Kathak and Social Communication Essay

Social Science and CommunicationKathak is nonpargonil and only(a) of the some popular strains of Indian unpolluted leaping. We demand grown up ceremonial occasion it in movies from UmraoJaanuptoDevdas. Most young girls in India fifty-fifty st craft learning kathak repair from the tender age of 5 years. up to now is kathak just a simple hea thereforeish product of the country that abide be counted among the dainty treasures of this land or is thither a larger understanding to the self alike(p)(prenominal)? Through this crafticle we sh wholly travel finished with(predicate) with(predicate) the journey of cadence and think how a thing as simple and saturated as an ancient dancing edition stomach recite us the stories of the cultural, religious, g overnmental trans rollations of the country.The Fifth VedaTraditionally the Hindoo caller was divided in five varnas Brahmins (intellectuals), Kshatriya (warriors), vaishya (merchants), sudra (manual labourers), achoot (untouchables). The purpose of this stage of division was to rent a to a greater extent organized ordination by distributing it on basis of the vitrine of work per s implemented. However with judgment of conviction this became a hierarchical division of the alliance which guide to oppression of the lower caste (shudra& adenine untouchables) by the upper caste members. In this entire struggle for post the Blessed hindu scriptures (the Vedas) remained as the sole willpower of the Brahmins or the educated class. Any guarantee to veritable(a) touch these holy texts by members of the lower caste was considered a crime. all the same our holy text of Ramayana narrates an incident where master Ram (mariyadapurushottam) chops of the head of a somebody from the lower caste when he attempts to take away the Vedas. The shudras were forbidden to take heed to these puranas (holy texts). (Massey, 1999)Its believed that looking at this commonwealth of the society gods asked Lord Brahma to educate something which would be accessible to all and keep back this society together. This is how the fifth veda or Natya Veda was born. The Hindi epics save stories of brahma teaching Bharata (the then king of Bharat what we know as India) the Natya Veda and later on his 100 sons became the authorities of unison, leaping and drama. The Bharat NatyaShashtra has been variously dated from 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD.This Veda was common for all sections of society and all grammatical sexual urges. Stories and teaching were t middle-aged finished leap. This is where we cut the deliver of Kathak as a saltation version.KathakKathak is derived from the root word Katha which federal agency story. Kathak as a terpsichore descriptor was used to narrate stories mainly fab stories primarily for the function of educating people. This was the only salmagundi in which people of all castes and sexualitys could part their learning. This dance form was s pread out-of-the-way(prenominal) and wide through abhinayawhich meaning a carrying to the spectators.This form of dance contained various comp unrivalednts(Massey, 1999) KathakAbhinaya design and MoodPure move salient ElementVachik poetry, song, recitation, music and rhythmAharya costume, make-up, jewellerySatvik physical manifestation of mental and aflame postulatesAngik gestures of the bodyNrityaNrittaNatyaCaste authoritiesThe Hindu caste divide that Kathak tried to fire at last took a nonher form of dominations. The Brahmins saw this effort as a way out of their triumph and power indeed they brought in other angle to the same. According to the Brahmins since dance was nothing but another form of worshiping god they had the supreme say in these matters.The social anthropology of Kathak dancers in history is so highly fascinating as it got equated to the sacerdotal caste and even the kathak gurus in the northern belt of india represented the Brahmin status.(Booth, 200 5) The Brahmins not only separated this form of dance from its core purpose of binding people across various castes but in corresponding manner hit the sex angle by bringing in the concept of devdasi . These were women who were employ to dance and sing only for god. These women were neither allowed to marry, nor have have any form of physical social intercourseships. so the power bet was won by the Brahmins by contend their cards of caste and gender politics.grammatical gender PoliticsTraditionally Kathak was meant to be a platform accessible to all. It defamiliarises the ordinary internal and social experience of women and men as people. Indian mythology also reveals various stories demonstrative gender ambiguity, androgyny, sex transformations, male pregnancy, and filth through some of the metaphorical discourses related to gods, goddesses, heavenly nymphs, and demons, as well as sages, ascetics and yogis. There have been innumerable examples of transcending gender in k athak. Men dressed like women and performed. The concept of gender in the Natya Veda is highly interlocking. It believes that gender is aside our physical creation, it is affiliated with our soul and souls aspire for the realisation moksha which can only be achieved when mavin can get free from the shackles of bodily existence.As per the Tantric school of thought the autocratic Being is conceptualised as one complex sex, comprises of both male and female (on the remedy and left side respectively). In piece to attain salvation one must(prenominal) be able to transcend these shackles of ones sex.(Shah, 1998) regular(a) in the Pre-Vedic belles-lettres Shiva is known as ardhanarishwara, which centre containing the polarities of both male and female delineate in the form of Shiva-Shakti. Dance is an pregnant means by which cultural ideologies of gender difference are reproduced.Through movement vocabulary, costuming, body image, training, and technique, discourses of dance are practically rooted in ideas of natural gender difference However as time passed Kathak also came under the purview of the semipolitical game of gender and its got label with the tag of being a dance form only for the females. Even the stories narrated through kathak like the stories of lord Krishna have got adapted. sooner it was believed that Radha was Krihnashladini Shakti and not different from him, hence the dance was performed in a semi-circular manner where the same dancer took the roles of both Krishna and Radha. However, now these roles are performed by different actors.(Chatterjee, 1996)CHANGING DIMENSIONS OF WOMENThe birth of Kathak took go in with the Benarasgharana of kathak which was then ruled by the Rajputs. This dance form then travelled to Jaipur establishing the Jaipur gharana of kathak. Though both these forms were highly dominated by females they still had a heavy(p) respect in terms of an art of telling stories of god and educating others on the power s of rectitude , righteousness etc. However when the Mughals invading our country and the marriage of JodhaBai and Akbar took place two cultured merged together. The Mughals got dancers from Persia and captured women form india and got them trained in kathak.Its from this time onwards that Kathak got labelled as the courtesans dance what we today call as tawaif or prostitutes.(Massey, 1999) The costumes changed and the new gharana of Kathak was born which is today the around famous one Luckhnowgharana. The dressed changed from the ghaghra (like a long skirt) to chudidar. The dresses were tighter at the bust and presented the women as a sexually desirable object. A lot of change took place in the basic hand movements and presentation if the dance and a dance that used to tell the crawl in story of Krishna and Radha at one time became a dance form with movements meant to entice men. In the whole power struggle and caste politics it was the women who suffered the most and were heav ily exploited.DURING THE COLONIAL INDIADuring the British colonial rule dance became a shaft of rebellion and political resistance. It demonstrated integrity and power. The dancing womens position changed from slight and devotional to fallen and sinful and hence either victims or perpetuators of the evil of dance. Women were further to display their beauty, energy, skill, sensuality and seductiveness in dance. so for the fear of saving there girls from the being looked on as an object of need dance became a tabooed activity for members of society especially the upper caste. This creative thinkerset exists even today, as we dont see many girls from the upper class of society taking up dancing. However these mind sets are changing gradually.(Reed, 1998)GURU and SHISHYAAs per Natyashashtra an acharya or teacher should have an intrinsic fellowship of vocal and instrumental music, dance, rhythm and movement. He should further have imagination, intelligence, creative faculty, mem ory, ribaldry and capacity to shape the taught. The shishyas, or the taught, on the other hand should be intelligent, retentive, appreciative, devoted, desirous and must have an innate require to excel. This form of teaching has been continued over time however the essence of the relation has got lost with the loss of the pure and pious status of dance.CULTURAL SYMBOLat once Kathak has been attributed with various new meanings on the globular platform like* Traditional heritage of India* Carrier of Indian culture* Indianness* relative the significant pastToday kathak has break a cultural commodity that gets sell in form of a few dance shows and performances however it has lost its lord purpose and ethos(Royo, 2004)KATHAK AND MOVIESKathak has always been used as an important tool in cinema. In 1955 classic, JhanakJhanakpayalBaje by V. Shantaram the films hero, Ghirdar competes for artistic supremacy in Kathak dance against another dancer Ram Prasad. Ghirdars satisfaction is ensured during the last series of Sapphic taxonomic turns or chakkras which he performs elegantly, however his resister is left all dizzy. Ghirdhar here is from Varanasi, the birthplace of kathak and the ultimate hindu city and his opposer is from Agra the Mughal capital which is associated with the more popular kathakgharana of lucknow. Thus kathak was used to demonstrate a state of communal tension in the country.This art form was also reduced to satire when UstadHalimJaffar Khan, who worked on Kohinoor, and other films, with Naushad Ali (Kohinoors music director), explains that the singing in this scene was undertaken by Niyaz Ahmad Naushad spoke to him about this scene. He said, cheer for birth me Khan-saheb, but for this scene interest sing some tans and things, but in a comic way, in a foolish way. And Nyaz Ahmad agreed to do that Even in later films kathak remained as a dance of the prostitutes through movies like umraojaan.And even today when we have become more liber al in our thinking and cry to have crossed these old regressive practices the choreographers still use kathak in a ovie like devdas only for the character of chandramukhi, who plays a prostitute. Also todays plan stage kathak is more focused of fast, complex, rhythmic footwork and tracing handwork rather than the old ethos of the dance which had its core around freedom, liberalization, unity, storytelling, love and expression of oneself.(Chakravorty, 2006)CONCLUSIONA cultural dance form created to unify everybody and give everyone a freedom to expression eventually got used as a tool for playing out caste and gender politics. Whether it was the sufferings of the women or the link of the dance to the Bhakti movement, Kathak has transform with all these interactions. The various stakeholders of the society have also used this to their convenience as and when required. Initially the Brahmin established their supremacy over this pure and pious form of expression an today they are the ones who have started the movement to label this as a fallen and sinful act. Thus we have seen the journey of nation through one form of dance and the story of Kathak through the nation.BibliographyBooth, G. (2005). Pandits in the Movies Contesting the Identity of Hindustani mere Music and Musicians in. Asiatic Music, Vol. 36, 60-86. Chakravorty, P. (2006). Dancing into modernity Multiple Narratives of Indias Kathak Dance. Dance research Journal, Vol. 38, 115-136. Chatterjee, A. (1996). Training in Indian authorized Dance A Case Study. Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 13, 68-91. Coorlawala, U. A. (1992). Illustrating Kathak. Dance Chronicle, Vol. 15, 88-93. Lidke, J. S. (2006). 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