Rukmini Devi and her vision
Meenakshi Srinivasan
``WHY REMEMBER Rukmini Devi?" thundered Avanthi Meduri ``Why study her? Why is there a proactive research necessary for thematic studies on her work and how she evolved her vision?" providing an answer herself, Avanthi stated emphatically that a study of Rukmini Devi Arundale and her work was absolutely essential to understand the past and the future of dance.
Whether one wanted to think of tradition or contemporary dance. She is the central figure to the understanding of the dance. The emphatic statement was made at the seminar on Rukmini Devi organised by the Centre for Contemporary Cultures, New Delhi with Kartik Fine Arts.
Avanthi also went on to assert that Kalakshetra must offer a scholarly course on the way Rukmini Devi evolved her vision. It becomes essential in the face of scholars from North America deriding Rukmini Devi for Brahminising and Sanskritising the dance form that essentially belonged to the Devadasis and the Isai Vellalar Community. She appropriated the dance and destroyed the community said scholar Amrit Srinivasan. Avanthi refuted by saying that the use of Sanskrit had already happened when Rukmini Devi came on the scene and instead of appropriating she actually democratised the dance form and made it available to anyone wishing to learn it. She had broken with tradition of doing the Nattuvangam herself for A. Sharada's arrangetram, as there were personal reasons for the traditional Nattuvanars to have deserted her at the time of need.
Taking this point further, dancer Lakshmi Viswanathan elaborated on the role of Rukmini Devi in the current dance scene in an eloquent paper. She said Rukmini Devi's work had to be judged in the context of the time. She came from an unorthodox Brahmin family which had taken to Theosophy. She married a foreigner and travelled abroad and danced ballet wearing the Ballet Tutu. What could have been more unorthodox than that in the early thirties, asked Lakshmi. Rukmini Devi had a world vision of art and the Swadeshi movement had given her a purpose. Radha Bernier, who spoke earlier, maintained a dignified distance between herself and Rukmini Devi even though she had been Rukmini Devi's niece and her first student. She spoke of Rukmini Devi's circumstances where her brother had encouraged his mother not to shave her head when she was widowed and had agreed to Rukmini Devi marrying a foreigner. It was but natural that Rukmini Devi became a rebel since the early theosophists had all been rebels and their eclectic cultural exposure had given her a world vision.
``To be truly Indian is to be truly International," said Radha Bernier. ``The theosophical idea of welcoming and embracing different religions and thinking are most relevant today, Theosophy taught Rukmini Devi to express universal life and to respond to beauty to uplift consciousness. Rukmini Devi Arundale as she is known to the outside world could not have existed if she had not been a theosophist," she asserted.
Krishnaveni Lakshman who received the Rukmini Devi Medal for Excellence in Arts from Vyjayanthimala shows up the massive scroll.
V. P. Dhananjayan gave a characteristic statement about the need to discuss the subject in more forums and Krishnaveni Lakshmanan spoke about her own association with Rukmini Devi describing incidents like the time when Rukmini Devi had given the young dancers a chance to compose the scene where Shakuntala feigns to have been pricked by a thorn only to look at Dushyantha again.
When she performed the same thing, it had all the maturity and understanding of the form and content, said Krishnaveni. In the evening, there was a spirited Bharathanatyam recital by Meenakshi Srinivasan. Meenakshi presented a non-Kalakshetra style retaining much of mannerisms of her earlier guru Alarmel Valli. There was an effervescence, joy and energy in the jumps and adavu executions. She used the stage space well and danced with great confidence.
Krishnaveni Lakshmanan was awarded the Rukmini Devi medal instituted by the Centre for Contemporary Culture, New Delhi.
Vyjayanthimala Bali handed over the award to her. A long citation was read by the academic director of the centre, Avanthi Meduri.
After such a scholarly deliberation and talk of correctly representing history, the dance drama ``Dheerga darshini Rukmini Devi" was rather disappointing.
It started a bit late and then precious time was wasted in fictional depictions of Rukmini Devi's birth and her father ordering young girls to perform dance to celebrate her birth when at that time dance would have been taboo.
The role of Chokkalingam Pillai as the person who took the lead in organising the debut performance by getting the décor arranged and inviting everyone in. By the time he took the place of Neela in the real time nattuvangam and sat next to the singer Saishankar who gave a listless, Bhavaless, singing to show us the conducting of ``Ananda Natana Prakasham" that Rukmini Devi had performed at her debut, it was too late to stay in the hall. Gayathri Balagurunathan looked good as Rukmini Devi.
V. R. DEVIKA
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