NAVADURGA NITYARCHANA

 It is the image that gets imprinted in the mind and that is where our thought starts. The thought evolves into meditation, leads to belief, and finally devotion to the image which is so imprinted in our hearts. One of the main purposes of Indian Sculpture is to achieve and understand the same process.
In sculpture, the imaginary takes the form of a visionary state. This state helps the mind to understand why the image has been conceived and how it connect the mind to the indefinite cosmos and the energy around us. 

 THE ANANDA TANDAVA
Lord Shiva first danced in the forest of Thillai, where the present-day Chidambaram temple stands. The dance was the Ananda Tandava, the dance of joy displaying rhythmic energy on which the entire Universe sustains and it is in this form of Nataraja that lord Shiva is seen in the temple of Chidambaram. 

 The FIVE DANCING HALLS OF LORD SHIVA
What is the best stage for the Lord of the Universe to dance? Where the cosmos tunes a rhythm and manifests into a movement, there, gets created the dancing hall or the Nartana Sabha of the Lord Nataraja. There are five temples that are known as his dancing Halls wherein the Almighty is worshipped in the form of a dancing deity. 

 Presenting Raksha and Aashritha who joined Muvva as Online students. Indeed glad to see their interest taking shape.. 

 Dance is about the balance of movement and mind achieved through hard work and passion. While undergoing training in this aspect of dance, Laasya and Akashaya present the balance of nritta and abhinaya through excerpts from the popular keertana Brindavana Nilaye..  

 This time, our little learners really got upto their feet to present the Chiru Muvvalu episode. This is the first performance of this batch from our Institute and we have only one thing to say... Keep  the passion going!!
Presenting our youngest lot of Muvva... Please do watch and bless our little ones... 

It is not beyond comprehension that the temple was a place of great learning and the people associated with it were well versed in various arts and sastras. out of the many rituals, dance and music were considered one of the main ritual activities through which the deity was worshipped. There were many dancers appointed for different activities in the temples, out of which the Chamara Dharinis or the Chauri bearers were one of the important ones. Their main duty was to fan the deity apart from dancing and music activities in the temple.

In the above sculpture, one can see the Chamara Dharini positioned in the Chinna kati (pushing the waist to a side), feet although a little apart, depicting the Samapada position (normal position). The right hand is in Ardha Chandra is placed on the waist, giving the posture a graceful finish, while in the right hand she holds the chamara or the fan in the Musti hasta ( fist) The beauty of the sculpture is completed with the Trasya greeva (neck raised obliquely to a side).
 

There are many similarities in dance and sculpture, one being the human body as the common instrument to depict a posture or an image. Taking this common feature, the Chalukyan sculpture bought out many of the hidden beauties of grace and skill through dance postures freezed in movements of sculptures. Dance movements from the Natya Sastra especially the karanas (movements of body, hands and feet, sometimes simple, sometimes complex) were one of the popular themes carved in the temples to bring out beauty, grace and subtleness into the temple sculptures.
This throws light on an important aspect that both the dancers and the sculptors were well versed in dance terminology and sculptural iconography to get the figurine carved in the right way, thus proving a close interrelation of both the arts. The Chalukyas encouraged this development and hence, many of the classical and folk forms came to be carved on the temple walls. While the Alampur temple boasts of beautiful marga traditions carved on its walls, the temples of Lakkundi, Gadag and Tripurantakeswara temple.
A Yaksha figure from the Sangameshwara temple of Almapur depicting the Vidyutbhranta karana (Lightning turn) from the Natya Sastra. 

 Salabhanjika, literally meaning Sala Stri (meaning young girls decorating themselves with the beautiful flowers of the Sala Tree) This indicates the playful nature of the young girls associated with music and dance. The term Sala was popular for the reason that it was associated with the birth of Gautama Buddha, and the dancers danced with joy on the occasion of his birth.

The earliest reference of the Salabhanjika can be seen in the temple of Sanchi in the Buddhist Era.

During this time, dance and music were considered as the activities of the celestials. Representing the same, most figurines were carved in light weight, with their hands stretched out and reaching for the sky or in aerial movements, depicting a floating effect and the heavenly nature of dance.

Above is the image of a Salabhanjika with feet in Swastika (crossed position) and the hand in Musti (a closed fist) holding the branch of the Sala tree. 

While one gazes with wonder at this Kalinga architectural temple believed to be built in the 13th century, there is yet another amazing feature of this temple which is the Nata Mandir, namely the Dancing Hall.

The Nata Mandir is in the main complex of the temple. It is a square shaped raised platform having entrances from four sides. The Nata Mandir boasts of intricate and beautiful images of dancers and musicians on its pillars. It is believed that the devadasi who were dancing girls devoted to the services through dance and music used to dance in this Mantapa offering homage to Sun God.

As an honour to the great architecture and the history of the temple, the Annual Konark Dance Festival is conducted with great splendour. 

One of the major development in sculptural art during the Chalukyan times was that apart from the celestial figurines, there were additions of human figurines of nartakis ( female dancers) and nartakas ( male dancers) in the temple sculptures. This was because dance was slowly becoming a practising art and an integral part of society. The most popular dance work of the times, Manasollasam was written by the Chalukyan king Someswara which mentioned the marga ( classical form) and the desi ( regional forms) popular during the times and these found their way onto the temple walls. This was the first attempt where the dance movements mentioned in the regional treatises apart from the Pan Indian treatise Natya Sastra were finding a place in the temple sculptures.
These human figurines sculptures initially depicted minimal usage of hastas ( hand movements) and simple postures. As time progressed, there were many more additions of complex movements and postures.

A nartaki sculpture from the Alampur temple. While the feet can be seen in kuncita, ( toes touching the ground, heel raised) the hands resemble the Pataka ( palm straight and fingers together)as if holding something. The Kati (waist)is slightly pushed to a side resembling the Chinna ( side) movement.
A dancer trying to enact the same posture for a better understanding of the technique seen in the sculpture.
 

 Bhaja Caves is a group of 22 rock-cut caves dating back to the 2nd century BC located near Lonawala in Maharashtra. The caves are 400 feet above the village of Bhaja, on an important ancient trade route running from the Arabian Sea eastward into the Deccan Plateau (the division between North India and South India).

These caves have a very special sculpture of a woman playing Tabla and another group performing dance. This provides important proof regarding the history of the Tabla, or Pushkara then called; an Indian percussion instrument.

The carvings prove that tabla – a percussion instrument – was used in India for at least 2300 years, disproving the centuries-held belief that the tabla was introduced to India by outsiders or from Turko-Arab. It also proves the relationship in dance and music has existed for atleast 2,300 years. And this is probably the oldest sculpture that talks about both music and dance. 

 Presently located at Amaravathi village in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, the Amaravati Stupa was built around the third century B. C. ( please check the time period correctly..

By this time, different schools of sculpture began to evolve while including simple dance movements from the Natya Sastra like the Kuncita, ( the toes touching the ground and heel raised up), swastika (crossed position of the feet) along with hand gestures like the Pataka ( flat plam with fingers together) and so on. Added to this were the movements of the hips and torse which gave the sculpture a graceful and a refined finish.

The stories of Gautama Buddha were the chosen themes , apart from the Bodhisatva and the Jataka tales.

 When it comes to dance sculptures, the Gupta period defines the perfect rules of dance iconography in terms of technique and style. The important development in this age was attaining a balance between the sensousness and symbolic representations. It was in this age that dance sculptures came to be carved according the norms of Sampoorna Purusha ( perfect man) and Padmini Stri ( perfect woman) mentioned in the Silpa Sastra and the Natya Sastra. Although Buddhist themes were still prominent, it was during this period that themes from the Ramayan and Bhagavatamand other themes from the Puranas came to be seen on the temple walls.

Above is a sculpture from the
Ellora Caves of Lord Shiva dancing for an audience of celestials. He is seen in the kuncita foot ( toes touching the ground). He holds the waist in the chinna kati ( waist pushed to one side) . The middle hand on the right side is in Dola ( swaying position) and the front hand in the left side is in the udwesthita ( turned out position).
 

 In the previous articles in the series, we read about the dance sculptures in Harappan times and the era of cave temples.

The seventh-century bought in significant transformations in dance sculptures. The significant change was that apart from the celestial beings, human figurines started to appear in form of nartakis ( female dancers) and nartakas ( male dancers) on temple walls.
Added to this was the reduction of spiritual illumination and calmness and replacing these movements with dynamic movements and postures showing the supernatural energy of dance.

This was completed with beautiful ornamentation and clothing in varied styles showing that the dancers were beautiful fashionistas!!!
 

Experimentation in dance sculptures took a great leap forward in the times of the Chalukyan dynasty. The Chalukyas who ruled around the 6th to the 8th centuries were great patrons of art and it reflected in their dance, music, and sculptural contributions to the history of Arts. The Badami Chalukyas have played a significant role in defining new trends and experimentation in areas of dance and dance sculpture.

The temple of Aihole, situated on the banks of Malaprabha River is a sandstone structure said to be built around 550 A.D. The most popular here is the Ravan Pahadi cave, which boasts of a beautiful and ornate figure of Lord Nataraja dancing the Tandava after killing the demon Andhaka. Nataraja is seen with ten arms holding the damaru, the snake, the danda while other hands depict dance movements like Dola (natural sway of the hand gracefully) Arala (first right in the pic- where the thumb and forefinger are joined and the rest of the fingers are spread out), with feet in Kuncita (toes touching the ground) and Katyavalambita posture (hip pushed to a side and hand placed on the thigh).

The uniqueness of this sculpture is that along with Ganesha, Kartikeya, and Goddess Parvathi, Nataraja is seen accompanying with the Saptamatirkas, instead of his regular Ganas, which also speaks of importance given to women in highlighting them as a representation of power and courage, more than beauty and grace.
 

The contributions of Chalukyans in terms of dance sculpture are indeed noteworthy. The significant feature in this period was that not only the images of Dancing Shiva, but sculptures of the Gandharvas (divine celestials adept in dance and music), the Yakshas ( dwarf-sized demi gods, adept in dance and music, but more famous for their mischievous ways) and the Vidyadharas and Kinneras (celestials with half-human and half swan-shaped, adept in music) were depicted in beautiful dance movements, which not only were graceful but also were related to the technique defined in the Natya Sastra and other dance treatises.
The Alampur group of temples built by the Kalyani Chalukyas in this manner have dominantly the Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kinneras, and Vidhyadharas sculpted as worshipping Lord Shiva through dance and music. As they are aerial divinities, it can be dominantly seen that all these sculptures are carved on the upper panels of the pillars, or gopuras of the temple depicting their flying nature.
Figures of Gandharvas from the Viswa Brahma, Swarga Brahma, and the Bala Brahma temples are carved in tender beauty and grace depicting the same. They are seen in a posture similar to the Vrschika Karana (one of the legs raised upward with the feet pointing upwards out, resembling a scorpion’s tail) holding lotuses in hands, or joining hands in Anjali hasta (namaskar) as a mark of worship and offering salutations to Lord Shiva, who is the main deity of the temple.

Where do we see the very first reference of dancing in a sculpture? The answer is back to the 3rd century BCE.

Dancing Girl is a prehistoric bronze sculpture made in lost-wax casting about c. 2300–1750 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilisation city of Mohenjo-Daro (in modern-day Pakistan), which was one of the earliest cities. The statue is 10.5 centimeters (4.1 in) tall, and depicts a nude young woman or girl with stylized ornaments, standing in a confident, naturalistic pose. Dancing Girl is well-regarded as the earliest reference to dance in sculptures.

The sculpture is currently available for display at National Museum, Delhi