Abstract
This essay looks at the sanitization/sanskritization of the figure of the rajnartaki (court dancer) as public woman located within extra-conjugal economies, into the good woman as repository of ‘classical’ traditions of desire and performance across three films—Rajnartaki/The Court Dancer (1941), Chitralekha (1964) and Amrapali (1966). The appropriations and erasures involved in the production of these classical pasts are recovered by reviewing the films primarily through three frames: one, of courtesans, well-born maidens and good wives as available in certain Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions; two, processes of reform and revival of classical dance forms and their cinematic refractions; and three, the personal and professional histories of the actors playing the rajnartakis. The essay brings out dissonances arising from the interplay of these varied histories, narratives and performances through a close reading of the films’ texts and uses these to assess the films’ politics and the success of their sanskritizing projects.
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- 1.
Ancient India covers the period from earliest times to sixth century AD. Singh (2008: xiv).
- 2.
Buddhist textual and visual traditions were another source.
- 3.
Example, Acharya Chatursena’s Hindi novel, Vaishali ki Nagarvadhu, 1939/1949.
- 4.
Chitralekha (1941) was the second largest grosser that year. See Sharma (2002: 185–87, 250–253).
- 5.
In the absence of the Hindi Rajnartaki, the English The Court Dancer is being used. The earlier Chitralekha and Amrapali were untraceable.
- 6.
Dwyer and Patel (2002: 112).
- 7.
- 8.
Combining semiotics and sociology, “star text” conceptualizes the “star image” as an intertextual construct produced across a range of media and cultural practices capable of intervening in the working of particular films, and a text in its own right. Gledhill (1991: xii).
- 9.
Ghosh trans., Natyashastra 1951. All citations are from this edition. Henceforth, NS. NS.XXIV.154, 460; NS.I.42–43, 7.
- 10.
NS.XXXIV.44–48, 532; NS. XXXV.78–81, 548
- 11.
Burton trans, 1883, Kamasutra of Vatsyayan. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/kama103.htm. Henceforth, KS. See Part I, iii.
- 12.
KS. VI. i.
- 13.
Young (2004: 122).
- 14.
NS.XXIV. 150–151, 460; NS.XXIV.163–167, 462. Kumar ed., NS.XXIV, 1054.
- 15.
NS. XXV.74–76, p. 492.
- 16.
Roy (2010: 113).
- 17.
- 18.
Coorlawala (2004: 50–63).
- 19.
Shah (2002: 125–141).
- 20.
Bose (1963: 9–10).
- 21.
Publicity Booklet. Cited in Dwyer and Patel (2002: 117–18).
- 22.
filmindia (Oct 1941, 3).
- 23.
Prithviraj Kapoor, actor.
- 24.
Famous for stage ballets like Dahlia under Rabindranath Tagore’s direction and Alibaba, made into films in 1930 and 1937 respectively, she was also a choreographer and costume designer.
- 25.
Suprava Sarkar, Singer. Timir Baran, Composer. All translations are mine.
- 26.
filmindia (April 1941, 47 and Oct 1941, 16).
- 27.
Sadhona Bose’s first Hindi film, Kumkum The Dancer, was a huge hit. See filmindia (May 1940, 24).
- 28.
filmindia, 1941 (April, 28–29).
- 29.
Cited in Bose (1967: 430).
- 30.
Iyer, unpublished PhD dissertation (2014: 77–80, 107–108).
- 31.
S.S. Majid. Art director.
- 32.
- 33.
Lata Mangeshkar. Singer.
- 34.
Lata Mangeshkar, singer; Kaifi Azmi, lyrics; Roshan, music.
- 35.
NS, VI.44–48, 108–110.
- 36.
Asha Bhonsle, Mohammad Rafi. Singers.
- 37.
Lata Mangeshkar.
- 38.
For example, Ch.3, verses 12 and 15 in Manusmriti (dated between second century BC and second century AD), Doniger and Smith trans. 1991:44.
- 39.
- 40.
Madhavi. Dancer.
- 41.
All songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Shailendra, lyrics. Shankar Jaikishen, music.
- 42.
NS. XXIV. 245–247, 472.
- 43.
- 44.
NS. XXIV. 168–182, 462–464.
- 45.
- 46.
Bali (2007), https://books.Google.co.in/books/about/Bonding, search results under “Amrapali”, “devadasi”. Bali distances herself from older performative pasts. She terms “devadasi culture” “degenerate” and thanks revivalist upper caste Bharatnatyam dancers for making it possible for Brahmin women to perform on public platforms.
- 47.
- 48.
Patel (1941: 3–4).
Works Cited
Films
Amrapali. Director Lekh Tandon. Producer FC Mehra. Bombay: Eagle Films, 1966. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29cw4g_amrapali-hindi-full-movie-sunil-dutt-vyjayanthimala-full-movie_shortfilms
Chitralekha, Director Kidar Sharma. Producer Karimbhai Nadiadwala, 1964. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZPeu5Ja560
Rajnartaki/The Court Dancer. Director Modhu Bose. Producer JBH Wadia. Bombay: Wadia Movietones, 1941. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g-zb8-JxeI
Books
Bose, Sadhona. Shilpir Atmakath (Calcutta: Granth Prakashan, 1963).
Bose, Modhu. Amar Jeeban (Calcutta: Bak Sahityo, 1967).
Dwyer, Rachel and Divia Patel. Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Ghosh, MM, trans. Natyashastra ascribed to Bharatmuni (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1951).
Kumar, Pushpendra ed., Natyashastra of Bharatmuni (Delhi: New Bharatiya Book Corporation, 2010).
Mehta, Vinod. Meena Kumari: The Classic Biography (1972, New Delhi: Harper Collins India Ltd., 2013).
Sharma, Kidar. The One and Lonely Kidar Sharma [An Anecdotal Autobiography] (New Delhi: Blue Jay Publishers, 2002).
Singh, Upinder, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India from the Stone Age to the 12th Century (Delhi: Pearson, 2008).
Young, Serinity. Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography and Ritual (New York: Routledge, 2004).
Journal Articles, Essays
Chakravorty, Pallabi. ‘Dancing into Modernity: Multiple Narratives of India’s Kathak Dance’. Dance Research Journal 38:1/2, (2006), 115–136.
Coorlawala, Uttara Asha. ‘The Sanskritized Body’. Dance Research Journal 36:2 (Winter, 2004), 50–63.
Gledhill, Christine. ‘Introduction’. Stardom: Industry of Desire, ed. by Christine Gledhill. (London: Routledge, 1991), xi–xix.
Roy, Kumkum. ‘Re-presenting the Courtesanal Tradition’. The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power, Roy ed., (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010), 111–31.
Shah, Purnima. ‘State Patronage in India: Appropriation of the “Regional” and the “National”’. Dance Chronicle, Volume 25, No.1 (2002), 125–141.
Srinivasan, Amrit. ‘Reform and Revival: The Devadasi and Her Dance’. Economic and Political Weekly, 20:44(1985), 1869–1876.
Seminar Lectures (Published)
Khote, Durga. ‘The Film Actress and Her Contribution to Indian Cinema’. Paper presented at the first Sangeet Natak Akademi Film Seminar (1955). Indian Cinema in Retrospect, R.M Ray ed. New Delhi: Sangeet NatakAkademi, 1956/2009, 181–185. 1956.
Shankar, Uday. ‘The Message of Dance in Films’. Paper presented at Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Film Seminar (1955). In Indian Cinema in Retrospect, R. M. Ray ed. (New Delhi: Sangeet Natak Akademi, 2009), 235–40.
E-Resources
Books
Bali, Vyjayantimala with Jyoti Saberwal. Bonding….A Memoir, 2007. https://books.Google.co.in/books/about/Bonding
Burton, Richard F, trans. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayan, 1883. http://www.sacred-texts.com/sex/kama/index.htm
Magazines and Dissertation
Patel, Baburao. ed. filmindia (1940): https://ia802900.us.archive.org/9/items/filmindia194006unse/filmindia194006unse.pdf.
Patel, Baburao. ed. filmindia (1941): https://ia801301.us.archive.org/33/items/filmindia194107film_1/filmindia194107film_1.pdf.
Unpublished Dissertation
Iyer, Usha. Film Dance, Female Stardom and the Production of Gender in Popular Hindi Cinema. PhD Diss. University of Pittsburgh: Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, 2014. URL: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/22815/1/IyerUsha_ETD_2014.pdf
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Tandon, D. (2019). The Politics of Sanitization/Sanskritization: The Court Dancers and Classical Pasts (Rajnartaki, 1941; Chitralekha, 1964; Amrapali, 1966). In: Sengupta, S., Roy, S., Purkayastha, S. (eds) 'Bad' Women of Bombay Films. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26788-9_6
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