Article - Unsung characters for adaptation in dance (Part 1) - Dr. Padmaja Suresh

Aesthetic experience says John Dewey in his Art as Experience, has been superimposed from systems of thought framed without direct reference to art. Rajashekhara in Kāvyamimāmsa, calls Sāhitya Vidya, Sarvapārṣada common to all Darshanas - hence we have drawn our aesthetic theory from concepts of Sānkhya, Nyāya-Mimāmsa, Vedānta, Tantra, Pratyabhijñya and all Bhakti schools. The Taittrīya Sootasamhita extolls the spiritual value of dance and music, both of which are performed incessantly by Śiva. Dance productions rely heavily on the poet, the scripts and the aesthetic value it holds. Choreography will depend on the artistic capabilities of imagination and skills to bring before the spectators, the popular legends and poems with added novelty or to bring to life a rarely exploited idea by inventing a production and discovering new possibilities of relish. The need to regulate Kama with Dharma and Mokśa sees the integration of beauty with goodness and truth all through our dance productions.

Bhārat is indeed the home of storytelling. It was from here that the Persians learned the art, and passed it on to the Arab continent, Constantinople, Venice and so on. The book The Ocean of Story of Somadeva's Kathāsaritsāgara is a magnum opus, the earliest collection of stories extant in the world. Somadeva was a Kashmiri court poet of the 11 century. It contains 22, 000 slokas, nearly twice as long as the Iliad and Odyssey put together. We can find well-known tales from the epics, as well as Rig-Veda, the Vetālapancavimśati and also some original ones. Embedded or Nested Stories can be traced back to the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, Pañcatantra, Jātakaṭṭhavaṇṇanā and the Kathāsaritsāgara.

The authors of the Mahākāvya-s and Nātaka-s gave a portrait of the sublime hero, Dheerodātta or a Mahāpuruṣa. Rama of Valmīki was both Dharmātma and Gāndharve ca bhuvi Śreṣṭha, a master of music (Ayodhya Kānda). The origin of the Ādi Kavi marks a sheet-anchor of poetic theory being the embodiment of Rasa, as cited by Anandavardhana in his Dhvanyāloka. 

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