nartanam.in · Nartanam, founded by Kuchipudi Kala Kendra, Mumbai, now owned and published by Sahrdaya Arts Trust, Hyderabad, is a quarterly which provides a forum for scholarly dialogue

Sahrdaya Arts TrustHyderabad

A Quarterly Journal of Indian DanceVolume: XVIII, No. 3 July-September 2018

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Editor: Madhavi Puranam

RNI No. APENG2001/04294ISSN 2455-7250

Chief EditorMadhavi Puranam

Past issues can be obtained from our office@ ` 350/- per copy for individuals@ ` 500/- per copy for instiutions(Inclusive of postage in India; Subject to availabil-ity; Please check with the office.)

Founders

Anuradha Jonnalagadda (Scholar, Kuchipudi dancer)

Avinash Pasricha (Former Photo Editor, SPAN; SNA Awardee)C.V. Chandrasekhar (Bharatanatyam Guru, Padma Bhushan)Kedar Mishra (Poet, Scholar, Critic)Kiran Seth (Padma Shri; Founder, SPIC MACAY)Leela Venkataraman (Critic, Scholar, SNA Awardee)Mallika Kandali (Sattriya dancer, Scholar)Manjari Sinha (Critic, Scholar)Pappu Venugopala Rao (Scholar; Former Secretary, MusicAcademy; SNA Awardee)Reginald Massey (Poet, FRSA, Freeman of London)Sunil Kothari (Scholar, Padma Shri and SNA Awardee,Fellow of SNA)Suresh K. Goel (Former Director General, ICCR)

Cover, Design & LayoutShakeel Ahmed

Cover Photo:Some of the members and contributors toJayantikaPhotos: Nartanam Archives andIleana Citaristi

Nartanam, founded by Kuchipudi KalaKendra, Mumbai, now owned andpublished by Sahrdaya Arts Trust,Hyderabad, is a quarterly which providesa forum for scholarly dialogue on abroad range of topics concerning Indiandance. Its concerns are theoretical as wellas performative. Textual studies, dancecriticism, intellectual and interpretativehistory of Indian dance traditions are itsfocus. It publishes performance reviewsand covers all major events in the fieldof dance in India and notes and commentson dance studies and performancesabroad. The opinions expressed in the articlesand the reviews are the writers’ own anddo not reflect the opinions of the editorialcommittee. The editors and publishersof Nartanam do their best to verify theinformation published but do not takeresponsibility for the absolute accuracyof the information.

Associate EditorK. K. Gopalakrishnan

PatronEdward R. Oakley

Advisory Board

All articles, photographs and other materials, appearing in Nartanam, whether in whole or in part, in any form areexclusive copyright of Sahrdaya Arts Trust unless otherwise specified, and may not be reproduced in any form or stored

in any electronic or retrievable format without prior written consent.

Late G. M. SarmaM. N. Sarma

Guest Editor: Ileana CitaristiJayantika Papers: Vijayalaxmi DasTranslation: Malabika Patel

NARTANAMVolume: XVIII, No. 3 July - September 2018

CONTENTS

Editorial/ 7

On the Trail of Jayantika: An Introduction / 9By ILEANA CITARISTI

Guru Dayanidhi Das / 13

Chapter I: The first meeting of Jayantika / 16

Chapter II: Meetings of Jayantika (1958) / 26

Chapter III: Meetings of Jayantika (1959) / 46

Chapter IV: Meetings of Jayantika (1960) / 102

Repertoire / 120Constitution – Jayantika / 158

Appendix I to Chapter III / 166Appendix II to Chapter III / 176

Appendix to Chapter IV / 202Guru Raghu Dutta's Notes / 212

Nartanam6 Jayantika Special

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We thank the Sangeet Natak Akademi, NewDelhi, for its partial financial assistance forthe publication of this journal.

Publishers, Nartanam

From left to rightTop row:

Gorachand Misra, Mayadhar Rout, Kalicharan Patnaik,Babulal Doshi, Dayanidhi Das, Deba Prasad Das, Mayadhar Mansingh

Second row:Kartik Kumar Ghosh, Kelucharan Mohapatra,

Raghunath Dutta, Pankaj Charan Das, Dhirendranath Patnaik

Third row:Batakrishna Sena, Priyambada Mohanty, Loknath Misra,

Sanjukta Panigrahi, Harekrishna Mahatab

Bottom row:Laxmipriya Mohapatra and Kelucharan Mohapatra

Photos on Cover

Nartanam 7Jayantika Special

EDITORIAL

The Trails of Jayantika

We bring to our readers another important issue of Nartanam after much toiland tears. We hope that this issue will contribute significantly to the history ofOdissi dance. No research into Odissi will be the same again; such will be theimpact of the publication of these rare papers retrieved from the folds of history– the proceedings of Jayantika and other allied documents. Till now the exactproceedings of Jayantika were unclear and thus the documents unearthed byIleana Citaristi, the diligent scholar and avid reader and contributor to Nartanamfill a significant lacuna in Odissi’s recent history.

Indian dance will be grateful to Vijayalaxmi Das, the daughter of GuruDayanidhi Das who had carefully preserved the proceedings of Jayantika in hispersonal collection. We have laid out the documents after a brief biographicalnote on Guru Dayanidhi Das, to whom we owe most of the writings in ourpossession.

Jayantika makes for an important case study in dance. The revival of anentire dance form from shambles is pivoted on this association called Jayantikawhich only lasted for a couple of years. When we published just one documentfrom this collection in Nartanam Vol XIV no. 4, it created quite an interestamong Odissi scholars but none ventured to go to the source and no academyventured to safeguard or publish them. We appreciate the initiative taken byVijayalaxmi Das in coordinating with Ileana Citaristi to facilitate their publicationby Nartanam.

What had happened in the proceedings of Jayantika? We present thedocuments in Odia which were mostly the minutes and some allied documentswhich were the notes made by Guru Raghu Dutta. We leave it to our readersand the scholars to interpret the significance of Jayantika. We have translated allavailable pages in Odia into English but will caution the scholars to pay heed toany valuable content lost in translation (which is a common phenomenon whiletranslating) by subjecting these documents to their own translation andinterpretation.


Nartanam Conclave 2018

We welcome our readers to the second edition of the Nartanam Conclave.The programme of the seminars and the evening performances of the NartanamConclave 2018 can be seen on our facebook page and our websitewww.nartanam.in. A live telecast of the Conclave will be streamed on our websiteand YouTube.

We are thankful to the Department of Language and Culture, Telangana, Dr.Marri Chenna Reddy HRD Institute of Telangana, the Sangeet Natak Akademi,New Delhi and the illustrious corporate persona, K. I. Varaprasad Reddy, founderof Shantha Biotechnics who have staunchly stood behind this Conclave. We areespecially thankful to B. V. Papa Rao (IAS Retd.), Advisor to the Governmentof Telangana, Burra Venkatesham (IAS), Secretary to the Government ofTelangana, Department of Youth Affairs, Culture and Tourism, and B. P. Acharya,Director General & E.O. Spl. CS to Govt., and Mamidi Harikrishna, Director,Department of Language and Culture, Telangana, for their valuable support tothe cause of Intangible Cultural Heritage. We thank the participating dancersand scholars, and also the volunteers of SPIC MACAY and Kona Lakshmiwho helped us in innumerable ways to make the conclave a reality.

Talent abounds against all odds, scholars excel despite many challenges, thegovernment supports despite a million constraints- but we the people fail thearts. Nartanam is attempting to build an audience base in Hyderabad forperforming arts and its academia while also motivating the corporates and theaffluent to take an interest for they only can be the patrons of their own arts. Ifthey could be sensitised to the performing arts, they could easily replace thekings of yore in extending patronage to the artists and their art.

As I waited under a beautiful tree in the University of Hyderabad for thevolunteers of the Nartanam Conclave to arrive, a passerby stopped to see theposters and invitation cards. He struck up a conversation with me and offered tohelp put up some posters. An aspiring Civil Servant, his question to me was, "Isthere any monetary gain from this journal and this Conclave?" That gave me anopportunity to expound on India's Performing Arts and Nartanam's service tothem without an eye for any benefit other than that of the immense satisfaction ofhaving tried to contribute in a small way to the cause of our culture.

Madhavi Puranam


My meeting with Vijayalaxmi Das happened few years ago during a marriagereception held at Cuttack. She was introduced to me on that occasion as thedaughter of Guru Dayanidhi Das, whose name was known to me from the time Iwas doing research for my book on my guru, Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Casually I asked her if she had ever heard about Jayantika from her fatherand she said she did not know much about it except that quite a lot of hand-written papers were lying in a trunk in her house at Cuttack which had been keptthere by her late father.

I have to confess that it has not been easy to win her confidence. But slowly,from a slightly suspicious and reticent person she gradually opened up to becomemore involved in the mission to make these precious documents known to theOdissi world. The importance of these hand-written documents, most of whichare proceedings of some of the meetings of Jayantika held between 1958 and1963, is of various genres.

For her, publishing these documents is a way to give the right credit to herfather in the history of the systemization of the Odissi dance form, since he is stillone of the less recognised figures in the process. For me, and I suppose for all thepractitioners and the scholars of the dance form, it is a way to finally discover alittle more about Jayantika about which so less is known except for some strayreferences found here and there in articles related to the history of Odissi dance.

On the Trail of Jayantika:

An IntroductionILEANA CITARISTI

ILEANA CITARISTI, an Italian by birth, holds a PhD in Psychoanalysis and Eastern Mythology.Having worked in the traditional and experimental theatre in Europe, Ileana moved to India in 1979.She trained in Odissi under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and in Chhau under Guru Hari Nayak. Arenowned dancer, choreographer, guru, and scholar, Ileana has authored books on martial practices ofOdisha, and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra among others. She has many awards and honours to hercredit including the Padma Shri. She lives in Bhubaneswar and teaches at her institute, Art Vision. Sheis the guest editor of the special issue of Nartanam Vol XVIII no 3 on Jayantika.


The documents found in the trunk give us different types of information. Wecome to know about the names of the persons who worked with the Association,in its beginning stage as well as progressively along the years, of the fees deposited,of the purposes stated in the formation of this conclave, of the type of Constitutionand Memorandum it had, of the schedules of the three major performancespresented by the members of the Association during these years, of the type ofrepertoire that existed in the Odissi dance at that time and the challenges faced intrying to establish Odissi as one of the ‘classical’ forms of dance.

This last topic in fact seems to be the most recurrent preoccupation whichemerges from the different speeches and agenda which accompany theproceedings of the various meetings.

Unfortunately not all the pages found are dated but almost all carry signaturesof the members who attended the meetings. We do not know what happenedduring the gaps of time for which there are no proceedings available; either theyhave been lost or taken away by somebody else or there had been no meetings atall. While most of the proceedings were written by Dayanidhi, who had been theSecretary of the organisation all through, we have also reports written by LoknathMisra who became President from July 1959 onwards and Raghu Dutta who wasattached as assistant teacher to the Kala Vikash Kendra.

It is interesting to note that the members associated were not necessarily onlyfrom the dance world but the list includes Members of Parliament, High Courtjudges, journalists and advocates as well. Biranchi Rout, a journalist of thePrajatantra newspaper, in his first inaugural speech delineates with clarity thepurpose and the need for forming unity and cooperation among the differentpractitioners and his speech could be relevant in the present scenario as well,where divergences and controversies are easy to surface among the exponentsof a particular dance style.

Another interesting thing to observe is that most of the notes regarding syllabusor repertoire are more concerned with the grammar of the style (definition andcomparison of chari-s, bhramari-s, utplavana, bandha, basic steps and tala-s) thanwith items as such, something that unfortunately is not being followed in thepresent day Odissi training. From the notes of Raghu Dutta related to the dailytraining imparted in Kala Vikash Kendra in those years, we find that a lot ofemphasis was given to the practice of the basic steps in different rhythmic variations(arasa, chanda, khandi) and on the basic grammar as found in Abhinaya Darpanaand Abhinaya Chandrika, including the performance of bandha or acrobaticposes which have been totally discarded from the present day Odissi training.


Although the notes by Raghu Dutta are not strictly proceedings discussedduring Jayantika meetings, they have been included at the end of this work asexamples of the syllabus and of the standard of rigorous training imparted duringthose years.

The episode related to Vinod Chopra, a cine artist who seems to have approachedKalicharan Patnaik in July 1959 with the request of being instructed in the Odissidance form during the few days at his disposal for the purpose of demonstratingit along with other styles of dance he had learned, is interesting for the type ofreactions it provoked among the Odissi gurus and members of Jayantika. Theepisode seems to have acted as a further incentive for them towards the purposeof establishing Odissi dance as ‘classical’ and of giving a lesson to all those whowould disregard it by thinking to master it in just a few days. We see that after thisepisode, activity towards mounting the first performance-demonstration increasedand soon after that planning started for putting up the Conference of ComparativeStudy between Odissi, Kathak and Bharatanatyam.

The meetings became very sporadic after this last effort and the real purposeof Jayantika seems to have been lost with the gurus travelling and gettingassignments in different towns. By the time we read the letter addressed to theSecretary of Orissa Sangeet Natak Academy in 1963 in which an appeal is beingmade to consider the contribution of the Odissi gurus while forming the syllabusof the Dance and Music College opened by the Academy, we can smell a senseof lost opportunities underneath the lines and a feeling of abandonment in itsdesperate attempt to keep alive something that most probably had already fadedout. However, Odissi dance survived and shone along the years, and it is time thatthe work of these pioneers and their sacrifices is honoured and rememberedforever.

The documents have been divided in different chapters to facilitate a sense ofcontinuity according to the dates and the topics. The first chapter includes all thedocuments related to the first meeting of the Association (22 June 1958), from theconvocation letter sent by Dayanidhi Das to the President's speech and thesummary of the meeting. The second chapter includes the proceedings of themeetings held on 22 June 1958, 27 July 1958 and 3 August 1958 and the letterswith request for memberships of the same year.

The third chapter includes proceedings of the meetings held on 11 July 1959,19 July 1959, 26 July 1959, 29 July 1959, 31 July 1959, 9 August 1959 and29 August1959, besides the bunch of letters received in the same year. In theappendix to this chapter are the documents related to the Vinod Chopra episode


which happened during the month of July 1959. A second appendix includes thedocuments about the planning and execution of the first program-demonstrationwhich took place on 12 September 1959 at the Nari Sangha Sadhan, Cuttack. Athird appendix to the same chapter has the schedule and planning of the programheld at S.C.S College Hall, Puri on 5 October 1959.

The fourth chapter includes proceedings of the meetings held on 27 January1960, 15 February 1960 and 6 May 1960. The appendix deals with the detaileddescription of the comparative demonstration of the three styles of Odissi, Kathakand Bharatanatyam held on 22 June 1960 at Janata Theatre, Cuttack. The fifthchapter describes the meetings held on 8 August 1963 and 11 August 1963concluding with the letter directed to Sangeet Natak Academy, the last documentin our possession.

The last two chapters deal with the Constitution and Memorandum of theAssociation written both in English and Odia and with the repertoire as was devisedat that time which was divided into five segments – bhumi pranam, batu, pallavi,abhinaya and mokshya with detailed tala system of the items. To this we haveadded the appendix with the daily teaching at the Kendra compiled by RaghuDutta.

I am extremely grateful to Vijayalaxmi Das for sharing these valuable documentsand allowing their publication and to Malabika Patel for giving her precious timeto translating the matter from Odia to English in spite of the precarious conditionof most of the original documents and the difficulty in deciphering the hand writtentexts.


Guru Dayanidhi Das“Life should be large and not

long; spreading of joy is of greaterimportance than owning the richesof the world”. Such was thephilosophy of Guru Dayanidhi Das.His contribution is enormous to thefields of dance, drama, literature,and social service.

Born in the village of SajanaPada of Nayagarh district inOdisha, he spent his childhoodenjoying the night jatras, learningto play tabla and other instruments,and practising folk dance at thecost of his studies, which irked hisfather Sanatana Das. The enragedfather once beat him mercilessly.Out of fear and agony, Dayanidhileft home when he was in class eleven. He continued his education and earnedhis livelihood by taking private tuitions. He passed Matriculation from Nayagarh.He then moved to Cuttack where he flourished in dance, music and tabla, while hepursued academics in Ravenshaw College.

National Music Association (NMA) and Utkal Sangeet Samaja were the twofamous institutions, during those times, in the field of dance and music. Dayanidhitrained in Kathak and Hindustani vocal music at NMA. He could not completehis training in vocal music but obtained the Nritya Pravakar in Kathak andOdissi from Prayag Sangeet Samiti in Allahabad. He trained in tabla under Radha


Gobinda Ghose. Guru Haramohan Khuntia and Jayakrushna Kahali trainedunder the same guru.

Babulal Doshi the founder of Kala Vikash Kendra (KVK) sought the help ofDayanidhi Das in his mission. As a simple, sincere and devoted artist DayanidhiDas served his purpose with heart and soul. He was the first dance teacher atKala Vikash Kendra. He framed the first Odissi dance syllabus, as early as in1952-53. Thus Odissi began to be taught in a systematic manner. Before thatthere was no name as “Odissi Dance”. While preparing the syllabus DayanidhiDas named the prevalent dance as Odissi. He also framed the Odissi syllabus forthe Prayaga Sangeet Samiti of Allahabad, which is in vogue till today. He namedthe first part of Odissi dance as Mangalacharan.

In 1954, as a student of Ravenshaw College, he attended the all India youthfestival in Delhi as the accompanying tabla artist for the Dashavatara nrityapeformed by Dhirendranath Pattnaik. In 1955 he married Nishamani Das. In1958, he joined Utkal Vidyapitha at Kharagpur as a teacher. There hediscovered the talented Alaka Mitra and started teaching her dance. Graduallyhe became famous in the field of dance, drama and music in Kharagpur.

By that time he was the General Secretary of Jayantika. It becameinconvenient for him to manage the functioning of Jayantika and Kala VikasKendra simultaneously, while staying at Kharagpur. He resigned as a teacher atUtkal Vidyapitha and returned to Cuttack to work whole heartedly for Jayantikaand KVK. He worked tirelessly as the General Secretary of Jayantika from1958 to 1963. He joined the Pyari Mohan Academy High School at Cuttack. Hegot his B.A. Degree with Odia honours and distinction. At that time the D.P.I. ofOdisha Education, Baidyanath Ratha was the principal of Radhanath TrainingCollege. Dayanidhi Das got his B.Ed. training from R.N.T. College where heconducted dance programmes regularly. Baidyanath Ratha who was very fondof him for his academic and artistic talent offered Dayanidhi Das to joinSecondary Board High School run by Board of Secondary Education of Odisha.As it was prestigious, Dayanidhi Das joined the school and taught Geography,English and Odia. The Board appointed him as the convenor of music syllabuscommittee for Matriculation. He was also assigned set the questions and be apractical examiner of music as a subject.

He worked in many institutions like NMA, Utkal Sangeet Samaj, LalitaKalapitha, Kalinga College of Dance and Music and many more. He founded theKala Bhawan which is still running in the name of Dayanidhi Smruti Kala


Parisada, Cuttack. He was a writer of dance-drama, drama, ballet, poetry andOdia Barnabodha. His literary works are available at the Raja Rammohan RoyLibrary. His programmes (especially the ballet, shortplay and songs) werebroadcast by All India Radio and Doordarshana regularly during his lifetime. Atalented choreographer in Odissi and Kathak, he was a good dramatist and actortoo. He directed the dance sequences in the film Laxmi (1962) which won aPresident's award. He established the Khandapada Nayagada Janata HighSchool and Baliarasingh Library at his village in 1968. Classical vocal concertswere organised regularly by him in Kalabhawan. Reputed singers and musicianstook part in those programmes on every full-moon day.

Poor finances, the grind, and labour to accomplish his noble mission, witheredhis body but could never dampen his spirit. On the 14 March 1979, at the agefifty, Guru Dayanidhi Das passed on.


A Dance notation

A receipt of Jayantika

Documents

nartanam.in · Nartanam, founded by Kuchipudi Kala Kendra, Mumbai, now owned and published by Sahrdaya Arts Trust, Hyderabad, is a quarterly which provides a forum for scholarly dialogue