A few days back, I had the honor of watching the Super bowl 2012 (on the television though). During the half time a performance by a certain artist drew strong criticism from the media. It appeared that the artist had pointed the middle finger which was considered inappropriate.
I was made aware for the first time of this “inappropriateness” a few months back at a school leadership retreat and had been disturbed ever since.
I am an amateur “Bharatnatyam” dancer and perform this classical Indian dance as a hobby. Bharatnatyam is a very ancient art form practiced in India. For most part of the 18th centuries, it was considered a low and a vulgar art practiced only by the temple dwellers or the”Devadasis”, according to Wikipedia. Wiki further adds that it took great efforts from reformists like Rukmini Devi Arundale to revive this ancient art form. The Indian government honored her services by awarding her the title “Padma Bhusan” in 1956.
Rukmini Devi was born in an elite family in the conservative India and struggled to revive this art form which was then called “Sadhir”. She gave this art a new name “Bhartanatyam” or the dance performed as per the instructions of “Bharata”: an ancient Indian seer considered an authority on dance and drama.
During the Baratnatyam performance the dancer through her body language and gestures tells a story usually in praise of a local deity. The gestures made by the hand, called the “mudras” together with the eye movements and the body movements called “gatis” symbolically suggest certain events of the story. The hand gestures are also called the “hastas”. Single hand gesture is the “Asamayukta hastas” and those with both the hands are “Samyukta hastas”.
Having given the necessary background let me now address my real concern. There are 27 single hand gestures. One of them is the Shukatunda, which roughly translated means the beak of a parrot. This gesture is used usually to depict knowledge, a warrior, to remember etc. This hasta closely resembles the “inappropriate” gesture in question. There is a slight difference though, in the Shukatunda, the pinki is also pointed upwards, but, it is usually not very prominent on stage especially for an artist of short stature like me.
Now, does this mean that I cannot perform Bharatnatyam for the fear of being ridiculed for inappropriate behavior? In 2011, I had performed a small piece of this elegant dance form at school and it had drawn a lot of appreciation. Folks had liked the costume and I had taken a lot of questions from the audience.
My question to my readers: Should we not as a society be more accommodative in the larger interest of preserving an ancient art form? I do not mean to be disrespectful, but I did not find any strong evidence to justify this view. Excepting a few references during the 7th and the 8th centuries, there haven’t been any serious issues in this regard in the modern times. Is it not time that we put this as a thing of the past and carry on………..
