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Born centuries ago in the temples of India, Bharatanatyam is an earthy, dynamic and highly complicated art of solo feminine dancing. The contemporary form of Bharatanatyam evolved during the late 18th or early 19th century. It is an extremely precise dance style where a huge repertoire of hand movements is used to convey moods and expressions. There are three main aspects of the dance. Nritta consisting of movements and patterns of dance, Nritya the expressional aspect of dance and Natya, which adds an element of drama to the composition.

The Origin of Bharatanatyam

Dance is one of India's oldest legacies. The Natyashastra, an exhaustive treatise over two thousand years old, elaborates on the theory of dramaturgy. In India, ancient theater was an integrated art comprised of dance, drama and music. If such an intricate text on the performing arts could be conceived so far back, one has to believe that an elaborate system of dance, music and drama must have been in existence even prior to that time.

Legend has it that the Gods were bored and were in search of a different form of entertainment. They hit upon the Bharata Natyam dance which took the best out of the sacred books, the Vedas, to create the fifth Veda of glorious art. The first man to master the art form, Bharata, passed on the dance to the rest of mankind.


Myth apart, dance for the Indian is divine art. Temple sculptures abound in dance figures portraying deities like Shiva, Vishnu, Kartikeya, Krishna, Ganesa,Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati in attitudes of dance. For the human being, dance is both a joy and a form of worship, dedicated as it is, to the Gods. In fact, the devotional attitude is common to all ancient Indian art, be it sculpture, painting, music or dance. All the art forms drew their content from mythology. But since the myths portray the Gods in all moods, much like man, the arts deal with situations of pleasure, sorrow, love, anger, etc. While these moods are easy to relate with, the spiritual and devotional attitude of the art give it an elevated feel, above the earthy level of daily life.

Both ancient sculpture and literature, not to speak of old palm-leaf manuscripts, establish that Bharata Natyam has had a very old history. It was nurtured in the South of India in the region where the river Cauvery flows, where the roots of music and dance go back about 2,500 years into the past. The Tamil (the main language of a large state in South India) epics of 200 B.C. give detailed references to various musical instruments and mention different technical terms describing music and dance, both very popular at the time. While this art emanated from predominantly Dravidian culture, the Aryan culture which spread over the entire length and breadth of India, introduced Sanskrit as a strong influence, unifying the country in a cultural bond. A more or less uniform style of dance perhaps existed all over India until about the 5th century A.D. after which regional influences became powerful with each area specializing in it's own art forms. In the Hindu mythology, omnipotent God was visualized as the Creator, the Preserverand the Destroyer, so as to permit creation and it's cyclical regeneration. Thus:

The Ten Incarnations of Vishnu

Matsya - Fish Koorma - Tortoise Varaha - Boar Narasimha - Half Man - Half Lion Vaamana - Dwarf)

Parasurama - An ancient powerful sage with an axe Rama - Hero of the epic Ramayana Balarama - The Plough - Man Buddha Kalki - …yet to come

Historical Backdrop

During the ninth century and later, South India came under the rule of the Pallava and Chola dynasties, the rulers of which were great patrons of art. It is at this time that Bharata Natyam became popular both in the temple and in the court. A special class of girls were selected purely for the purposes of dancing the temples, who came to be known as Devadasis (servants of God). The temple in ancient days was more than just a place of worship. It was the fulcrum of all social activity from a baby's christening ceremony to the settlement of a land dispute, to dance and music performances. The house of God played a major role in a person's life.

After the Cholas, came the Pandyas and Vijayangar kings to be followed by the Nayaks of Tanjore (Thanjavur) and finally the Marathas, all of whom gave dance and music, both in the temple and in the court, special encouragement. Some of the kings themselves were great writers and composers of art and all of them erected large temples where art flourished.

It was during the rule of the Marathas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that there lived in South India, four famous brothers, Chinnaiyya, Ponnaiyya, Sivanandam and Vadivelu who later came to be called the Tanjore Quartette. The brothers who were musicians, dancers and poets (composers), and also disciples of the famous music composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar, were responsible for giving Bharatanatyam the form and content it has today. Even now a major part of the repertoire of the dance comes from what the brothers created. The dance had it's flowering at this time. During the British rule, the Indian princes lost their power and with that the temple lost its main patron. The devadasi was the worst sufferer, for without the support of royalty and temples, she fell back on harsh days.

The devadasi system gradually wore out and instead, girls and women from all communities began to take to dancing. After India's independence in 1947, classical dance in the country received a special boost. Today, Bharatanatyam is perhaps the most widely practiced dance form in the country.

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