Modernism in Disguise? Neglected Aspects of the So-Called Revival of a Classical Indian Dance Form

Abstract

Contact with remote cultures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries stimulated major changes in the art practices of India and Western countries such as Germany. In this chapter, Sandra Jasmin Schlage analyses the knowledge production emanating from these developments with a special emphasis on applying terms and concepts like ‘revival’, or the emergence of ‘modernism’. The most exalted discourse from India is the so-called ‘revival’ of the classical dance traditions exemplified by Bharatanāṭyam from Southeast India. This chapter provides a critical analysis of this process through a comparison with the emergence of the so-called modern dance in Western countries, on the one hand, and the contemporary rise of modern visual arts in India, on the other hand. Some striking similarities have led the author to question the labelling of these developments and to suggest that the ‘revival’ of classical Indian dance traditions contains some ‘modernism’ in disguise.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Germany and other countries of the Western world experienced an influx of detailed knowledge about India.¹ Although these speculations mainly centred on an imagined static and spiritually charged culture, there occurred profound changes of cultural and religious ideas in India itself at the same time. In this chapter, I focus on the development of Indian arts (especially classical dance in Southeast India), which Western interpretations of Indian cultural practices often influenced and partially facilitated. Furthermore, the posterior scholarly knowledge production on the transformation processes in the field of performing arts in comparison to visual arts should be addressed, which either overemphasizes the traditional or the modern aspects while neglecting the impact of the other.

Striking similarities exist between the developments of dance and visual arts during that time, which can be found in India and in Western countries, such as Germany. With respect to the Indian dance traditions of that period being regarded as a ‘revival’, most dancers and scholars see today’s classical Indian dances as a direct continuation of the traditional nineteenth-century dance forms and deny that major changes have occurred. In this chapter, I aim to question established concepts and theories, especially the definition of a so-called revival, by critically re-evaluating the historical development of today’s classical Indian dance forms.² Classical dance is exemplified by the Southeast Indian dance tradition presently known as Bharatanāṭyam.

Following a brief summary of earlier research on the subject, and with a view to providing a transcultural context, I discuss the impact of Indian-inspired arts on the formation of the modern arts, especially dance, in Western countries. Moreover, I examine the development of Indian dance in terms of the rise of ‘modernism’ in the Indian visual arts between 1880 and 1947. By drawing comparisons between earlier and later reformulations of the performing arts in South Asia, I question the frequently stressed unique nature of the so-called revival, and round off the chapter with some concluding thoughts about the use of such terms as ‘revival’ and ‘modernism’.

Previous Research and Open Questions

The recent history of classical Indian dances is a subject that is featured in almost any publication on these art forms. However, introductions or guide books for practitioners usually present rather simple accounts of the popular understanding of these developments. Teresa Hubel (2005), however, has written an exemplary account of the complex socio-political developments leading to the imposition of a ban of dance in its original context (performed in a ritual temple setting by devadāsīs who are temple women and dancers dedicated to the deity). In addition, Anne-Marie Gaston (2005) has undertaken detailed ethnographic research into the transition of the Southeast Asian dance tradition to the modern stage.

Likewise, several publications on the history of the visual arts in India cover the emergence of so-called modern art. For example, in a general survey of Indian art, Vidya Dehejia (1997: 409–24) has devoted an entire chapter to ‘Art and Modernity’, and Balraj Khanna and Aziz Kurtha’s (1998) Art of Modern India contains a number of discussions on various exemplary works of art. In addition, Preminda S. Jacob (1999) and Partha Mitter (2008) have studied the concept of modern art and its pertinence to South Asian artworks.

While the above-mentioned works discuss developments in the visual and performing arts in India, there are also studies on India’s impact on the development of modern Western art. Two relatively recent examples of these are A Mediated Magic edited by Naman P. Ahuja and Louise Belfrage (2019), and an article by Vincent Warren (2006) about the influence of imagined Indian culture and dance on performances in the West.

However, as the discussion of the publications has shown, neither the development of the visual arts nor the performing arts during the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century has been studied compared to the respective other genre. In this chapter, I therefore aim to close that gap in the research and contextualize the developments in the classical dance tradition.

In recent decades, dance research has started to question the use of certain terms and labels. In an article written for Dance Research, Avanthi Meduri (2008) criticized the use of certain names and regional attributions and, in a later work (Meduri 2018: 301–2), even questioned the applicability of the English term ‘dance’. However, she did not discuss the usage of the popular term ‘revival’. Parveen Kanhai (2019) thought the term ‘recontextualization’³ more appropriate than ‘revival’ because she thought it would highlight the artists’ agency. However, I believe that it emphasizes the changed settings of the performance while distracting from innovations in the content and stylistic features of the dance, which I take as at least of equal importance.

A theoretical solution to this dilemma might be to adopt a neutral term, which can allude to several processes; for example, the reuse term as coined by Julia A. B. Hegewald (2012: 48).

Re-use is a conscious and selective process in which existing elements are borrowed or salvaged and taken out of their former environment in order to be applied to a new context, or they are left within their old milieu but filled with new meanings, or they get manipulated and react to new external influences.

With this definition in mind, below I discuss the reuse of Indian arts and religious ideas, or what Western artists imagine to be Indian elements, from the late nineteenth century onwards. I then go on to analyse developments in classical dance and visual arts in India at the beginning of the twentieth century, which were partially inspired by, or created in reaction to, Indian elements in Western artistic productions that involve the reuse of traditional Indian arts.

Indian Influences on Western Performing Arts

Given that the emergence of so-called modernism in the West predates similar developments in India, I shall start by looking at references to India and Indian dance in Western, or more specifically German, performing arts. The exchange of ideas between the West and India had a strong effect on almost all aspects of European culture between 1880 and 1930. The Indian influence is apparent in literature, the visual arts and crafts, theatrical performances (especially music and dance), and the sciences (e.g. psychology) (Ahuja 2019: 8). In some respects, references to India can be seen to counter the post-Enlightenment discourse because they often centre on subconscious, intuitive feelings, or supernatural, mystical concepts (Ahuja 2019: 8, 10). Therefore, Indian thoughts on religion or philosophy, or Western ideas about these subjects, fertilized European cultural productions. Moreover, around the dawn of the twentieth century, transnational spiritual organizations such as the Theosophical Society often facilitated exchanges of ideas between India and the Western world (Lubelsky 2019: 70 ff.).

India as a subject and Indian characters in particular have been popular in the Western performing arts, especially operas and ballets, since the seventeenth century, which is prior to the emergence of ‘modern’ genres. The Indian characters in these performances provide opportunities to show off exotic costumes inspired by Orientalist fantasies. Among the earliest of these productions in Germany was Alessandro nelle Indie, which Jean-Georges Noverre staged in Stuttgart in 1760 (Warren 2006: 98).⁴

Some of the most successful ballets based on Indian motifs were inspired by the German ballad, ‘Der Gott und die Bajadere’, which Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote in 1797 (Goethe 1798). The poem describes how a god disguised as a mortal man tests the love of a professional temple dancer called Bajadere (Feise 1961: 49–50). In 1830, Fillippo Taglioni adapted the work into an opera-cum-ballet called Le Dieu et la Bayadère, also known as the Maid of Cashmere. The most successful adaptation of the ballad, however, and one still performed today, is Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère, which premiered in Saint Petersburg in 1877 (Warren 2006: 101, 103). Yet, as in Fig. 7.1, which captures the famous Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) in the leading role of Nikiya, neither its costumes, music nor dance movements is based on authentic Indian models.

Fig. 7.1

Anna Pavlova as Nikiya in La Bayadère. (The original uploader was Mrlopez2681 at English Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bayadere_-Nikiya_-Anna_Pavlova_-1902.jpg, ‘Bayadere -Nikiya -Anna Pavlova -1902’, marked as public domain, details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old)

As is typical of the heroines in these Indian ballets, Anna Pavlova is wearing a classical ballet dress and ballet shoes, with only her scarf serving as a visual marker of an Indian subject (Warren 2006: 103). Her influence on the development of dance in India will be discussed later in this chapter. Meanwhile, the first authentic performances in Europe by five devadāsī dancers and three musicians took place in Paris and London in 1838 (Meduri 2018: 299). However, it remained rare to see such performances on Western stages and it was only in the early twentieth century that Western dancers started to learn from Indian performers in Europe and later in India itself (Warren 2006: 107 ff.). One dancer who toured Europe extensively between 1936 and 1938 was Leila Sokhey, better known as Madame Menaka (1899–1947). She presented stage productions in an eclectic style which combined Indian influences from classical traditions of North India which became later subsumed as Kathak dance and folk forms with Western orientalist aesthetics (Kanhai in this volume).⁵

While the above-mentioned Western productions are essentially ballets, India has also featured large in modern dance, especially since the start of the twentieth century. Modern dancers began to free themselves from the strict conventions of classical ballet and to communicate a different picture of India, one less connected to exoticism and more to a spiritual search. Ruth St Denis and her partner Ted Shawn, Mata Hari, and Tortola Valentia are among the more famous exponents of these pseudo-Indian dances (Warren 2006: 105–6).

Between 1906 and 1915, Ruth St Denis⁶ based several of the dances she choreographed on Indian themes (Coorlawala 1992: 144), with the emphasis on Eastern religion and spirituality in some of them. In a lesser-known dance called The Yogi, and a more famous one called Incense, she combined devotional elements with comparatively simple dance steps to convey her spiritually charged image of India (Coorlawala 1992: 144). Ruth St Denis was one of the first Western dancers to perform in India and, while the programme for her tour included some Indian dances, she mainly chose items with secular themes (Coorlawala 1992: 142). She performed for mixed Western and Indian audiences and conveyed a positive image of Indian dance in that country (Coorlawala 1992: 123).

Even before touring India, Ruth St Denis had spread her new, spiritually charged image of Indian dance to several Western European countries, such as Germany, which she visited in 1908. As the programme for Indische Tanzszenen (Indian dance sequences) at the Hoftheater in Weimar documented, most of her dances had religious themes, including The Yogi, Incense, and Radha, which the programme described as a Hindu temple dance (DNT 1908). Her performances might well have inspired some of the early practitioners of modern dance in Germany who were beginning to introduce similar topics into their works.

German dancers subsequently played a central role in creating and developing modern dance. The impact of Germany on modern dance and especially the importance of this genre in Germany have recently been acknowledged by UNESCO, which declared ‘The Practice of Modern Dance in Germany’ as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022. Among Germany’s most famous modern dancers was Mary Wigman (1886–1973), and, as the titles of some of her early (1917) works such as Götzendienst (idolatry) and Tempeltanz (temple dance) imply, she based them on Indian subjects. She also seemed to have experimented with Indian music, as her use of an allegedly Indian tune for Schatten in 1919 suggests.⁷ Like Ruth St Denis’s ‘Indian’ dances, Mary Wigman’s ‘Indian’ performances seemed to portray religious motifs and to promote the association of India and Indian dance with spirituality.

Hence, as briefly highlighted, the West’s imagined idea of Indian culture and thought had quite an impact on Western performing arts, particularly in Germany. Furthermore, inspiration from or the reuse of Indian elements contributed to the development of modern dance. A reoccurring topic, which evolved in ballet but became more prominent during the formation of modern dance, was the association of India, and Indian dance with religion and spirituality.

Developments in India’s Performing and Visual Arts

Classical dance in India acquired most of its present characteristics between the early and mid-twentieth century, that is, a few decades after the emergence of modern dance in the West. Most of the classical dances have their roots in the dances performed by specialized artist communities, such as the devadāsīs who, for various cultural and political reasons were banned from dancing in temples in 1947. The contemporaneous search for authentic Indian art was also connected to the Indian nationalist movement, which ushered in a fresh interest in traditional dance (Hubel 2005: 122). While dancers and dance scholars labelled the phenomenon a ‘revival’, the term fails to survive the scrutiny of a critical comparison between developments in dance and the emergence of the so-called modern visual arts in India. Mainstream descriptions of the latter tend to incorporate the so-called revivalists into a broader discourse on modern art. Also, because historical writings since the 1930s have favoured artists from Calcutta and its environs (Handy 1930), the focus of my analysis is mainly on the Northeast region of India.

This case raises the question of how to define ‘modernism’ in a South Asian context. The question of whether artists in previously colonized countries could then, or can now, participate in the modern art scene on an equal basis has been widely discussed, especially in terms of the imbalance in their power relationships. As mentioned above, contact with other cultures creates an important stimulus for a rise in modern art forms. Nevertheless, cross-cultural borrowing, either perceived as an ‘inspiration’ when Western artists borrow from non-Western traditions, or judged as an ‘imitation’ when non-Western artists borrow from Western ones, poses a challenge to one’s evaluation of modern artworks in South Asia (Jacob 1999: 50). With this in mind, modernism in both the visual and performing arts should be defined as a radical change in the context, form, and content of traditional art forms, brought about through contact with other cultures inspiring new aesthetics and changes regarding the social relevance of the artworks.

My comparative analysis of the performing and visual arts starts in the late nineteenth century when India shifted from appreciating its own indigenous art to seeing Western aesthetics and values as superior. This not only resulted in Indians devaluing their own visual and performing arts but it also led to a decline in traditional forms of patronage. Regarding performing arts, the eroticism of dance lyrics and the social role of traditional female performers, devadāsīs⁸ who lived in matriarchal communities and were dedicated to a temple deity instead of being married to a mortal man, started to trouble Western-educated middle and upper classes. The denunciation of dance performances by devadāsīs in newspapers started in 1892 and culminated in the ban of the dedication of new devadāsīs and performances in temples in 1947 (Hubel 2005: 126).⁹

Likewise, the visual arts saw a shift towards Westernization in the nineteenth century. Victorian ideals and Western painting techniques were transmitted in art schools, which were founded under British influence in Calcutta (Kolkata) and Madras (Chennai) in 1845 and Bombay (Mumbai) in 1857 (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 11). Training Indian painters catered to the British crown’s interest in collecting visual information on India, and many graduates from these art schools subsequently went on to work as ‘company painters’ for the empire (Kraus 2011: 8–9). Figure 7.2 is typical of their painting style. The picture of a female and male circus performer shows the woman stilting on a rope with three pots on her head, while the man accompanies her on a drum, which he carries over his left shoulder. The motif is representative of ‘company paintings’, which show local animals and plants, architectural drawings, and figural studies, often a woman and a man of different religious or occupational groups (Dehejia 1997: 396). There was no comparative Western training in the field of dance, which was probably because dance was of no practical use to the colonial empire.

Fig. 7.2

Company painting showing two circus performers. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acrobat on a tightrope, drummer below (6125140408).jpg, ‘Acrobat on a tightrope, drummer below (6125140408)’, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old)

In both fields, the reuse of the content through engaging with traditional themes and Indian mythology preceded the reuse of the techniques and aesthetics of traditional art forms. Artists using Western techniques to depict Indian topics were characteristic of the visual arts of the late nineteenth century. In his oil paintings, self-taught artist Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906), who is considered a forerunner of modern Indian art, combined academic naturalism with Indian topics, such as Hindu mythology or indigenous ideals of female beauty (Kumar 1999: 14). Figure 7.3 of Sarasvatī, the goddess associated with learning, arts, and knowledge in general, is in a realistic style and painted in oils. As is apparent from the preference for a light skin, the painting also conforms to the then current standards of beauty.

Fig. 7.3

Saraswati by Raja Ravi Varma. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saraswati.jpg, “Saraswati”, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old. Raja Ravi Varma artist QS:P170,Q333453)

Furthermore, Raja Ravi Varma contributed to the distribution of this new hybrid form of art by establishing the first oleographic press in India in 1892 (Dehejia 1997: 409). In addition, the first half-Indian female painter, Amrita Sher Gil (1913–41), was inspired by the works of Paul Gauguin; in fact, her depictions of rural Indian women were inspired by Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 18).

Initial Western influences similarly shaped the career in the performing arts of Uday Shankar (1900–77). Although he had no formal training in traditional Indian dance, he developed an eclectic style with influences from both Indian and Western classical dances, folk and tribal genres. In his early career, he choreographed the popular Radha and Krishna duet for Anna Pavlova’s ballet Oriental Impressions, and partnered her in it (Warren 2006: 107). Figure 7.4 shows a still of this production, taken around 1923.

Fig. 7.4

Anna Pavlova and Uday Shankar in the Radha and Krishna duet in Oriental Impressions. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uday_Shankar_and_Ana_Pavlova_in_’Radha-Krishna’_ballet,_ca_1922.jpg, ‘Uday Shankar and Ana Pavlova in Radha-Krishna ballet, c.1922’, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-India)

After this collaboration, Uday Shankar went on to tour the world with his own dance productions based on Indian mythology. Another fact unknown to many dancers is that Rukmini Devi Arundale, a leading figure in the so-called ‘revival’, produced her early dance dramas in an eclectic Western style under the auspices of the Theosophical Society. Her first stage appearance was in a Tamiḻ version of Tagore’s Nalini produced by Eleanor Elder in 1918 (Khokar 2018).

The trend towards Westernization, which initially affected style and content, but later mostly aesthetics, was soon followed by a countermovement known as either the ‘revival’, ‘reconstruction’, or ‘renaissance’ of Indian arts. In the visual and performing arts, the re-evaluation of traditional or indigenous art forms was closely associated with the anti-colonial nationalist movement (Chakravorty 2000: 110–11). In the visual arts, the process, which started at the turn of the century, was associated with the Bengal (or neo-Bengal) School of Art, whose protagonists became known as ‘revivalists’ (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 9).

The so-called ‘revival’ of Indian dance came a few decades after that of the literal and visual arts. However, anthropologist E. S. Craighill Handy seemed to have anticipated a consciously planned ‘revival’ of dance when he wrote, ‘I happen to know a cultured young lady, … who is preparing to devote her life to stimulating a revival in Indian dancing and music’ (Handy 1930: 369). In her contribution to this volume, Kanhai describes Kathak performer Madame Menaka as being well aware of the different strategies that artists, especially those associated with the nationalist movement, were consciously pursuing for the ‘revival’ of Indian art forms. In fact, to this end Madame Menaka deployed different strategies throughout her career. Five years after her initial interest in using ancient sculptures and paintings to identify dance poses, she turned to Sanskrit manuals as an alternative source.

Western artists and art scholars can take some credit for inspiring artists to return to their indigenous traditions. British art teacher E. B. Havell (1861–1934), who taught at the Calcutta Art School, rejected academic realism and encouraged his students, who included the famous painter Nandalal Bose (1882–1966), to search for inspiration in the ancient arts of India (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 9). A similar encounter in the field of dance shaped the life of one of the most eminent protagonists of the dance ‘revival’, Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–86). Because of her enthusiasm for Anna Pavlova’s works, Arundale’s initial plan was to study Western ballet. However, Anna Pavlova, who had staged ballets inspired by Indian themes, suggested that, besides mastering certain basic ballet techniques, she concentrate rather on appropriating Indian dance forms (Samson 2010: 70–4). Anna Pavlova had likewise inspired Madame Menaka to learn and perform Indian dances (Kanhai n.d.), and even instructed the British dancer Harcourt Algeranoff to teach her ‘Hindu dancing’ (see Kanhai in this volume).

Orientalist research on India and the incorporation of Indian themes and aesthetics into Western artworks and scholarship fuelled the shift towards seeing indigenous art traditions in a positive light. These mutual exchanges between East and West had a lasting effect on the visual and performing arts in both regions and stimulated the rise of so-called ‘modernism’. Interestingly, popular history has highlighted the contributions of certain selected artists, yet allowed those of other equally successful artists to fade into obscurity. For example, all dancers are still aware of Anna Pavlova’s reputation, yet Ruth St Denis is largely forgotten in India, although she toured the subcontinent a year before Pavlova did and had already awakened a huge interest in (Indian) dance (Coorlawala 1992: 124). One possible reason for this is that St Denis’s rather sensual performances did not match the image of classical Indian dance that the ‘revivalists’ subsequently promoted in that country.

These protagonists in the visual and performing arts usually belonged to the upper classes, or higher castes, so gained access to Western artistic concepts through their education. For example, through his publications, Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) popularized the Indian visual arts and became one of India’s most influential art historians (Kumar 1999: 15). His contributions provided the theoretical background for a ‘revival’ that encouraged European-trained artists to turn back to Indian painting styles for inspiration. Foremost among these ‘revivalists’ was Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951), who chose Mughal elements for some of his works, including his Arabian Nights series in the 1930s (Kumar 1999: 15). The painting Sindbad the Sailor from this series (Fig. 7.5) reminds the viewer of a Mughal miniature painting; even the script on the upper border is in keeping with this genre. Besides being inspired by Mughal art, Abanindranath Tagore integrated further non-Western stylistic features, such as Persian and Japanese elements, in his personal style (Dehejia 1997: 410).

Fig. 7.5

Sindbad the Sailor from the Arabian Nights series by Abanindranath Tagore. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abanindranath_Tagore_-_Sindabad,_the_Seller,_1930.jpg, ‘Abanindranath Tagore: Sindabad, the Seller, 1930’, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-1996. Abanindranath Tagore, creator QS: P170,Q691796)

The ‘revival’ of classical dance was facilitated by its promotion onto the stages of urban cities such as Madras, now called Chennai. E. Krishna Iyer (1897–1968) combined theoretical and practical approaches. He hosted sadir¹⁰ performances at the most prestigious venue, the Madras Music Academy. He not only promoted traditional dancers but also performed himself dressed as a woman (Gaston 2005: 84).

Although leaders of the ‘revival’ were mainly from upper-middle or high-class backgrounds, they were inspired by and acquired their knowledge about visual arts and dance from artist communities from lower social positions. The best-known example of this in the visual arts is Jamini Roy (1887–1972), who found inspiration in urban Kālīghāṭ paintings and later turned to the rural paṭuẏā tradition (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 14). His painting called Boating (c.1920) can be seen in Fig. 7.6. Stylistic features, such as black outlines, clear colours, flat figures, and motifs, are obviously inspired by rural traditions.

Fig. 7.6

Boating by Jamini Roy. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boating_(6124606361).jpg, ‘Boating (6124606361)’, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-old. Jamini Roy English: thesandiegomuseumofartcollection)

Likewise, the early Bharatanāṭyam repertoire was based on the compositions of the sadir concert repertoire created by the icai vēḷāḷar community (or isai vellala in anglicized spelling) whose men were traditional dance teachers and conductors of performances (naṭṭuvaṉārs) (Gaston 2005: 15). Their role will be discussed further at a later point in this chapter.

The perceived value of these art works was often enhanced by claiming a common Indian or even pan-Asian past. The painter Abanindranath Tagore, a leading figure in the Bengal School of Art, promoted a pan-Asian, anti-Western concept of art rooted in traditional Indian art forms and inspired by the Japanese Nihonga art movement, which means “Japanese art” in English (Kumar 1999: 16–17). With respect to dance, several scholars have already discussed the initial claim that Bharatanāṭyam constituted a classical dance form for the whole of India—Bharata—based on the Sanskrit manual Nāṭyaśāstra, which is roughly 2000 years old (Coorlawala 2004: 53).¹¹

The new social significance accorded to these art forms brought changes in how the required practical and theoretical knowledge about them was transmitted. At art schools and colleges, group classes modelled along Western lines and with fixed syllabuses often replaced the traditional one-to-one relationship between teacher and student (guru–śiṣya). In 1921, the celebrated poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941)¹² founded the Visva-Bharati University in the small town of Shantiniketan, where the famous artist Nandalal Bose was appointed principal of its ‘Kala Bhavan’, Institute of Fine Arts (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 15). Like many leading figures of his time, Nandalal Bose was involved in the nationalist movement. The Ajanta murals were his early inspiration (Kumar 1999: 16).

In Southeast India in 1936, shortly after her own stage debut as a dancer, Rukmini Devi Arundale founded the ‘International Institute of the Arts’, a college of music and classical dance, on the premises of the Theosophical Society. Two years later it was renamed ‘Kalakshetra’—kalā (art) and kṣetra (site) (Allen 1997: 73).¹³ Figure 7.7 shows dance students at the daily morning assembly under banyan trees at the foundation’s new campus.

Fig. 7.7

Dancers attending the Kalakshetra Foundation’s morning assembly. (The picture was taken by the author, Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai, 2012)

Kalakshetra (Today Kalakshetra Foundation) and the Visva-Bharati University promote Indian art and, as Kalakshetra’s original name implies, are committed to establishing strong international links. Introducing the reformulated dance tradition to international audiences and organizing worldwide tours for the dance company were, from the start, part of the institution’s agenda (Allen 1997: 74). The Visva-Bharati University not only employed leading Indian artists but also invited Western scholars to engage in research on literature and arts. The university’s motto, which Rabindranath Tagore selected, is ‘where the whole world meets in one nest’ (Kumar 1999: 17).

At the same time, practising artists began to widen their approach to their art. For example, Rukmini Devi Arundale was an active participant in the theosophical movement and enjoyed special patronage because Annie Besant had selected her as ‘World Mother’ a female spiritual leader (Allen 1997: 72). As the initial foundation of her dance college on the premises of the Theosophical Society suggests, she combined her cultural activities with the society’s agenda (Allen 1997: 74), and most of her works had religious or spiritual themes. Classical dance had traditionally flourished in a religious context, but the spirituality that Rukmini Devi Arundale and other contemporary non-hereditary dancers expressed differed from that of the traditional communities. For example, devotional elements played an important part in Rukmini Devi Arundale’s work. She brought a statue of Naṭarāja (the god of dance) on stage, and promoted a worship-centred interpretation of bhakti (loving devotion to a deity), while the traditional dancers continued to visualize their devotions far more sensually (Allen 1997: 79). Religious themes were not equally popular in Indian visual arts in the first half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the search for spirituality and incorporation of devotional acts on stage resembles the approach of modern Western dancers, such as Ruth St. Denis or Mary Wigman.

Their differing interpretations of artworks had a lasting effect on the relationships between the non-hereditary artists and the traditional communities from which the respective art forms had evolved. In the visual arts, Rabindranath Tagore saw art as a form of self-expression, which he wanted to free from the hegemony of tradition (Kumar 1999: 17).¹⁴ With regard to the Kalakshetra Foundation, Rukmini Devi Arundale put an end to the hereditary icai vēḷāḷar naṭṭuvaṉārs’ monopoly on teaching dance and mounting stage performances by encouraging other performers to take on these tasks. As theirs was traditionally an independent profession, the naṭṭuvaṉārs were not even required to be able to dance, whereas today’s Bharatanāṭyam is mainly taught by people who are, or at least were, performers themselves (Coorlawala 2004: 54).

Earlier explanations point to similarities in the developments of the visual and performing arts until 1947, but, surprisingly, each genre uses different terms to describe them. For example, only some visual artists, such as those of the Bengal School, are called ‘revivalists’ (Khanna and Kurtha 1998: 9), yet the overall process up to 1947 is seen as the emergence of modern art (cf. Dehejia 1997: 409 ff.).¹⁵ On the other hand, such developments in the field of dance are exclusively termed a ‘revival’ or ‘renaissance’, which fails to account for the modern aspects and new social context of classical dance forms established during that period.

This approach to history might account for the virtual absence of classical dance forms like Bharatanāṭyam from the discourse on modern Indian dance. The common narrative, which is that dance styles and techniques maintained or regained their ‘original’ qualities throughout the ‘revival’ points to a high level of conservatism within the classical dance community (Meduri 2008: 231–2). However, an ongoing debate among Bharatanāṭyam dancers and dance scholars over whether new contents and ideas are acceptable within the genre suggests that the dance community became more open to innovations at the end of the twentieth century (Prahlad 2008: 98–9).

Modern Indian dance is treated as a distinct genre, although many artists subsumed under this discourse developed their works based on training in at least one of the classical dance forms.¹⁶ The famous Southeast Indian modern dancer and choreographer, Chandralekha Prabhudas Patel (1928–2006), mixed her individual dance style based on Bharatanāṭyam techniques with influences from the martial arts and yoga (Kothari 2003: 57). Obviously, because ‘revivalist’ art is considered part of the wider narrative around modern art, a similar split between ‘revived’ and ‘modern’ art forms did not happen in the visual arts, either before 1947 or after independence. Researcher Siva Kumar (1999: 15) has even questioned whether the label ‘revivalist’ should be used in the visual arts.

Earlier and Later ‘Revivals’ of the South Asian Performing Arts

The strong emphasis on the ‘revival’ process in the history of classical dances, especially Bharatanāṭyam, raises the question whether this process is unique. Therefore, we should examine the Sanskritization process of this dance tradition, which culminated in the change of name(s) from sadir and related names of local traditions to Bharatanāṭyam (Meduri 2008: 232).¹⁷ Emphasizing the link to Sanskrit manuals, such as the Nāṭyaśāstra, or the more recent Abhinayadarpaṇa, over oral transmission in Tamiḻ, could be seen to accentuate and legitimize the claim to pan-Indian relevance (Coorlawala 2004: 53–4).

Hari Krishnan described a previous Sanskritization process of the Southeast Indian dance tradition a century earlier when social reforms at the court of Thanjavur at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century were already threatening the transmission of devadāsī dance practices. In fact, the Thanjavur Quartet’s Sadir Kacheri repertoire, the ‘traditional’ one that the twentieth-century ‘revivalist’ dancers retrieved, was created as a reaction to this perceived threat. Another parallel development at that time, and in the twentieth century, was referring to or scripting the dance in Sanskrit manuals to invoke a Sanskrit dance culture (Krishnan 2008: 85).¹⁸

As this example demonstrates, the twentieth-century ‘revival’ of Bharatanāṭyam was not the first of its kind, though previous attempts were never labelled ‘revivals’. Furthermore, it was not the last attempt to revive and popularize a former devadāsī tradition in Southeast India. Well-known dancer Swapnasundari recently tried to revive a traditional female dance from Andhra Pradesh under the new name of Vilasini Nāṭyam, about which she also wrote a book (Swapnasundari 2010). However, since it never aroused much public interest and was never granted the official status of a classical dance form, one can but wonder what factors determine whether a ‘revival’ has a lasting effect. Writing on ‘revitalization movements’, Anthony F. C. Wallace offered a theoretical explanation establishing his anthropological concept. He argued that being dissatisfied with one’s own culture (as in pre-independence India) results in a conscious effort to bestow new social meanings and characteristics on a cultural system (in this case the visual and performing arts) (Wallace 1956: 265).¹⁹ Thus, the reason for the success of Bharatanāṭyam’s revival may partially lie in its link with the nationalist movement in pre-independence India, and partially with the zeitgeist of the time.

A recent example of the development of a traditional Nepalese dance called Caryā Nṛtya, which Newari Buddhist priests originally performed exclusively in a ritual context, supports this theory. Since the 1990s, this dance has been made accessible to people outside that community and, in a modified form, it eventually made it onto the public stages. During the course of this development, the dance became linked to ‘Indian’ Sanskrit dance traditions (Widdess 2004: 13), and it is now promoted as a spiritual art form and Nepal’s national classical dance. The performer, teacher, and researcher Raju Shakya is eager to teach the Caryā Nṛtya in an institutionalized setting, following the example of Bharatanāṭyam. He strives to introduce practice uniform, structured dance classes, including warm-up, practice of steps and a standardized repertoire for Caryā Nṛtya.²⁰ For example, the musical structure and lyrics of the simple śloka (sung verse) known as Refuge Dance are conceived similar to those in the so-called Guru śloka in Bharatanāṭyam.

The rising popularity of Caryā Nṛtya may well be linked to the new wave of nationalism in Nepal following a period of nation building between 1960 and 1990, and the Janajāti movement, which promotes ethnic and religious pluralism in that country (Bhandari et al. 2009: 8, 17).²¹ Although, compared with India, Nepal has virtually no colonial past, the particular zeitgeist of the time seems to have produced a similar dance ‘revival’ alongside cultural nationalism.

Conclusion

Now, for the first time we have seen a brief comparison between the rise of modern dance in Western countries, especially Germany; the subsequent development of Indian dance traditions; and the emergence of modern Indian visual art. Bringing together these three topics in one chapter has highlighted their interdisciplinary and transcultural connections. I started the chapter by looking at the popularity of ‘Indian’ material and motifs in the Western performing arts, especially during the formulation of modern dance. References to India were often associated with a search for spirituality, which also seemed to be a popular motive among non-hereditary dancers in India during the so-called ‘revival’.

This was followed by a comparative analysis of the visual arts and classical dance in India, with the focus on the trends they had in common. The discourses on classical Indian dances, however, seemed to spark strong moral, ethical, and emotional reactions, which led to the ban on dancing in temples in the past and might have promoted the relative conservatism of the classical dance community later on.

We saw that ‘revivals’ or ‘reformulations’ are natural processes that occur periodically in the performing arts, and perhaps also in the visual arts; they are necessary developments and they help keep these art forms alive. However, the mainstream discourse on dance history labels these developments as ‘revival’ or ‘renaissance’, whereas both terms are much less popular in the history of visual arts in India.

Both terms, ‘revival’ and ‘renaissance’, imply a backward orientation and stress a link to an (imagined) classical tradition of the past. Accordingly, they imply that today’s classical dances are an unaltered continuation of earlier traditions. Hence, the terms ‘revival’ or ‘renaissance’ deny all modern aspects of this process. The initial discussion of the development of performing arts in Western cultures with a focus on Germany showed that similar factors (contact with foreign cultures, perceived unsatisfaction with the present state) likewise led to a reformulation of the dance tradition. However, this development became considered the emergence of modern dance. As a detailed comparison to the rise of modern visual arts in India during the same period further proves the ‘revival’ of dance contains some modernism in disguise. This point is further supported by documents in the Menaka archive, which showed how differently Madame Menaka’s repertoire and work as a dancer were perceived in Western countries like Germany and in India, especially over her contribution to the ‘revival’ of Kathak dance.

Considerable emphasis was placed on the importance of being critical about using terms like ‘revival’ and ‘modernism’. As Matthew Harp Allen (1997: 63) explained, ‘the term “revival” is a drastically reductive linguistic summary of a complex process’ involving the renewal, repopulation, reconstruction, renaming, resituating, and restoration of dance practices. To select one of these terms is to overemphasize one aspect while neglecting or denying others. As I mentioned early on in the chapter, one possible solution may be to apply a neutral term like reuse, which, as Julia A. B. Hegewald (2012: 48) pointed out, can include most of these dimensions while still emphasizing the agency of the art practitioners.

However, the later application of a new term can introduce new complications. Therefore, sticking with the popular terms that emerged through public consent may be the best way forward, so long as it does not conceal or distract from the actual complexity of the history of the performing and visual arts all over the world.