Bharatanatyam

Bharatanatyam dance is India's oldest and most widely performed classical dance form, originating in the Devadasi tradition of Tamil Nadu's Tanjore temples. Known originally as Sadir Nattuvam, it integrates expressive abhinaya, rhythmic nritta footwork, and sculptural poses, forming a synthesis of devotion, storytelling, and technical precision across centuries of temple performance.

What is the Historical Origin of Bharatanatyam?

Bharatanatyam traces its roots to the Devadasi system — a tradition in which women dedicated to temple service performed ritual dances before the deity. These performers, known as Devadasis (servants of God), were considered auspicious and maintained by royal patronage and temple grants. The dance was inseparable from bhakti worship, serving as a living offering to the presiding deity.

The form flourished particularly in the temples of Tanjore (Thanjavur) in Tamil Nadu, where it was codified as Sadir Nattuvam. The Tanjore Quartet — four brothers named Chinnaiah, Ponniah, Sivanandam, and Vadivelu — working in the early 19th century under the patronage of the Maratha ruler Serfoji II, systematised the margam (sequence of items), establishing the performance order still followed today. Their contributions standardised the repertoire, the music, and the choreographic grammar of the form.

The theoretical foundation of Bharatanatyam rests on the Natya Shastra, the ancient treatise on performing arts attributed to Bharata Muni (roughly 200 BCE – 200 CE). The name "Bharatanatyam" is decoded in multiple ways: as a tribute to Bharata Muni, or as an acronym — Bhava (expression), Raga (melody), Tala (rhythm), and Natyam (dance). The word also appears in Sangam literature references to temple dance, anchoring its deep Tamil roots.

How Did Colonial Rule Affect Bharatanatyam?

The 19th and early 20th centuries brought severe disruption to Bharatanatyam. The British colonial administration, shaped by Victorian moral attitudes, viewed the Devadasi tradition with suspicion and condemnation. Social reform movements converged with colonial governance to produce the Anti-Nautch Movement — "nautch" being a pejorative anglicisation of "naach" (dance).

Key consequences of this suppression included:

The Madras Devadasi (Prevention of Dedication) Act of 1947, which effectively criminalised the dedication of women to temples and stripped the tradition of its legal and institutional basis.
Loss of royal and temple patronage as princely states came under colonial economic and administrative control.
Social stigmatisation of performers, which drove the dance form to the margins of public life and nearly caused its extinction as a living classical tradition.
Disruption of the guru-shishya (teacher-student) lineage that had transmitted the art for generations within dedicated performing communities.

The anti-nautch campaign, though motivated partly by genuine concern for exploited women, resulted in severing the art form from its performing community, its hereditary practitioners, and its institutional temple context. Ironically, the very people who had kept the tradition alive for centuries were marginalised by its ostensible rescue.

The Revival: Rukmini Devi Arundale and Kalakshetra

The rehabilitation of Bharatanatyam as a respectable classical art is largely credited to Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986), a theosophist, animal rights activist, and visionary cultural reformer. Having trained under the Devadasi dancer Mylapore Gauri Ammal and the Tanjore nattuvanar Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Rukmini Devi performed publicly in 1935, breaking caste and class barriers that had surrounded the dance.

In 1936, she founded the Kalakshetra Foundation (initially Kalakshetra Academy) in Adyar, Chennai. Kalakshetra pursued several transformative goals:

Relocating the dance from the temple and court to the proscenium stage for educated, middle-class urban audiences.
Emphasising devotional and aesthetic dimensions while purging elements she considered incompatible with a reformed performance context.
Codifying training through a standardised curriculum, establishing Bharatanatyam as a teachable classical discipline.
Making the art accessible to students of all communities — not just those from hereditary performing families — thereby democratising participation.

Other pioneering figures in the revival included E. Krishna Iyer, a lawyer who performed Bharatanatyam publicly dressed as a woman to challenge its social stigma, and T. Balasaraswati, a celebrated Devadasi-lineage performer who championed the abhinaya tradition as distinct from the reformist Kalakshetra approach. These two streams — the reconstructed classical form and the hereditary expressive tradition — coexist within contemporary Bharatanatyam.

What Are the Key Structural Elements of Bharatanatyam?

A full Bharatanatyam performance follows the margam — a fixed sequence of items progressing from pure rhythmic dance to deeply expressive narrative, mirroring a devotee's journey toward the divine. The standard items are:

Item	Nature	Description
Alarippu	Nritta (pure dance)	Opening invocation; awakening of the limbs with simple rhythmic syllables (sollukattu).
Jatiswaram	Nritta	Dance set to a raga's swaras (musical notes); no narrative content, purely rhythmic and musical.
Shabdam	Nritya (expressive)	Introduction of abhinaya; usually a devotional verse in praise of the deity or a revered figure.
Varnam	Nritya + Nritta	The centrepiece and most demanding item; combines complex footwork with layered abhinaya over an extended duration.
Padam	Nritya (abhinaya)	A lyrical piece focused on expressing the emotional content of a devotional or lyric poem.
Tillana	Nritta	Exhilarating finale of rapid rhythmic patterns with a brief concluding abhinaya passage.
Shlokam / Mangalam	Devotional	Concluding benediction, offering prayers to the deity and audience.

The foundational building blocks of technique are the adavus — the basic units of movement combining hand gesture (hasta), footwork (pada), and body position (kaya). Over 60 adavus grouped into families (e.g., Tatta, Natta, Visharu, Kuditta Metta) form the vocabulary from which all complex choreography is constructed. Mastery of adavus is the first and most essential stage of formal training.

The three primary dimensions of Bharatanatyam technique are:

Nritta: Pure rhythmic movement without narrative meaning — the abstract, mathematical dimension of dance.
Nritya: Expressive dance combining movement with meaning through abhinaya (acting through facial expression and gesture).
Natya: Dramatic representation — dance fused with drama and mime to enact stories and mythological scenes.

Themes and Aesthetic Character

Bharatanatyam is predominantly Shaiva in thematic orientation — most traditional compositions address Lord Shiva, Murugan, or their consorts and manifestations. The great South Indian Shaiva saints, particularly the Nayanmars, provide a rich lyrical repertoire. However, Vaishnava compositions — especially from Jayadeva's Gita Govinda and the Tamil Alvars' devotional poetry — are also integral to the repertoire.

The rasa (aesthetic emotion) most central to classical Bharatanatyam is shringara (love and beauty), expressed not merely as erotic sentiment but as the longing of the devotee-soul (nayika) for union with the divine (nayaka). This dual interpretation — human love as a metaphor for spiritual longing — is the theological and poetic core of the bhakti literature that underlies much of the dance's lyrical content.

Today, Bharatanatyam is recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's apex body for the performing arts, as one of India's eight classical dance forms. It is performed on stages worldwide and is the most internationally recognised and globally performed Indian classical dance form.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the origin of Bharatanatyam and where did it develop?

Bharatanatyam originated in the Devadasi tradition of Tamil Nadu, particularly in the Tanjore region's temples, where it was known as Sadir Nattuvam. It was a ritual dance performed by women dedicated to temple service. The Tanjore Quartet codified its margam sequence in the early 19th century under Maratha royal patronage, establishing the classical structure followed today.

Who revived Bharatanatyam and when?

Rukmini Devi Arundale revived Bharatanatyam by performing publicly in 1935 and founding the Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai in 1936. She relocated the dance from stigmatised settings to the proscenium stage, standardised its training curriculum, and opened the art to students of all communities, transforming it into a respected national classical form recognised globally.

What is the varnam in Bharatanatyam?

The varnam is the centrepiece and most technically demanding item in the Bharatanatyam margam. It is typically the longest item in a recital and combines intricate rhythmic footwork (nritta) with layered expressive abhinaya (nritya). The varnam showcases the dancer's complete command of both the technical and expressive dimensions of the art and is considered the heart of any Bharatanatyam performance.

What are adavus in Bharatanatyam?

Adavus are the fundamental units of movement in Bharatanatyam, combining hand gestures (hasta), footwork (pada), and body positions (kaya) into discrete, repeatable patterns. Over 60 adavus are grouped into families and form the building blocks from which all Bharatanatyam choreography is constructed. Mastery of adavus constitutes the first and most critical stage of a student's training.

Why is Bharatanatyam important for UPSC Art and Culture preparation?

Bharatanatyam is a recurring topic in UPSC Prelims and GS Paper I (Art and Culture). Previous examinations have tested knowledge of its Devadasi and Sadir Nattuvam origin, the Anti-Nautch movement and colonial suppression, Rukmini Devi Arundale's role, Kalakshetra Academy, the margam sequence, adavus, and its recognition by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. It also appears in the optional History syllabus under cultural history of India.

Sources and Further Reading

This article draws primarily from IGNOU BHIC-131 (History of India from the Earliest Times to 300 CE) and related IGNOU BA History programme modules covering cultural and art history, which address classical performing arts within the broader context of Indian civilisation and the bhakti tradition.

Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi — official records on India's eight recognised classical dance forms.
Meduri, Avanthi. Nation, Woman, Representation: The Sutured History of the Devadasi and Her Dance. New York University, 1996.
Gaston, Anne-Marie. Bharata Natyam: From Temple to Theatre. Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, 1996.
Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai — institutional history, curriculum, and performance documentation.
NCERT Class XI — An Introduction to Indian Art (Part 1): Chapter on Dance and Music.
Ministry of Culture, Government of India — Intangible Cultural Heritage documentation on classical dance forms.