Amongst
the Indian Classical dances Manipuri is well known. Men
do not possess words to express their thoughts; therefore
they take the help of their hands, eyes, facial sign etc.
to give expressions to their felling and thoughts. Does
taking cues from such gestures the saints who had developed
dance to be seen by the eyes as a performance stated in
the books that " Verses shall be sung as songs, the
hand shall poses, the eyes shall express the intent, the
two feet shall give the rhythm, the eyes shall glance at
the hands, the sentiment should be in the mind and aesthetically
expressed." Form this what we can understand is that
one of the most important parts of the dance is the music.
Therefore when is perfect the dance becomes complete around.
As for a song, the sentiment of the verse shall be expressed
with the dance otherwise it falls to become a perfect dance.
In
order to be able to comment on some of the expects of Manipuri
classical dance we shall have to study the theory and practice
of the Indian classical dances as stated in the Abhinaya
Darpan. It is stated that Brahma by picking up elements
of Dharma form the Rigveda, Artha from the Jajurveda,Kama
form the Samaveda and Moksha form the Atharva veda composed
Natya, Nritya, Nritta,the three expects of dance. Natya
and Nritya shall be performed in the celebration, Nritta
shall be specially performed in the coronations, on the
starting of a journey,the festivals of the Gods and Godesses
in marriage,the meeting of lovers,the migration form the
villages,the inauguration of the newly build house,the celebration
of birth of a new child and by those who aspire good fortune
and life.
FEATURE
OF A DANCER
The
physical feature of a dancer shall be beautiful, delicate,
graceful, full-breasted, attractive, enticing, abandoning,
large-eyed, rhythmic, having gracious qualities are good
looks, like a lotus etc. Such women with these qualities
are considered for being a good dancer.
INTRINSIC
QUALITIES OF A DANCER
She
must be skilful, steady, must possess beautiful poses skilled
movement, graceful glances,patients, intelligence, intent
on dancing, simple in speech, capable of singing etc.; such
a women shall be dancer.
It
is stated that when a dance by such dancer is seen, even
Narada who thought nothing else except Brahma enjoyed even
greater than complete bliss (Brahmananda ) that Kama is
arroused. Indra being apprehensive of the intense Tapasya
of Biswamitra sent Meneka to distrub and spoil Biswamitra's
Tapasia and as a reason Sakuntala was born to Menaka. It
is thus deduced that Indian dances have large elements for
arousing, Kama.
Next
we shall examine the Manipuri Classical Dance, how it has
developed and with what aims objects, its different from
the Indian classical dances, its relations with songs sung
and for this we shall have to study how Natasangeet developed
and in what form.
It
was in 1468 A.D. that king Kiyamba started worshipping the
idol of Vishnu by building the Vishnu temple. By that time
a singer known as Kitna sang the Bangdesh Kitran in the
evening worshipping season which came to known as sandhya
kirtan.As a King admired the song he let the court singers
sing the song and as a result a change came in the singing
style ( that is what we here in the present Natasankirtana
). In the 17 century King Charairongba with all the Meiteis
took initiation in Vaishnav religion and developed the Pala
kirtan. In the 18 century Maharaja Garibniwaj introduced
the singing with Raga Ragini and different Talas in shradha
kramas and others ceremonies. Rajarshi Bhagyachandra in
the year 1757, one year after the tryst with elephant in
Tekhao, regaining the throne of Manipur started listening
to the explanations of the Bhagavata and by the 18 century
he understood the explanation made by Shri Krishna to Udhav
that " The Lord who could neither be touched by the
hand nor could be seen by the eye, but worshipped in the
mind with meditation is revealed in the mind ",- such
kind of worship which had been practising by the ancesters
of Meiteis for thousands of years in the form of customary
rite as Laiharaoba is the Bhagavat Dharma.With an intention
of dedicating to Shree Shree Govndajee, a sankirtana which
is full of dances throughout basing its foundation on the
Laiharoaba and replacing Nongpokningthou and Panthoibi by
Shree-Radha-Krishna was performed on Friday in the last
week on November in the year 1776 at the Nirpana of Shree
Shree Govindajee.
As
for the Laiharoaba, the Leitai-Nongdai,Paring Langsang,Laipou
and Nongpok Ningthou Panthoibi Premleela are the four basic
elements.The Leitai Nongdai is the dance in which the Father
sky and Mother Earth remain embracing at Horizon and out
of which the Amrita which is produced is absorbed by mother
Earth in her womb and resulted in the birth of mankind.
The Paring-Langsung describes the division of the lord of
the Universe into 64 parts and it's building up in human
form in the mind. The Nongpok Ningthou Panthoibi Premleela
is the dance based on the Parkiya Prem between the two.
Taking
from the Meitei Culture in which the God is worshipped through
dance which is known as Laiharoaba with the intention of
making a kind of sangeet in which sankritana is performed
singing the Radha-Krishna Prem Rasa Rajarshi Bhagyachandra
with deep deliberations and study for three years with artistes
adept in music built up at last kind of sangeet. The three
parts of it, Geeta,Badya and Nritya are led by the dance,
and the dance being its main part it was named Natasangeet
and was performed at the Rasamandala at Canchipur on the
chandrikantika sukla Ekadashi in the year 1779along with
the Abhisekk OF Shree Govinda and it continued for five
days up to the fullmoon and it was dedicated as a complete
form of Natasankirtana and Maharas (Rasa Nritya) to Shree
Govindajee for the first time.
In
the singing of songs in a Natasasnkritana a dance is accompanied
which is known as "Cholom" and it has no strong
relation with the ideas of the Verse,because Cholom has
been composed in a strong masculine form as Tandava,Cholom
has been composedd by transforming elements of Mukna (Manipuri
Wrestling), the vocabulary of sword fighting and Khou movements
of the spear into the form of performing arts. This is accompanied
with Mridanga, Kartal,Mangang,Jhal etc. and it was only
for men.Rajarshi Bhagyachandra didi not allow women to do
Cholom because women could not wear the necessary dress
as man did for cholom. From this it can be understood that
the natural movemant and acting demanded by the verse do
not have a close relation with the Cholom.
NRITYA
The
term Manipuri dance is known for the Rasa Nritya,an epitome
of the Lasya which is only for women. There are five kinds
of Rasa Nritya; they are (1) Sardiya Maharas (2) Basanta
Ras, (3) Kunja Ras (4) Nitya Ras and (5) Diva Ras. Rajarshi
Bhagyachandra composed the first three and the remaining
two are post-Bhagyachandra compositions.
SARDIYA
MAHARAS
It
has been shown above that the 'Rasapanchadhyaya' of the
Bhagavata has been made into a dance drama within the orderliness
of the Natasankirtana. It is stated in the begining of Rasapandhyaya
that "In the night of autumn with the blooming of Mallika
and other followers beautified with the moonlight of the
full moon, Shree Krishna remembering Radha,intending to
play the Rasa called all the Gopies blowing the flute"
in which a dance is enacted depicting Krishna, comimg to
the Rasamandala. Shree Krishna's age being the early stage
of eight years, the dance is composed reflecting the joyful,
carefree frolicking nature of a child, just like the playfulness
of a young calf before its mother.
Next
comes the dance of the Gopies, which is as very big portion.
The five portions of the Rasapanchadhyaya beig divided into
many parts, the dance masters were asked to compose the
imagery as conceived by the Rajarshi. After completing all
the portions and combining it in order it became the Maharas.
The dialogues of Shree Kridhna and Gopies are kept as it
is in the original slokas of Bhagavata. An following is
orderly structure,Rajarshi composed the Basanta Ras and
Kunja Ras. The Nitya Ras and Diva Ras are post-Bhagyachandra
products, which followed the same structural features. Rajarshi
Bhagyachandra composed the Ras for making to be able to
come to the part of Bhakti by diacarding lust, which is
inherent in man.
In
order to understand the songs sung in the Indian and Manipuri
Classical Dances we have taken up some ideas on its origin
and form. In the Indian Classical Dance,a verse is sung
and in order to express 'Bhava',a dance is acted out with
the movement of th parts of the body with proper acting.
The aim is to give Maha ananda to the audience.
A
Manipuri Ras Nritya is performed within a perfect structure
of Nata sankritana. As the full costume of the Natasankritana
cannot be worn by women, men perform a men's choir which
is known as 'Nupa-pala',which is a Sankritana and begining
for a Ras Nritya. All the verses sung in a Nupapala are
all verses on Shree Gouranga. No song related to the Rasaleela
can be sung and the entire end the main singer recites a
verse that Shree Gouranga remembers the Sardiya Maharas
and thus keeping with a dance to be followed the Sanakritana
ends. For the begining of a Rasa Nritya,the Nritya Guru,Sutradhar
etc. shall begin a Rasa of the Mridanga followed by an Alap
on Rag Kannara, thus with these preliminaries and hence
forth for the begining Ras the Sutradhar shall recite the
begining Sanskrit slokas of Rasapanchadhya "Bhagavanapi
Ta Ratri..."etc. and Shree Krishna appears. In the
Ras held at Canchipur,the image of Shree Govindajee was
kept in the arena and therefore no Krishna Avishar was enacted.
As the image of Raseswari was not made by that time, the
dance of Radha Avishar was enected and as tradition it was
continued upto the persent at Shree Govindajee's temple.
The
song for a Ras Nritya should have been sung in the original
Sanskrit text, but in the compositions of the Nritya Nartya
situation developed which could not be matched with the
text, therefore in search of other adequate means, text
from the Vaishnava poems matching with the dances were taken
up.
Let
us look at a portion of the song of the Krishna Avishar:-
The
Sutradhar sings:
Saradchand
pavan manda
Bipine
Tarala Kusuma Gandha
Phulla
Mallika Malati Juthi
Matta
Madhukar torani.
Herata
rati eichhana bhati
Shyama
moham madane mati
Muraligana
pancham tala
Kullabati
chita chorani, etc.
The
tune of this stanza is Bangla Kirtan and singing style is
Natasangeet, but when it is heard we feel the physical presence
of Shree Krishna dancing before our eyes. It has been ingrained
deeply to our senses. That is a poem, which was composed
with a spontanous spurd out of the culture of the poem when
he envisioned Shree Krishna going to Bridavana for a Rasleela
with the Gopies. But when Rajarshi composed the Krishna
Avishar within his own cultural context, he should have
found it difficult to say that there was nothing amiss between
the Krishna Avishar and the poem. Some elders comment that
by the time of Rajarshi Bhagyachandra the Sanskrit slokas
of Rasapanchadyaya were sung in the Maharas and later changed
into Vaishnav Padabalis. It might have seen so but no sign
could be traced.
At
present there is a movement for using Manipuri in the Natasankritana
as well as Ras Nritya. It is a movement, which should draw
all our attention. This movement had its origin in the 1930's.
It was during 1933-34 that on to occasions on Nitya Ras
organised by diffrent groups the song was sung in Manipuri.
One of the scripts of the song was written by kaviratna
Kwaraikpam Chouba and other one by Kaviratna Arambam Dorendrajit.
It was commented on the to script by scholars and art connoisseurs
of that period that there was no fault as to the nature
of a musical poem,its spiritualism, rhythm and rhetoric.
But due to the prevalent orthodoxy of the period the dance
masters of the time felt reluctant to follow the Manipuri
text, thus the scripts as well as the tune could not be
traced. It is hearthening to find enthusiasm of performing
Ras dances in Manipuri language at this fag end of the 20th
century and at this early stage it seems appropriate to
comment in few lines on the matter. In a forward of the
book entitled 'Manipuri Ras' by Lokeshwar SIngh it is stated
" The songs of Shree Govind's Ras have been written
down in Manipuri by Shree Khangembam Gulapi Singh,Sangeet
Ratna". It can be deduced from the statement that a
translation has been done from the original musical poems.
As
for example, in a song of Nitya Ras it runs thus:-
(Chhand-Radhashyam)
Radha
Shyambu pelhansise
Sannasi
jagoi channabi
Saro
yengsi Heisinglabi
heisingba
utsi
Krishna
pukning pelhanshi channabi
lalita
sasi kena kena
This
verse has something amiss from the view of a musical poem
in the form of metrical irregularity. It is taken to be
against the rules to fit in an altogether new verse to the
fames of an already existing tuned. Thus cases of law-suits
in the law-courts moved by original composers are heard.
What are stated are the norms of the ethical code of music;
but for us, the venture taken to produce a new thing for
the first time cannot forgo without appreciation.
(Translated
by original Manipuri by Shri A. Somorendra Singh)
