Bharatanatyam - A 140 year old institution in Baroda

Tanjore’s Nautchinis, Tawaiif’s or Dancers in Sayajirao’s court

In 1926, the Viceroy to India Lord Reading visited Baroda and was hosted by King Sayaji Rao. After somber discussions, they say down to watch a bit of Tanjavur Nautch, performed by the dancers Gaurabai and Kanta. The reporter wrote - Lord Reading was minutely surveying the Tanjore Dancers who were giving an exhibition of ancient Hindu dances, the like of which he had never seen before. These dancers hailed from the South and the dances were peculiar too and required a tremendous amount of energy of which the dancers in spite of their age, seemed to have plenty.

Well, that must have given you some idea, but you must be wondering who these dancers were and why they were dancing Sadir or Bharatanatyam in Baroda, of all places? Well, therein rests the story, embedded in the arrival of Rani Chimabai I, from Tanjore, when she married Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the King of Baroda in 1880.

You know, I used to travel to Baroda every month during the 80’s at Bombay, but I did not have a clue about the Baroda Bani (Bani is style or school – like Gharana for Hindustani music) of Bharatanatyam! I do recall eating at the Madras café across the railway station and did come across many a Tamilian there, but though they had nothing to do with this story, I did not know the Tamil connection between Baroda and Tanjore, effected by the Travancore Dewan Madhava Rao (the statue at MG road Trivandrum, at the statue junction, is to honor him, if you did not know).

Sayajirao ruled Baroda from 1875 to 1939 and was a keen follower of classical music and dance.  Many artists, painters and musicians graced his palace and as we all know Ravi Varma did a large number of his famous paintings, under his patronage. The person who introduced Ravi Varma to Sajayjirao and effected the wedding with Chimnabai was the ex-Dewan of Travancore, Madhava Rao who had taken over in Baroda around 1875. After her arrival at Baroda, the palace built for them was named Lakshmi Vilas, in her honor.

Chimanbai (born Laxmibai) did not live long in Baroda, succumbing to tuberculosis in 1885.  The Maharani had gained much esteem, she was well educated, and seemingly exerted her influence within the Baroda Palace and the states administration, though Sayajirao mentions that she was "a mild, charitable, amiable woman, a devoted mother and a loving wife. Their only son from this marriage, Fatehsing Rao, died in 1908, aged 25, leaving two daughters and one son, Pratap Rao, who became the heir apparent. The Ravi Varma (completed by Rama Varma, later) painting of Chimnabai seen here is dated 1880- 1881.

Chimnabai it appears was erudite in Baharatanatyam and Carnatic music. When she arrived in Baroda in 1880, she brought with her as part of her dowry, a dance troupe which comprised the following: Gauri aged 10 and Sharada (or Bhanumati) aged 9 - both devadasi dancers trained at the Kamakshi temple Tanjore, Kammu - Gauri’s mother, to look after the girls, Kannuswami and Vadivelu – the two Nattuvanars or dance choreographers, Sabapati (Vadivelu’s son) the Mridangam player, Subramaniam the vocalist and assistant Nattuvanar, Muthuswami a nadaswaram player and Ramaswami – the bagpiper or Tuthi player. Each of them had high repute and the Nattuvanars belonged to the Tanjavur quartet lineage.

What follows is the story of how they created the Baroda-Tanjore Bani or style of Bharatnatyam closely allied to the so called Pandanallur style.

As the story goes, Gauri and Sharada, the two dasis, with their retinue of musicians, performed and entertained at the Baroda Darbar for some 3-4 years. Sharada (or Bhanumati) left and was replaced by another dancer from Tanjore - Nagai Amma, who too left after a while. After a lonely period for the next 5 years, Gauri was joined by Kanthimathi, her cousin and these two not only performed but also taught dance for well over 5 decades in Baroda. Their dance repertoire included the standard program of those days (it was called the “Tanjori Nautch” at this time) and some “light” dances at the end. In the middle of this busy performing period, they also had a regular family life. Mridangist Appaswamy arrived after the demise of Sabapati, in 1895 and was to become the father of both Gauri’s and Kanthimathi’s children (according to Sapna’s article). The children are the “Tanjorkars” e.g. Kubernath Tanjorkar.

Sayajirao took good care of his dancers and his Kalavanth Kahta, the department for artists, laid strict rules, duly administered by an inspector. The dancers were together paid Rs. 433/- month, much more than other dancers. Their accompanying musicians were paid a total of Rs. 272/- month. Unlike the South where the Nattuvanar took leadership, the Baroda rules required that the dancers were responsible for the whole troupe, were well dressed, purchased their own costumes and were fit, clean and healthy. They had 4 days monthly holidays, 3 months maternity leave, and performed for the king on every Wednesday and Saturday, after dinner. All gifts given to the dancers including money was distributed based on a fixed ratio with the rest going to the state treasury.

Their repertoire comprised a standard Bharatanatyam performance followed by five light dances, the Radha Krishna dance, the kite dance, the scorpion dance, the drunkard dance and finally the snake charmer dance. The Radha Krishna dance was a theme set around a light quarrel over kite flying with Gauri flying the kite and Kanthimathi, the helper. In the Scorpion dance, a tragic element is introduced as the two girls go to a garden to pluck berries with Gauri being bitten by a scorpion, while Kantha prepares medicines. The drunkard dance has Kanta acting as a Muslim man getting the Nagar girl Gauri drunk, then seducing and later wedding her. The snake charmer’s dance is the well-known number, as done today. A Varnam which included Sayajirao’s name to the last stanza was also performed, and at the tail end, a Tillana was performed. It appears Gauri used to perform a butterfly dance with a fan during her early days.

After Chimnabai 1 died, Sayajirao, got married again and that was the progressive queen, Chimnabai II (Given name being Gajara Devi from Dewas) in 1885. Chimnabai II who arrived at the palace illiterate, was quickly trained in languages and arts, traveled a lot and became a very popular queen who also had women’s welfare, in mind. She continued the tradition of support for the Tanjore girls. A 'Tanjore dance' teaching school was established with Gauri as the head teacher, but it had only 6 pupils and was stopped after a year. 

As time went by, both leading dancers retired from active service by the year 1941 (passing away the same year) to be replaced by Ratnamala and Saraswathi, duly trained by Gauri. Saraswati moved on to Bombay while Ratnamala stayed back in Baroda. Gauri had performed for 52 years in Baroda and it appears the Maharaja had considerable regard for her. Kanthimathi had in all served for 35 years and retired to Tanjore (where she went only a month ago her death) in 1953.

Sayajirao had invited Augusto Felici, a renowned sculptor as well as a painter from Italy to Baroda in the year 1893. Felici stayed in the service of Maharaja till 1897, and was the one who created the sculpture of Gauri’s dancing form, which can be viewed at the palace, with the painting of Chimnabai on the side wall, as though gazing at her!

When Baroda was merged with the Bombay state, The Kalavant Khata was disbanded though Bharatanatyam was continued at the department of fine arts attached to the new University of Baroda. Some of the descendants of the original dancers served as instructors. This was how Bharatnatyam was introduced in Baroda 140 years ago and continued to be maintained by a single troupe from Baroda and their descendants.

The dancing duo of Gauri and Kanthimathi performed not only for the Baroda monarch on certain days of the week, but also traveled afar. We note that they performed for weddings of nobles or rajas, such as the Prince Harbamji Rawaji of Morvi’s  (Pandav Arjuna’s lineage) marriage in 1895. We can also see references to the Bhopal dance meet where the nautchini of Baroda contended in graceful emulation with the nautchini of Ulwur, and the cathacks (or male dancers) contended with both. In fact Madhava Rao, Dewan of Baroda who had been the catalyst for the Chimnabai SayajiRao union, made it a point to invite dignitaries often to Baroda to watch the Tanjore ladies.

EM Merrick visiting Baroda in 1898 revisits her experience of watching Gauri dance - A band played operatic airs during the whole of dinner, and afterwards a nautch girl from Tanjore came in, her dancing and dress being quite different from anything of the kind I had seen before. She was pretty and very graceful, in spite of her unbecoming dress of trousers made tight at the ankle and a great deal of drapery twisted round her waist and hips. Her movements were much more varied than the ordinary nautch girl's, as she flitted about the room, and a butterfly dance with a fan in her hand was exquisitely performed.

1926 - Continuing the reporters recording during the Reading visit- They seemed to make as much noise as possible, now beating the floor with their feet, now turning to the left, then to the right, now making a sudden forward movement as if they were going to fall on the spectators but then suddenly stopping their progress and now and again making wonderful gestures to suit their weird music and quaint dance, while the persons who stood behind them with darkish faces but wearing gold and red turbans seemed to have absolutely no mercy on the instruments they held. So wonderfully had they colored, clothed and jeweled themselves that they became objects of admiration and their dances were loudly applauded. After showing several types of dances, Kanta and Ghoura as they are called gave imitations of the snake charmer and of kite flying and finished up by playing the Hindu mythological scene of Radha and Krishna, one playing the hero and the other the heroine. His Excellency had a huge smile as he evidently thought that a demonstration of this kind on an English stage might perhaps cause a sensation. Every one of the guests appreciated these dances but Capt. Sadekar who was sitting by the window side was half asleep but it was no fault of his and he felt relieved when the ’noise’ ceased.

After the death of Appaswamy in 1939, Kanta’s son, Kubernath Tanjorkar, trained by Meenakhsi Sundaram Pillai of Pandanallur, moved on to Lucknow and Madras, but returned to Baroda in 1949 to teach Bharatnatyam. Later he established the Tanjore Dance Music and Art Research Centre at Baroda which is still run by his progeny. Thus was created the Baroda Tanjavur sub Bani.  

The Tanjavur bani incidentally covers three sub bani’s - the Tanjavur bani, the Pandanallur bani and the Baroda bani. So what is the Pandanallur style? The Pandanallur style is equated to a romantic poem, it is considered simple, enjoyable and leisurely, almost languorous, while the Kalakshetra style is more energetic and robust, has more body movement and contains a lot of geometry in it.

Thus Kantimati’s son Kubernath and his family continued the fine tradition, but how about the pioneer Gauri or Gaurabai as she was known? Gaura had three sons and a daughter. Her sons, trained as Nattuvanars did accompany her initially, but later gave up the tradition and started a musical instrument repair shop. Gauri’s daughter Chandra too danced at the Baroda palace.

What if I told you that one of Gauri’s pupils, not only learnt the form and published a wonderfully illustrated book Nrtta Manjari but also went on to grace herself, not on a dance floor, but as the first Indian to compete in the Wimbledon tennis championships? She was none other than the eminent Leela Raghavendra Row Dayal! She needs a whole article to herself, so I will get to that another day.

Writing in 1948 Leela says - His late Highness the Gaekwad Sayaji Rao of Baroda brought to his state Gaurabai, one of the best Tanjore dancers of her time. She was the Baroda court dancer for over fifty years; even now though she is over seventy, her movements are incredibly precise and exquisite and her facial expressions interpret all the poetic emotions of the song and dance. While teaching me, she was always particular that I should practice each movement minutely so as to be able to concentrate entirely on expression, once the steps were thoroughly mastered.

But then she also writes - Bharata Natyam is essentially a woman’s dance; and on no account should a man perform it. The dance is for beautiful young girls, with slender waists and large expressive eyes. Hmm. Today’s world will not accept that, I guess!

And as Bharatanatyam slowly drifted out from the courts of the kings and entered the common man’s world through the university and the teachers from the lineage of Gaurabai and Kantabai, another star entered the arena. Ahmedabad’s eminent physicist, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, while doing research in Bangalore, met and fell in love with the highly accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer, Mrinalini hailing from Kerala. He as they say, brought back to Ahmedabad not only a lovely bride but also, through her, the school of Bharatanatyam - Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, established 1949, taking off just as Gauri and Kanta retired. I must add here that Chandramma, Gauri’s daughter performed till 1981, Ratnamala was perhaps her company and soldiered on, even after the palace festivities declined after independence.

The other day my Gujju friend Akshay bai from Surat was telling me, bhaiyah, what are you saying, you have maybe 3-4 varieties of idli-dosa in the South, we have a restaurant in Surat which serves 100 varieties of dosas with lots of sambar and many chutneys, aisa hona chahiye!

And so, just like that, Tanjore’s Bharatanatyam has perhaps become a native to Gujarat, reminding us once again that real art is boundless!

References

American Folklore V 71 1958 – The great tradition in a metropolitan Center Madras – Milton Springer

Dance in Baroda – Sapna Rangaswamy - Sruti Aug 2007

With a Palette in Eastern Palaces - E. M. Merrick

The Theosophist, Volume 17

The Dance History Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar - Baroda makes Bharatanatyam national, Nartaki March 17, 2014

Pics and dating

Baroda Nautch girls (Kanta and Gauri - photo dated 1900) - The living races of mankind - Johnston, Harry Hamilton, Sir, 1858-1927

The photograph of the Tanjore girls is sourced from the Rama Varma book, i.e. Gauri and Kantha is dated 1895. Raja Ravi Varma, Portrait of an Artist: The Diary of C. Raja Raja Varma

A film from the period (though without sound) survives, which can be seen at this link. Minai has done a lot of research to identify the dancers in the 1930-35 film. They appear to be Saraswati (or Chandramma) and Ratnamala. What could be the occasion? In 1929, the Yuvraj PratapSing got married. In Jan 1936, Sayajirao completed 60 years on the throne. Perhaps it was connected to the latter.

Leela Row - courtesy newspapers.com - The Star Press, Muncie, Indiana 01 Jul 1934, clipped by Johndawsonkc

WISHING ALL READERS A HAPPY NEW YEAR