Book Review - Kathak and Sanskritisation? - Leela Venkataraman

At the IIC, it was an evening with a scholarly gathering to mark the release of the book by Shubhi Publications on Speaking Sculptures - Karanas in Kathak, authored by Kathak specialist Shovana Narayan.

The Natya Sastra Karanas (Hasta-pada samayogah karanamiti samjnitam), we know, are not stances, but units of movement in a coordinated conjunction of hands and feet operating in a prescribed fashion. Shovana (as other scholars), understandably looks at sculpture as the best indicator of dance movement in history. One must remember however, that the Karana is a whole unit of movement - which has been arrested at any one point of a whole movement cycle, to be captured on temple walls by the sculptor's chisel. In other words, sculptural representations comprise frozen moments of whole units of movement prescribed as a Karana. And what is caught on stone arrested at any point -and what is seen in sculpture may not necessarily show the start or the culmination. 

Read more in the site

Please type your name along with your comment. Anonymous and derogatory comments are likely to be removed.