TSP lecture by Sadanand Menon

When Swarnamalya Ganesh puts together a talk under the aegis of TSP memorial lecture and it is Sadanand Menon who is delivering it, one can be assured of some brilliant thought provoking speeches that will question, dare and break many of the views that you had held close, unsuspectingly.  

I was a little late and missed the young scholar talk delivered by Kaveri Murthy of TISS. But, from what i could gather from her interactions with the audience, and in particular during q&a it was amply evident that she is a promising talent and willing to challenge traditional outlook. For instance, when one of her relative in the audience, spoke in a matter of pride, how Indian Children living abroad were being sent to dance classes to pick up on their culture, Kaveri was sharp in pointing out why the onus was only on the girls to pick up tradition in this narrative and questioned the kind of upper middle class, south indian traditional girl that these girls were being groomed into by these dance classes. 

Sadanand started off his lecture recounting how TSP reacted to Chandralekha's Angika performance at The Music academy. TSP had gone back stage to squirm at Chandra and ask, 'why were there so many beards and bare chests on the stage'. Of course, this was the time when Chandra had just started collaborating with Kalaripayatu artists. He reminisced how many chats and debates had followed this event and every time they met. However TSP was always at awe of the crowd Chandra's performances pulled soon changed his outlook.

Sadanand's lecture was  titled ' the invention of tradition in Indian Classical dance - the contribution of archaeology'. Sadanand is known to hold very strong opinions and build very strong cases for them. This time, it was no different. Sadanand recounted the birth pangs of the dance form of Bharathanatyam at the hands of Advocate Krishnaiyer around the time of Congress session in Chennai in the year 1927. The incidents and the circumstances are well recounted in this article,

E. Krishna Iyer, one of the Secretaries of the Academy and its driving force in its eventful life of the first decade, was himself a trained musician and dancer. He was eager to introduce the Sadir dance in the Academy’s programme but had to bide his time. In the autumn of 1927, the Council of State in Delhi discussed the motion of a member from Madras for the prevention of dedication of girls as devadasis. The motion was opposed by the then Law Member who held that the existing provisions of the Indian Penal Code were sufficient to deal with the immoral practices that were allegedly a consequence of the devadasi system. In November 1927, the Madras Legislative Council unanimously passed a resolution urging the Madras Government to prepare preventive legislation to stop the devadasi practice. Subsequently, in 1929, the Council legislated an amendment to the H.R. & C.E. Act, empowering temple authorities to disenfranchise devadasis from their temple connections and revoke by civil proceedings the manyams (land settlement and privileges) granted to them. In 1930, S. Muthulakshmi Reddy, a doctor and social leader who belonged to a devadasi family, brought a bill in the Council seeking to prohibit the performance of the devadasi dedicatory ceremonies in any Hindu temple. This was the last straw for pro-art progressives.

These were very exciting times and the news about the devadasi sysyem was in the papers evrey day evoking popular debate on the subject and this subject of the dancing girl attached to the temple, somehow inspired our archaeologists to call the bronze girl figurine they had unearthed at Mohenjadaro as the ' dancing girl' , even though Sadanand was convinced that there was no signs of the figure in any remote dancing posture, he jocularly hinted she could be a girl waiting in the queue to an ATM.

By one stroke of an unsuspecting nomenclature, the Archaeologists, in turn, had pushed the history of Indian dances to thousands of years. This also inspired many proponents of classical dance traditions to claim the 'dancing girl' as their own, for after all, the archaeologists had left it to anyone's guess as to which dance school did the girl belong to.

Krishna iyer and others felt the need to push their case for the Bharathanatyam by sanitising the dance practice that was in vogue then. It is sad that in doing so they had buried the dance practice and the tradition of music that it inspired and that was in vogue for centuries till then. This was also a time when these so called 'shameful tradition' practice was finding followers in the west. It was the dance tradition in this land that inspired the troubadours, french singers of love and western performances such as Radha by Ruth.

Sadanand took us a little back ward in time and narrated the circumstances in which Martha graham quit Denishawn company in 1923 and started her own enquiry into dance, since she felt Denishawn school was increasing getting clogged with decorative styles. The orgin of these decorative styles can be traced to early 1900s, when Ruth Denis performed Radha in 1906 inspired by Hindu mythology. 

Denishawn had made footages of dance forms across asia in their travels here. These are available in archives in California and should be of great use in looking at what was the dance form like before the advent of Bharathanatyam. He rued that not much was being done in researching this aspect because this was a part of history that was being happily erased.

Sadanand rued the fact that the present day dance has taken the form and abandoned the context. it was a highly decorative exercise with no soul. Dance classes increasingly resembled millitary parades and costumes made for half the dance.

Sadanand concluded ruing the fact that tradition was something that was doctored and tampered according to the political needs of the time.

Sharira - ecstasy

Sharira- my journey 

Sharira was an eclectic performance that was waiting to explode on me in all its splendour as it unfolded this evening at Spaces. The wait for it has grown upon me over the years. The expectations of the performance have been creeping and enveloping me over the years. It occurs to me that my little sojourn thus far in appreciating arts and literature and the many stakes that have gone into it, have all played a crucial part in enabling me to understand and appreciate this exquisite piece of performance art.

I believe it was an introduction to Tishani Doshi and her writings in the columns in The Hindu that opened the first windows to appreciating it for me. She was a personification of an exciting mix of literature, poetry and dance for me. I am the kind of person who gets over excited when a poet and a dancer collaborate, as in the case of Arudhathi Subramanium and Alarmel Valli. But imagine how excited I should have been to learn of a poet who also practiced dance.

Then, as I was introduced to Spaces, Sadanand Menon and the oeuvre of Chandralekha, it was only an ideal build up to witnessing this evening’s performance of Sharira. Who better to introduce Chandralekhe than Sadanand, who had been associated with her for a long time as a fellow artist and a critic and seen her oeuvre grow over the years . I consider it a blessing to have been able to attend a couple of sessions and listen to Sadanand speak about Chandralekha.

 © Frederic Soltan/Sygma/Corbis

Through these talks, Chandralekha comes across as a rebel who took immense pride in her stand, ‘ I exist, despite you ( the system)’. It was a kind of Tapas and meditation that she had performed at Spaces in defying the system and creating art in an atmosphere of experimentation and collaboration. For instance, in choreographing a performance, she was particular about doing away with the aspects that appealed to the viewer as ‘beautiful’.

 I understand, she wanted to disturb the viewer, constantly question his aesthetic leanings and redefine it by breaking barriers. She despised performances being framed within a fixed a repertoire. She wanted her performances, and performers to keep evolving.

This was amply evident when Tishani, who has been performing and living with this single piece for more than a decade and a half now, said that the piece has evolved on its own and that she has not made any conscious changes to it.

CL had been an ever thinking artist. I don’t think there were any precedents when she choreographed a work inspired by the mathematical treatise ‘Leelavathi’.

She was always open to collaborations and this helped her art evolve in leaps and bounds. This paved way for her collaborations with, Kalari, Yoga, which would sort of set a trend in classical dances and theatre performances across the country.

The ease and enterprise with CL collaborates is nowhere more evident than how a casual meeting lead to a life long association for Sadanand. And in how a casual follow up meeting with Tishani after CL liked Tishani's review of her book ' Rainbow on the road' led her working in Sharira. What a life long transformation she has left on these wonderful people.

Sharira- the format

Sharira, unfolded in three parts. First there was the invocation of the female form in Shakthi.  It opens up in silence and as the dormant form slowly moving to life, exploring its own form. The strings of the tambura strum in first and fill the air, as the form now starts exploring the space and the freedom around it. The voice then comes in invoking the various names of the Shakthi, like Janani, Jwalamukhi, as the form explores and realises its potentials.

Through out this sequence of invoking the Shakthi,  the dancer stays close to the earth and almost explores movements in a flat frame. She seems to invoke the earth the profound life and potential that the earth holds in it.

 In her movements she questions and breaks all our conceptions of dance. for instance, Jutting forth the back to face the audience and letting the yoni perform movements. There is a treatment of the back and the yoni in executing movements on par with hands that are prominently used to make mudras in conevention. The feet is also used to make mudhraic expressions.

In the second part, the Male dancer comes in just when the Shakthi seems to have touched upon her feminism. Just as the male comes in, Tala is introduced, invoking Shiva and the drum. The male energy tries to engage with the female form with love and play, here the music resembles the buzzing of a bee circling a flower. Shiva is invoked by his aspects of anandha and thandava.

The Male form, played by Kalari artist Shaji John, is visualised as an erect and throbbing one. Its presented in a reddish shade of light, whereas the female form was given a whitish light.

The third part is about the union of Shiva and shakthi and here the music resembles sounds of the waves crushing against the shore.  The union was visualised beautifully like a glorious exploration of the sutras of Kama rasa. I haven’t seen the monuments of Khajuraho, but this performance  made me think that Chandralekha had ventured to create monumental and exquisite performance of that scale.

Sharira- ecstasy :

Sharira was sheer ecstasy to me as it unfolded layer by layer. It invoked ecstasy in its slowness, in its silence, in the music that still rings in my ears, in its movements that seemed to raise from the music, in it making you wonder  was it the other way around, in breaking and redefining aesthetics of movements, in breaking barriers of movements, in visualising ecstasy in movements, in creating the splendour of the ecstasy of union through a jugalbandi of music and performance, in gradually building up and hitting a beautiful climax. 

The Gundecha brothers with their range, modulation and duet of their music were a sheer pleasure to listen to. it was equally ecstatic to close your eyes and just listen to them perform.

Finally, it was the ecstasy for me in being able to relate to an artist and her art.  In her disdain for the convention and appetite for breaking norms and creating new standards, I think Sharira is a result of  Chandralekha’s  bid to disown the the drama in Mudras as symbols and gestures of the hand to convey meanings, and her attempt to create a new lingo of the Mudhras with the whole body, the Sharira. It is such an exciting journey trying to understand the artist, her aspirations and her art. 

The panaromic experience of this performance has kind of redefined ecstasy for me.

A curated walk Through the works of Dashrath Patel with Sadanad Menon

It was the occassion of Chennai Photo Biennale and one of the talks was by Sdanand on the works of the famed Dashrath Patel, the man famously behind the NID. Sadanand is a treasure trove of information on arts and artists for our times, for he has lived through the times of artists and seen them work at close quarters. He has seen the rise of Indian Modernism and has followed its development closely from its very early stages. He is home to so much wonderful archival artistic material and very safely so, for no one else can care for them better.

Sadanand has been closely associated with Dashrath, who was also involved with the  conception and creation of the Spaces. It showed in the number of stories Sadanand had to say about each and every photo of Dashrath, that he walked us thru in the course of his presentation. The presentation had some 100 pics painstakingly gleaned from a collection of 10,000 that has been digitised from a total volume of an whopping  1,20,000 pictures.

Dashrath studied in the Chennai fine arts college under the tutelage of Devi Prasad Roy Chaudri, who had  headed the institute for almost 30 years. It is gladdening to note chennai has had a rooted connection to this artist, some thing to be proud of . ' He was the first assistant to his teacher Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury in the execution of the two iconic sculptures along the Marina Beach – “Triumph of Labour” and the Gandhi statue. For these, Dashrath created the plaster-of-Paris maquettes in various shapes and sizes before the famous bronzes were eventually cast. Fifty years later, he was thrilled to be invited to create a sculpture at the junction along the IT corridor near Tidel Park, on the theme of fire. The 35-feet tall coloured plumes in reinforced concrete will remain his visible signature on the city.(http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2726/stories/20101231272611100.htm)

'Fire' sculpture in RCC at Tidel Park Jn

he did his masters at Bhulabai desai inst, Mumbai , where he was contemporaries with the likes of MF Hussain, Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta. Bhulabai was an attorney and had famously defended the INA soldiers and  had assisted in the defence of Bhagat Singh.

While talking of the Bombay artists Sadanand just can't pass without mentioning the anecdote of the travails of the Bomabay artists to sell their works and how Bhulabai would invite a monied business man and show him around the works of these artists in a bid to sell and the camaraderie among the artists.

And then talking of Dashrath's journey comes an anecdote i have heard quite a few times from Sadanand himself, the story of Dashrath Patel's first encounter with, Henri Cartier-Bresson:

"He was really interested in seeking," Patel points out, "Taking photographs was secondary. His main interest was in seeing. He was interested in everything around him and in knowing what people were doing... When I exhibited at the Galerie Barbizon, Cartier-Bresson had come to see. Afterwards he put his camera in my hand and said, 'Can you shoot a frame for me?' At that time I hated the camera. All I wanted was to draw at the time. I said, 'I don't do photography. Why should I?' He said, 'You are clear in your drawing, but I also want to know what you see with another tool.' So I clicked a shot and forgot about it. Couple of weeks later he invited me home for a meal and to meet his wife. He showed me many prints. He held up one and said, 'You like it?' By then I had already forgotten that I had shot a picture with his camera - I had done it with so much resistance and prejudice. I said, 'Yes, it's very well seen!' He said 'It's you and it's important you buy a camera and work with it!' That's how I got my first camera."

(from: http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1615/16150820.htm)

Dashrath comes back and takes up to photography just as a fish to water. He always had an artisan's keenness to learn every details of an art. so he learned the intricacies of making prints as well.

Dashrath went to learn ceramics in Czechoslavakia and when he came back he was offered the postion of leading NID, which had just then been created based on a report by Charles Eames and the support of Sarabhai foundation. ( In their report the Eames interestingly glorify the design of the 'lota'). During his tenure heading the NID, Dashrath is also assigned the responsiblity of showcasing India in art fairs abroad and at home.

In a bid to capture the 'idea of India' Dashrath undertakes three all India tours in an Ambassador. It is through these photos that the world would look to India as a colourful and Vibrant country for a long time.

Many of Dahsrath's photos are in the nature of capturing the folk in action. the folk carrying burden effortlessly, their gait and pose find a prominent documentation.  His frames often have vibrant colours on one side and light shades on the other. He captured the designs that captivates him, be it the simple knots of a rope carrying a burden , or the designs on fabrics, jewelry or stone sculptures, he never misses them.

While looking at these photos one feels helpless in the rampant way we are loosing the richness and vibrancy of this culture and diversity to the all consuming giant of modernity, the ruthless vanquishing of our rich heritage and diversity rich land being turned into tabloid models of diversity in the middle of a concrete jungle. We are now being taught to take salvage and pride in belonging to this modern concrete culture.

A bunch of photos capturing  banners of Tamil movie advertisements and wall writings carrying sarcastic political remarks and caricatures is great material for a hearty laughter and some thoughts on where have such fine political commentators vanished.

Through the Talk Dashrath comes across as the fine crafts man who never stopped or Shied away from learning, be it clay pottery or working with design software on a Mac. His strength was his artisanal mind that made him innovate with whatever little resource at his disposal.

The design of a wooden collar with many cameras to give a 360" view, well recounted in Sadanand's words,

‘In 1967, Dashrath… creat[ed] a 9-screen 360° projection of "A Journey in India" for the India pavilion at the Montreal Fair, with no access to high-tech equipment. Faced with the task of having to create a "circarama" effect, he devised a plywood housing for nine cameras which he would wear around his neck. Linked to a single remote shutter release apparatus, the cameras facing different directions would go off simultaneously to create the effect of "shooting in the round".’(http://www.india-seminar.com/2014/659/659_nancy_adajania.htm

Dashrath Patel surrounded by his 9-screen projection, India Pavilion, Montreal World Fair, 1967. Image courtesy The Dashrath Patel Museum.

This innovation  gets even more fascinating when you learn of the spirit that this was Dashrath's answer to ...Eameses’ spectacular IBM pavilion at the New York World’s Fair (1964/1965), an ovoid theatre (the ‘Information Machine’) was equipped with multiple screens, live performances and a seated audience that was raised fifty feet high by a hydraulic lift.

Dashrath's passion for tweaking with the elements, made him an expert  problem solver. When Sadanand recounted how Dashrath had relieved M. Krishnan on a sticky evening when he could not get a photo print right by swaying his magic wand, you could feel what a resourceful person he was. 

In retrospect, Dashrath will be remembred as someone who started off inspired and bearing the flag of Nehruvian romanticism and modernism and in later life resigned to Gandhian activism leaving behind the romance of the megalomania and helping with grass root activities aimed at rejuvenating the village economy.