The Devadasi Video Mystery Solved! Gujarat and its Bharatanatyam Legacy

Back in July, I discussed a stunningly-rare video clip I had found at BritishPathe.com featuring two South Indian devadasis dancing some clear Sadir/Bharatanatyam along with their musical ensemble filmed allegedly between 1930 and 1935. I initially was perplexed as to why South Indian devadasis would be performing at a royal function in Baroda, a city now known as Vadodara in the northwest state of Gujarat which is over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away from Tamil Nadu state. Then I remembered a picture of two devadasis (left) who looked eerily similar from Ashish Mohan Khokar’s “Century of Indian Dance" exhibition catalog, and the picture’s description noted how Tanjore devadasis were sent to Baroda with the dowry of the Tanjore princess Chimnabai when she married the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, in 1883.  Were the dancers in that photo the same as the video?  And if so (which is a RARE FIND!), who were they?

The big break in figuring out their identity came when dance enthusiast Ragothaman (a contributor at the blog Bharatanatyam and the Worldwide Web) sent me some excellent material he had found that identified the dowry dancers said to be sent in the early 1880s as Gauri and Kanthimathi (also spelled other ways, Gawri, Gaura, Kantimati, etc.). The only problem was sources say Gauri was born in 1871 and Kanthimati in 1872, which would mean they were around age 60 when the video was filmed in the 1930s.  The video dancers certainly don't look 60!  Another possibility was that BritishPathe identified the video incorrectly and it was really filmed much earlier, but given the photos and dates below this is highly unlikely.  I think it's safe to say that the video dancers are not the famous Gauri and Kanthimathi. At first I was really disappointed by this news, but then a bit more logic and research revealed a fascinating history!

While the video dancers are not Gauri and Kanthimathi (more on them later), I'm convinced they are the court dancers who officially replaced Gauri and Kanthimathi after their retirement. There is a discrepancy among sources (Kothari, Sundaram) regarding exactly when they retired from court services, but the more plausible citation is that they served for 32 and 35 years respectively, putting their retirement date sometime in the 1910s or early 1920s. The video was filmed sometime in the 1930s, about 10-20 years after the point when Gauri and Kanthimathi retired and the new replacement dancers would have came to Baroda.  The appearance of the video dancers backs this up; I've been told they look like they are in their 30s, so rewinding 10-20 years would mean they were pre-teens or teens when they were brought to Baroda which is as expected. Their service ended in 1950 when the royal family stopped maintaining court dancers.

What truly convinced me that the video dancers were Gauri and Kanthimathi's replacements and not just random dancers were the following four photos. 

The first is the cover of the 2003 issue of Attendance: The Dance Annual of Indiawhich Ragothaman graciously alerted me to.  In correspondence with the publication's compiler/editor, Ashish Mohan Khokar (whose work I praised and admired in previousposts), Khokar revealed that the photo was gifted to him personally by the Maharaja of Baroda!  It shows the royal court dancers performing in the Darbar Hall of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace built by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III in 1890.  Though hard to see, the dancers look just like those in the video, especially in their weight and height differences.

Comparing the Life photo with a screenshot from the BritishPathe video

 

Marabu Thantha Manikkangal - Kanthi at 8:00

So we've identified who the dancers in the video were, but what about their predecessors, Gauri and Kanthimathi?  Researching their history has revealed some fascinating information about their dance and the legacy of Bharatanatyam in Gujarat.  A few sources have been extremely helpful in forming this post.  I am supremely grateful to Ragothaman for translating and scanning portions of the Tamil book Marabu Thantha Manikkangal (Women Who Gave the Gift of Tradition) written by B.M. Sundaram.  Sundaram gives the most detailed description available of Gauri and Kanthimathi and their dowry troupe along with two rare photographs of Gauri Kanthimathi.  It took Sundaram almost 14 years to gather the rare information for his book by traveling around Tamil Nadu, and he had previously written two similar books about "the talented nattuvanars of yore" and "nagaswaram and tavil vidwans" (The Hindu).  Clearly he has compiled some invaluable information!  A few other sources were useful for cross-referencing Sundaram's information, namely Sunil Kothari's Bharatanatyam: Indian Classical Dance Art, Sapna Rangaswamy's "Artistes at the Royal Darbaar" article at Narthaki.com, and Davesh Soneji's Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India (which I previously wrote glowingly about).  For details on the Maharaja and Baroda political life, Fatesinghrao Gaekwad's Sayajirao of Baroda: The Prince and the Man is fairly helpful (and downloadable for free).


The alliance between the royal families of Tanjore and Baroda happened when the Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III married Chimnabai I of Tanjore in December 1880/January 1881 and was officially invested with power in December 1881, though his powers were curbed until 1883 (Gaekwad). As part of the wedding dowry, a troupe of temple dancers and musicians were sent to Baroda. It was the first time a southern dance troupe had settled in the north.  The ensemble comprised of the temple devadasis from Tanjore/Kumbakonam, Gauri, Sarada, and Kamu; nattuvanars Kannuswamy (Pillai) Nattuvanar and Kuppuswamy Nattuvanar; and the following musicians: Muthukrishnan (Nagaswaram), Karandai Ratnam Pillai (Thavil), Ramaswamy (Otthu drone), and Vadivelu Pillai, Sabapathi, and Subramaniam (Mridangam). Sarada and Kamu were soon replaced by Nagaratnam and finally by Gauri's cousin Kanthimathi in 1891.

Sundaram and Kersemboom give some delightful details of the lives and dances of Gauri and Kanthimathi. Maharaja Sayajirao had instituted a "Kalavant Khatha," the State Department of Artists, that employed and managed the performers.  Gauri and Kanthimathi, who were responsible for their troupe and appearance, were together paid 433 rupees every month (while the nattuvanar, mridangist, and thuthikarar collectively got only 282 rupees).  They performed twice a week for the Maharaja Sayajirao after he finished his dinner.  Sayajirao, who did not know Tamil or Telugu, was known to say “I do not need to understand the language as the message of the lyrics is shown through abhinaya.” Gauri and Kanthimathi choreographed five new dances for the king, mostly in Hindi, using the mudras and adavus from Bharatanatyam along with other creative movements as they each enacted various scenarios:

• Radha Krishna dance 
• Kite flying dance “Laal Patang Ki Jarthu” – A kite in flight is nearly thwarted before the two make peace 
• Scorpion dance “Kaajupakari” – After fainting from a scorpion sting, a friend tries to gather herbs to save her life 
• Madhumatta dance “Door Sakshagir” – An alcoholic Muslim man tries to tempt his Hindu Brahmin wife with a drink 
• Snake dance “Naadar Mudimelirrukum” 

The book features the following two rare pictures of Kanthimathi in her older years, the first of which is also found on the cover:


While browsing the Bharatanatyam module on Wesleyan University's Accelerated Motion website, I saw the iconic image below that had been featured as part of Ashish Mohan Khokar’s Century of Indian Dance exhibition artwork/poster. When I clicked on the image, the popout description read: "The melam or troupe of Kannuswami Nattuvanar (1864-1923) in Baroda. Kannuswami Nattuvanar of Thanjavur with two devadasi dancers and musicians [...] The image was taken at the turn of the century when Kannuswami Nattuvanar was invited to perform at the court of the Gaekwad princes of Baroda in northern India."


Did you catch that? The nattuvanar standing in the center is Kannuswami (Pillai) Nattuvanar, who we know from the sources above was one of the two nattuvanars who came to Baroda with Chimnabai’s dowry!  This is a picture of him!  But that's not all!  He has quite a pedigree and would have brought his expertise to Baroda.  He was a direct descendent (grandson) of Sivanandam from the famous Tanjore Quartet who codified the modern Bharatanatyam format, he passed along his knowledge of nattuvangam to Kandappa Pillai (his nephew, the first guru of the famous devadasi Balasaraswati), and his grandson Kittappa Pillai was a guru to many modern artists. This chart from Sunil Kothari's book outlines Kannuswami's Tanjore Quartet lineage visually, though not everyone could be listed due to space:


I don’t think the troupe picture was taken at the “turn of the century,” especially since Sundaram notes that Kannuswamy Nattuvanar returned to Thanjavur in 1893 and was replaced in Baroda by Vadivelu. I think the picture was taken in the early 1880s, when the troupe went to Baroda! If that's true, then it is highly likely that the devadasi dancers in the picture are either the originals, Gauri and Sarada, or perhaps later with Gauri and Kanthimathi!  Could it be?  Their age appearances seem to match this theory.  In 1881 when the troupe came to Baroda, Kannuswami would have been 17 (born 1864) and Gauri would have been 10 (born 1871); Gauri looks a few years older than 10, so perhaps the picture was taken a few years later?  To be fair, it’s also possible the picture could be of a troupe of Kannuswami’s photographed while he was in Thanjavur after 1893, but since the description of the picture notes it was taken when he was invited to perform at Baroda, I think it’s the dowry troupe!

What's fascinating about Gauri and Kanthimathi is that they were not just two devadasis who came to a different region, danced in the court, and faded away.  They, along with the other artists who surrounded them in Baroda, brought Sadir/Bharatanatyam to the region and through their descendents and royal patronage, the dance form survived and still lives and breathes in Gujarat today.  The patronage and attention Maharaja Sayajirao gave to the performing arts were critical in maintaining an artistic bent in Baroda.  His court, starting with Gauri and Kanthimathi and troupe, maintained a number of artistes which by 1916 had risen to forty-eight (Gaekwad). Soon after he came into power in the 1880s, he had laid the foundation for the first music college in India, Gayan Shala.  The Music Conference in Baroda he began also featured musicians, dancers, and other performing artists and drew visitors from all parts of India. (Gaekwad).  While important in maintaining support for dance and music in Baroda, Sayajirao's influence "remained largely confined" to the court and festivals (Thakkar).

It wasn't until the dance "reformist and revivalist movement" starting in the 1930s that greater awareness and respectability came to Bharatanatyam (and other dance forms) and it was placed "on the larger national agenda" as an important piece in the revival of India's "cultural heritage." (Thakkar).  In the 1950s, after India became independent and arts patronage shifted to state institutions, the Maharaja Sayajirao University (referred to as M.S. University or MSU) was formed (from funds established by the late Sayajirao himself) and among its offerings were programs in music and dance, including Bharatanatyam.  Thakkar notes that these programs were the first of their kind in India and "soon began to draw enthusiastic response from students not only from Gujarat but from all over the country.  Tamilnadu's Bharatanatyam thus took deep root in the common cultural consciousness of Gujarat."

The traditional community was an important part of the continuity of the art form and its newfound awareness and popularity.  Kanthimathi's son Kubernath Tanjorekar, who learned the dance from her and later learned nattuvangam from Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai (Kothari), began teaching more widely as dance gained more respectability.  He was employed as the nattuvanar in the Baroda court from 1948-1950 and then invited to be a professor of dance at MSU (Tanjore...). 

But it was the new, non-traditional entrants into the dance form who perhaps had the most influence through their work at MSU in its founding years.  Anjali Hora Medh, the first Gujarati dancer to learn Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra and bring it back to Gujarat, was employed as a visiting dance professor at MSU. (Thakkar)  Joining her was Mohan Khokar (Ashish Mohan Khokar's father!), who had also studied at Kalakshetra, who not only taught dance but also helped form the curriculum and soon became the head of the dance department (Khokar).  Around this time and a couple hours away in Ahmedabad, Mrinalini Sarabhai began her Darpana Academy of the Performing Arts.  I was surprised to learn that well-known Bharatanatyam artist CV Chandrasekhar, also a Kalakshetra graduate, took over as head of the dance department in 1980 (Khokar).

Sayajirao and his influence are not forgotten.  This year, MSU's Faculty of Performing Arts are celebrating the 125th anniversary of the establishment of their division by Sayajirao in 1886.  The royal family is also celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Sayajirao (born 1863).  And Bharatanatyam itself is today "the single most popular dance form for Gujarati girls to learn and perform" (Thakkar).  This trajectory can be tracked back to Gauri and Kanthimathi and the Maharaja who gave them patronage.  Today, "one can still see [Gauri's] statue Tanjore Nautch Girl and the sculpture of her head installed in Fatehsinhrao Museum" at the Laxmi Vilas Palace (Chaturvedi).


I've enjoyed repeatedly watching the BritishPathe video for its historical value.  There are a couple things I didn't touch on much in my initial post.

First, the visual record of how a pre-revival Bharatanatyam musical ensemble might have looked like is fascinating.  From left to right, the musicians appear to be a drummer (mridangam?), second nattuvanar, harmonium, lead nattuvanar, and a type of bellows possibly called tutti.  Can you imagine how different from today the music must have sounded like!  There are many references to "bagpipes" or "bellows" being used as a drone pitch in pre-revival Bharatanatyam.  Soneji provides a picture of a tutti that was "exclusively used to accompany devadasi dance in the Pudukkottai region." Even Balasaraswati's arangetram in 1925 featured a "basic drone pitch that was made with a small bagpipe called tutti" (Knight). During the reconstruction of Bharatanatyam, many changes to the dance form were made including altering the type of instruments used. 




Second, I love how the video humanizes the artists.  There are lots of small humorous moments in the dancers' performance: teetering and almost losing balance as one enters the stage, squinting against the bright sunlight, and throwing their fabric piece over the harmonium when finished with it! 

What a discovery this has been!  What luck to come across a video that has such a rich history and provides such astounding historical value.

Sources:

• Chaturvedi, Darshana.  "City Got Bhartanatyam [sic] as Dowry."  The Times of India. 2009
• Gaekwad, Fatesinghrao.  Sayajirao of Baroda: The Prince and the Man. 1989.  Accessed at Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III:  Books and Archives.
• Kersenboom-Story, Saskia.  "Notes," Note 21. Nityasumangali: Devadasi Tradition in South India.  1987.
• Knight, Douglas M., Jr.Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life.  2010.
• Kothari, Sunil. "Guruparampara." Bharatanatyam: Indian Classical Dance Art.  1979. 
• Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III (official website)
• Rangaswamy, Sapna. "Artistes at the Royal Darbaar." Narthaki.com.  2000.
• Soneji, Davesh -"Notes," Chapter 1, Note 15. Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India.  2011.
• Sundaram, B.M. Marabu Thantha Manikkangal (Tamil, Women Who Gave the Gift of Tradition).  2003  
• Tanjore Dance Music & Art Research Center.  "Gurushri Kubernath Appaswamy Tanjorekar."
• Thakkar Khandwani, Sudha.  "Bharatanatyam in Gujarat."  Kala Arts Quarterly.  Fall 2002.
• The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.  "About MSU: Visionary Maharaja of Baroda."