Kathak: A Brief of Hidden Gems Of Ancient India (Part-I)

 Greetings readers, the sad demise of legendary Birju Maharaj, at 83 is an irreplaceable loss for Indian traditional culture viewpoint, who is renowned for his excellence in patronizing Katthak dance globally, representing Lucknow Gharana. The news was broadcasted, e-printed, shared on almost every platform, and seekers by only googling can know his whole life, the whole journey, achievements and other information in just one click. As an enthusiast, I also ‘traveled’ not only in his life but also in the related history of the dance form and culture regarding it. In this point, I am sharing some of my views and thoughts, which are outcomes of my ‘floating leaves’ of the actual ‘lake’ of cultural background.

The Ancient Culture Sustainability and Diversification

         The ancestry of Indian culture is ubiquitously known as one of the largest and oldest cultures, which is often considered as one of the fundamental cultures worldwide. Despite ‘rough’ ‘plowing’ from ancient times, the culture has still held its root. With the striking similarities in art forms, rituals and ways of performance of different Asian cultures, it can be interpreted that the cultures are either influenced or directly hosted by Indian cultures. The ‘long life’ of all known fundamental cultures of the world was mainly caused by their deep roots which helped them to resurrect or to hold their shape or engulf and rebuild in response to invaders or foreign rulers who ‘plowed’ the culture in different aspects. Not to mention, this also applies for Indian culture too, where it was invaded many times, where it gradually has become more diversified and vaster. Taking note from the whole culture, if we focus on a particular art form, there is a slightly different scenario where post ‘invasion and rule’ period gave majorly three outcomes: i) the traditional form of the art, ii) intermingled form of art and iii) derived form of art.

A Brief Ancestry of Kathak

         ‘Katthak’/ ‘Kathak’ dance is one of the primary dance forms of Indian culture. The etymology states that ‘Kathak’/ ‘Katthak’ is any person who can ‘tell or describe stories’. In ancient works of literature like Mahabharata and others, kathaks were some groups of people who used to wander and tell or describe stories to local people. From this, we can easily say, they are not only telling stories but also a medium of historical/mythological/ cultural knowledge to local villagers. In some literature, they are a group of people who used to give moral lessons from fables and only ‘static’ storytellers, but majorly they were performers, like the modern artists.

         A story usually has its own dynamicity; a fable is somewhat stagnant whereas a piece of the Mahabharata or any mythological story can be highly intense. So, to cope-up with the dynamicity, the ‘Mudras’: the finger and hand gestures, might have been introduced. Application of Mudras helped the storytellers vividly as using it, they could express almost any type of elements, Gods and Goddesses, directions, and many more. Here comes another point, how the wandering storytellers had learned the ‘Yogic’ mudras where the latter was only used in spiritual prospect in ancient India? As the Indian history of Katthaks were very discrete and a prospective field of research, here we can just assume that any of the ancestors might have been a student of any ‘Guru’ when he was in ‘Bramhacharya’, one of four Ashramas of Vedic era, had learned the mudras and then devised into the art form or the student got chance to descend it further. Another assumption can be to make it more enjoyable to local people, it became a performing art.

Each performing art has its own historical journey which connects to Vedic era. The ‘manuals’ for each art was written in Vedic era by respectable ‘Rishi's' and ‘Guru's' has become ‘Bible’ for nowadays. The ‘Natyashastra’, oldest dance ‘manual’, holds that dance form can be divided into ‘Nritta’ and ‘Nritya’ distinguishing ‘pure dance’ and ‘drama’, where all types of dance moves, hand gestures, eye gestures, footworks, instruments and many other essentials were illustrated and described. Second most important book ‘Abhinaydarshana’, where the ‘drama’ part is in main focus. Noteworthy, the books are almost ‘timeless’ in nature albeit in the presence of modern research and technologies.

Digital Era and Ancestral Era: A New Fusion for Future

         The digital era has enhanced the accessibilities of hidden gems of ancient cultures of different time periods as well as different civilizations, countries applicable for Katthak/Kathak form also. This helps to cultivate the ancient glorious history by new generations which will develop enthusiasts leading to generations of new patrons. Secondly, there are many ‘dying’ local village art forms that can be rejuvenated by putting ‘light of the digital era’ on them. Further, new derivative forms of the art, new modes of performances, addition of new instruments, fusion art forms can be developed. The journey of Katthak/Kathak dance initiated ancient Vedic era, history of that period very discreetly known and till now, the journey is full of ‘high and tides’, influenced by religious and political factors, modified by foreign rulers and efforts of patriotic heroes to rejuvenate and embrace its glorious traditionality are topic of discussion for next part.