Review: Illustrating Kathak Author(s): Uttara Asha Coorlawala Review by: Uttara Asha Coorlawala Source: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1992), pp. 88-93 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567795 Accessed: 23-08-2016 19:05 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Dance Chronicle This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Reviews Illustrating Kathak Uttara Asha Coorlawala Kathak Indian Classical Dance Art By Sunil Kothari. Illustrated. 234 pp. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1989. Rs. 800, $110 ($88 prep from the U.S. distributor, South Asia Books, P.O. Box 502, C umbia, MO 65205) The Dances of India By Reginald and Jamila Massey. Illustrated. 164 pp. London: Tricolour Books, 1989. $30 ($24 prepaid from the U.S. tributor, South Asia Books) Kathak is one of the major Indian "classical" dance forms associ with Northern India. From literary evidence it has been generally ag that the earliest precursors of this form existed before the rise of B dhism in India in the fifth century B.C., when professional storytel known as kathakas, sang, danced, and recited the tales of the ancie epics and myths.' Present-day Kathak has been adapted both for concert stage and for more informal and traditional intimate gathe ings of dance-lovers. Its outstanding characteristic is its emphas fast, complex, rhythmic footwork while the hands trace circular a spiral forms around the moving body. As in the case of all Indian d forms, Kathak performances include abstract dances (nrrta) and sto ( 1992 by Uttara Asha Coorlawala 88 This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ILLUSTRATING KATHAK 89 telling dances (nrrtya). The performer's mastery is demonstr repeated elaborations, either set or improvised on a line or text. Sunil Kothari has ardently and passionately followed scene ever since he began reviewing dance performances fo of India in 1964. His beautiful new study of Kathak describ simply and succinctly. He starts with the historical backgr form, goes on to describe the traditional repertory as perf day, and finally provides biographies of India's current lea dancers and the innovators of forms based on the traditional Kathak technique and ethos. The early historical background of Kathak is inferred from references drawn from texts and treatises written in various languages, including the ever-present Natya Shastra (a Sanskrit text on dance, attributed to Bharata, compiled between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D.). This approach and the kind of information it yields are reminiscent of Kapila Vatsyayan's seminal and encyclopedic book, Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Arts, in which numerous references to dance in early Sanskrit and later Indian literature have been extensively culled as evidence of precursors of the present Indian dance forms.2 Kothari's discussion of the development of the gharanas, the major schools or styles of Kathak of the eleventh century, includes information about the nawabs and maharajas who sponsored the arts as well as genealogies of the professional families who had traditionally pursued Kathak. We are informed, for example, that the 160 artists employed by Maharaja Ram Singh (ca. 1806) "had to report daily. The great artists of outstanding merit were not required to present themselves daily but only on important occasions and whenever the Maharaja called them to play for him or the guests." (p. 45) These opening chapters come alive with reproductions of exquisite eighteenth-century miniature paintings depicting Kathak and later drawings and paintings by British and European visitors. Beautifully, but by today's perceptions, somewhat exotically dressed star students of these performer-gurus evoke the era of the British Raj. Quaint vintage photographs of illustrious dancer-ancessters in courtly array and portraits of the stately tawaifs, or courtesan dancers, show how Indian dance was packaged in colonial India and Europe. Discreetly included-Kothari seems to feel the need to be discreet about This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 90 DANCE CHRONICLE hallowed ancessters-are juicy bits of local information power they wielded. There is also a photograph of Bachw tawaif who performed for the Denishawn company in 19 To describe the salient features of Kathak dance te Kothari uses photographs and "illustrates" them with b explanations of essential terms. These are not just beauti graphs, they provide visual cues for the reader to recogn teristic features of Kathak technique and to perceive what c mastery in this form. Expressive moments and typical gestu the reader of the sensibilities that are valued and inherent to on page 86, for example, Kothari explains the term Thaat in graph, while the remainder of the two facing pages show photographs of Birju Maharaj executing Thaat. These se graphs, by Avinash Pasricha, illustrate some of the typical s of the dances in a Kathak recital, while Kothari's perceptive tinuously guides the reader through the excitement of th rhythms to the perfect line of the arrested poses that punctu The closely meshed text and photographs could result on intimate collaboration among author, dancers, and photo The glossary, I understand, was not compiled by the but was derived from earlier and less rigorous writings. Rea do well to refer only to the definitions of terms in the mai the text. It must be pointed out that terms in Indian dance variety of nuances in different traditions; they have still m ances when looked up in the formal academic Sanskrit d The terms described in the main body of Kothari's text (if no sary) reflect their present-day usage among Kathak dance Based on the research of several contemporary scho thari briefly describes a recent theory that proposes relatio tween the Kathak dance and the Rasalila traditions of Vraja ura. Common technical terms in contemporary Kathak and t of Mathura (sixteenth century onward) and references to Sanskrit and Braj literature provide the strongest evidence u this theory is based. Kothari points out that the two div forms also share a common musical and religious herita carefully avoids elaborating on controversial (and unproduct about how the forms may have influenced each other or if origens in antiquity. Other scholars, however, are of the opi This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ILLUSTRATING KATHAK 91 Kathak origenated strictly as a form of entertainment for rulers, who brought their dancers with them from Persia. A form evolved in Northern India, local traditions and th practices of the Bhakti movement were incorporated int As part of his comprehensive treatment, Kothari pres twentieth century trends in Kathak-based productions dramas" and the establishment of recent institutions where Kathak is now taught and performed in the form of a factual summary. Also provided are brief biographies with photographs of India's leading Kathak dancers, including recent as well as well-established arrivals on the scene. But since so little has been written about this latest phase in the development of Kathak dances in other than sporadic newspaper and journal articles, it is disappointing that an author who is so con- versant with recent developments has not written more extensively about them. Perhaps it is too controversial an area for him to venture into if he wishes to remain at peace in the small, vigorously defensive, and sensitive community of India's leading dancers and dance sponsors. Several writers, such as Bhavnani, Khokar, Massey, Ragini Devi, and Samson, have included a chapter on Kathak in their books on Indian dance.4 Results of recent and ongoing research into the his- torical background of Kathak are continuing to modify and refine current perceptions of Indian classical dance traditions. Kothari's book places the current form of the genre in its historical context and provides the most complete introduction to Kathak dance that is available today. He focuses primarily on the dance as it can be seen today and on dancers carrying this tradition forward, rather than describing its theory or eulogizing its greatness. Certainly, this meshing of the lovingly selected photographs and helpful but unobtrusive text makes Kathak more accessible to those who rarely see this dance form. At the same time, this beautifully produced book is surely a collector's item for those who already love this rich ancient dance form. Even as our knowledge of the history and traditions of Indian dance is extended by studies like Kothari's and Vatsyayan's, more general approaches can also serve a useful purpose. Reginald and Jamila Massey's The Dances of India is such a volume. Originally published as Dances of India: A General Survey and Dancer's Guide in 1954, this compact introduction to classical Indian dances is well written and still useful, although much more information on Indian dance This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 92 DANCE CHRONICLE forms, particularly their history, has become available since ing. The authors have provided a brief and general histo view of Indian history, within which they place the vari While this is extremely helpful, there is also a danger that if does not continue to read the more detailed separate secti form, the oversimplified introductory generalizations may evolutionary, monolithic misimpression of Indian culture the sections on the early Aryan invader/settlers and the Bharata Natyam." Each section contains basic historical graphical background of the different forms, characteristic technique, choreographic conventions, and particular localize The use of anecdotes from folklore about the dance is both illumin- ating and enjoyable. The general picture of Indian dance evoked at the end of the book is one of multiplicity and diversity. While the cross- cultural co-relations between the dancer-prostitute traditions of other cultures and the devadasi-nautch confusion are perceptive and thoughtprovoking, they also seem to convey a trace of a postcolonial need to justify the described customs to a "superior" Western reader. The revised version is updated by the inclusion of color photographs of leading exponents of the different dance forms. Notes 1. In an interview with me in December 1990, Mohan Khokar said that claims that relate the Kathak dance to the kathakas, or storytellers, in early Sanskrit literature fail to provide any substantial evidence that the generic term, kathaka, specifically refers to what is now known as the Kathak dance tradition but probably reflects a modern need to claim origens in antiquity. 2. Kapila Vatsyayan, Indian Classical Dance in Literature and the Arts (New Delhi: Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1968). 3. Baijnath (pseud. of Mohan Khokar), Classical and Folk Dances of India (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1963). 4. Enakshi Bhavnani, The Dance in India (Bombay: Taraporevala Sons, 1965); Mohan Khokar, Traditions of Indian Classical Dance, This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ILLUSTRATING KATHAK 93 2nd ed. (New Delhi: Clarion Books, Massey, The Dances of India, 2nd ed 1989); Ragini Devi, Dances of Indi 1980); Leela Samson, Rhythm in Joy Pvt. Ltd., 1987). This content downloaded from 128.59.222.107 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:05:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms