years of rigorous training in performance arts? Iyer was arrested on charges of nationalism and imprisoned. While in jail, he persuaded his fellow prisoners to support Bharatanatyam.
From across the world, an American dancer named Esther Sherman moved to India in 1930. She learned Indian classical dance forms, changed her name to Ragini Devi, and joined the revival effort. The broader Indian independence movement, already underway, created the political space for cultural reclamation. Artists including Rukmini Devi Arundale, Balasaraswati, and Yamini Krishnamurti championed the Pandanallur and Thanjavur styles of the dance and brought Bharatanatyam onto public stages.
Rukmini Devi Arundale is credited specifically with developing what became the Kalakshetra style. The revival carried Western influences alongside nationalist ones: ideas about democratizing access to the arts shaped how the movement opened Bharatanatyam to a broader population, including middle and upper-class women who had not previously participated in the tradition. State-sponsored dance festivals began in 1955 in independent India, placing Bharatanatyam on a national platform alongside regional artistic traditions. In the late 20th century, Tamil Hindu migrants carried temple dancing traditions into British Tamil temples.
A traditional Bharatanatyam program runs two hours without a break, performed by a single dancer who never leaves the stage. The orchestra, made up of a mridangam (a double-sided drum), nadaswaram (a long oboe carved from black wood), nattuvangam (cymbals), flute, violin, and veena, sits at the back. The vocalist, often also the guru acting as nattuvanar or conductor, leads the music in the Carnatic style of South India. The verses are recited in Tamil and Sanskrit.
The formal debut performance, called an arangetram, which translates as "ascending the stage," typically comes ten to twelve years after a dancer begins training. The student performs solo for roughly three hours. It is the guru who decides when a dancer is ready.
A formal performance follows a seven to eight-part sequence called Margam. It opens with either the Pushpanjali, an offering of flowers and salutations to the deities, the guru, and the audience, or the Alarippu, a rhythmic invocation without melody that serves as a warm-up. The Jatiswaram adds melody to the movement. The Shabdam introduces expressed words for the first time, praising figures such as Krishna, Shiva, Rama, and Murugan. The Varnam is the centerpiece, running anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes and sometimes an hour, with the dancer communicating complex story and emotion through codified gesture and footwork. Padam follows, a more intimate and devotional stage. The Tillana closes the expressive portion with a return to pure rhythmic movement. Finally, a Shlokam or Mangalam calls for blessings on all present.
Balasaraswati described the overall arc as moving from "mere meter; then melody and meter; continuing with music, meaning and meter; its expansion in the centerpiece of the varnam; thereafter, music and meaning without meter; a non-metrical song at the end," and called it "a most wonderful completeness and symmetry."
The hands in Bharatanatyam operate as a coded language. Gestures called Hasta or mudras fall into three types: asamyuta hastas (single-hand gestures), samyuta hastas (two-hand gestures), and nrtta hastas (dance gestures). In the pure movement phases of a performance, these gestures appear as individual vocabulary items. In the expressive phases, they combine into sentences that carry meaning, shaped by the accompanying facial expressions and body language.
The Natya Shastra defines abhinaya, the art of communication in performance, through four aspects: Angika, which is gesture and body language; Vachika, which is song, recitation, and music; Aharya, which is costume, makeup, and jewelry; and Sattvika, which is the artist's internal emotional state and its resonance with the story. The text defines drama in verse 6.10 as something that aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator by connecting and transporting the individual into a sensual inner state of being.
Through this language, a single solo dancer can recite legends from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, and historic drama texts. She uses turns and specific body movements to mark the entry of a new character. Bharatanatyam contains at least 20 asanas found in modern yoga, including Dhanurasana (the bow), Chakrasana (the wheel), Vrikshasana (the tree), and Natarajasana, the pose of the dancing Shiva. The 108 karanas carved in temple statuary depict precisely these connections between dance and the body positions codified in sacred traditions. Bharatanatyam is also considered a form of Bhakti Yoga.
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Common questions
What is Bharatanatyam and where does it come from?
Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form from Tamil Nadu, recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as the oldest classical dance tradition in India. It expresses South Indian religious themes, particularly those of Shaivism and Hinduism more broadly.
Why was Bharatanatyam banned and when was the ban lifted?
The Madras Presidency banned temple dancing in 1910, following an anti-dance movement launched in 1892 by Christian missionaries who characterized the tradition as cover for prostitution. The ban was challenged through the Indian independence movement, and Bharatanatyam was revived as a mainstream public art form in the early 20th century, with state-sponsored festivals beginning in 1955.
What is the Natya Shastra and how does it relate to Bharatanatyam?
The Natya Shastra is a Sanskrit treatise attributed to the ancient scholar Bharata, with its first complete compilation dated to between 500 BCE and 200 CE. It defines the theory of Tandava dance, rasa, bhava, gestures, postures, and acting techniques that form the foundation of Bharatanatyam and other Indian classical dance forms. The most studied version contains about 6,000 verses in 36 chapters.
What is an arangetram in Bharatanatyam?
An arangetram is a solo debut performance marking the completion of a dancer's initial formal training. The term translates as "ascending the stage." It typically takes place ten to twelve years after training begins, and the dancer performs solo for approximately three hours; the timing is set by the guru, not by a fixed schedule.
Who were the key figures in the revival of Bharatanatyam?
E. Krishna Iyer, a lawyer who studied from traditional Sadir practitioners and was imprisoned for his advocacy, and Rukmini Devi Arundale, who developed the Kalakshetra style, were central to the revival. Balasaraswati, Yamini Krishnamurti, and the American dancer Esther Sherman (who took the name Ragini Devi after moving to India in 1930) also played significant roles.
What is the Margam sequence in a Bharatanatyam performance?
Margam is the traditional seven to eight-part order of presentation in a Bharatanatyam performance. It moves from the opening Pushpanjali or Alarippu through Jatiswaram, Shabdam, the central Varnam (which can last 30-45 minutes or more), Padam, Tillana, and finally a Shlokam or Mangalam. Balasaraswati described its arc as moving from pure meter to a final non-metrical song, calling it a "most wonderful completeness and symmetry."
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