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Sacred Dance
Associated to Place: AncientWorlds > The Orient > India > articles -- by * Feiyan Zhou (78 Articles), Historical Article 1 Featured May 30 , 2005
Traditional dance in India is an expression of religious beliefs and an intricate form of storytelling which dates from antiquity



In India, dance is a form of communication between gods and men. The dancers are in harmony with the cosmic rhythm and the deities manifest themselves in the dancers, elevating the audience to a higher spiritual level. Dance is embodied in the Nataraja Shiva, whose dancing posture depicts creation, preservation, and destruction, the basic elements of the Hindu faith. Nataraja is synonymous with the spirit of the dance of life.

The earliest archaeological evidence of dance in the Indian culture is a bronze dancing girl found at Harappa, an artifact from the Sindhu-Saraswati civilization which flourished around 7000 years ago.

The basic precepts of Indian dance are found in the Natya Shastra, an ancient text on stagecraft which includes information on music, dance, stage design, costumes and even makeup. This is the only text which describes ancient music and instruments in detail. It was written sometime between the second century BCE and the second century CE and is often thought of as the fifth Veda. The Natya Shastra is commonly attributed to Bharata Muni, though some scholars believe that it was written by several people over a period of time and was based on the earlier Natya Sutras, of which there are no surviving copies.

One of the legends surrounding the origin of Indian dance tells that Bharata the Sage went to Lord Shiva and asked him for an art form that would demonstrate the spirit of the Vedas to the populace, since only certain people were allowed to actually study the holy texts. Shiva granted his wish and took parts from each of the other four Vedas to create the Natya. From the Rig Veda he took literature, song from the Sama Veda, abhinaya, the interpretation of words set to music, from the Yajur Veda and rasa, emotion or aesthetic experience, from the Atharvana Veda.

The nine rasas embody different emotions and form the structure of all Indian dance. These are: hasya (happiness), krodha (anger), bhibasta (disgust), bhaya (fear), shoka (sorrow), viram (courage), karuna (compassion), adbhuta (wonder) and shanta (serenity). You can see photographs of a face expressing each rasa here.

Also important to an understanding of Indian dance and described in the Natya are the mudras, which are symbolic body postures and hand gestures. Illustrations and explanations of the ten most important mudras can be found here.

There are three basic elements of Indian dance. Nritta is the rhythmic element and is the basic movement of the body, apart from any meaning or emotion. Nritya combines rhythm with emotion through rasa and the mudras. Most dances are comprised of nritta and nritya. The third element is natya, drama conveyed through the spoken word.

Most Indian dances are based on stories and themes from Indian mythology and folklore. In order to understand the dances, one must be familiar with these legends. Woven into the ancient tales are stories of the everyday lives, ethics and beliefs of the Indian people, making the dance a common language understood by both the dancers and the audience.



Sources:
http://www.webindia123.com/dances/index.htm
http://www.indembassyhavana.cu/culture/dance/intro.htm
http://www.geocities.com/fisik_99/dance_gen.htm


Originally posted at Bharat Mata
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Posted May 29, 2005 - 23:20 , Last Edited: May 30, 2005 - 10:22











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