Ashtapadi lyrics sakhiye keshi
Very conscious of her own power, which she believes no force can withstand, an arrogant Ganga flows down, only to be contained and held captive in Shiva’s locks. Brahma grants the boon with Shiva agreeing to take on the initial ferocious force of the descending waters on his matted locks. The choreography began with a dance narrative based on Bhagiratha’s prayers to Brahma, for the waters of the Ganga to flow from the heavenly abode down to earth, to wash over the bones and ashes of his predecessors so that they could attain salvation. Amrita’s own introduction was to the point and lucid.
The next central composition on Shiva followed by the tarangam, a ragamalika, was choreographed by the dancer’s Guru, Moselakanti. Very appropriately, the entire recital was woven round Shiva. The lively performance brought out the imagery associated with Lord Shiva and Ganga in his matted locks, as the great dancer of Chidambaram and the dweller of Kailashagiri with Uma or Girija by his side. Most aesthetically costumed, Amrita’s sprightly entrance was with a composition of Othukadu Venkatasubbaiyer “Jatadhara Shankara Deva Deva” set to todi, as the invocatory homage to Shiva. With an excellent singer in Sridhar Vasudevan accompanied by Raghavendra Prasad on violin and supported by Manohar providing percussion support on the mridangam, the junior and less experienced Nattuvangam got somewhat camouflaged. Trained under many gurus like Swapna Nagajyoti, Anuradha Nehru (in the States) and Swapnasundari, Amrita has been for the last few years under the guidance of Jaikishor Moselakanti. The dancer of the evening was undoubtedly Amrita Lahiri, her Kuchipudi recital exuding a sense of immediacy, with a most competent live melodic support. The concluding Gita Govinda Ashtapadi “Sakhiye keshi mathanam udaram” for a Maha Shivaratri occasion seemed out of place in the portrayal of abhisarika Radha expressing her deep desire for Krishna, recapturing with the sakhi her ecstatic moments of initial intimacy with him.
After this the nritta item was the pallavi in bageshri, in which Guru Kelucharan’s dance composition starts off with a brisk “Tajhamta tari jham ta jham ta jham” starting unlike most of his pallavis which, commencing with sensuous, slow movements proceed with the tempo gradually accelerating. Based on the famous verses “Champeya Gauranga…” expressing the complementing contrasts between Shiva and Parvati enshrined in one identity as Ardhanariswara, the dancer adequately brought out the tandav/lasya counterpoints like Parvati’s “dhammila” hairdo against Shiva with his matted locks (jatadhara). Fitting the occasion, the dancer selected the Ardhanariswara composition choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapata in the year 1977 for his principal disciple, Sanjukta Panigrahi, with Raghunath Panigrahi chipping in with the music composition and vocal accompaniment. Now she is under the training of Paushali Mukherjee and Sujata Mohapatra. Starting with taped music was Odissi dancer Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, groomed under various teachers from Giridhar Nayak to Kelucharan Mohapatra. While having solo performances representing different dance traditions is a good idea, what made for a slightly uneven blend of fare was the mix of live and recorded music. At Natya Tarangini, the dance institution of Raja/Radha and Kaushalya Reddy, Shivaratri (since the last three years) has taken the form of a night-long aradhana, which goes on till the wee hours of the morning, the venue being the Raja Radha Rangmanch, the open air performance space with galleried seating in the recently constructed premises in Pushpa Vihar. The festival of Maha Shivaratri becomes an especially auspicious occasion for many dancers to pay homage to the Lord of Dance. It just is, since the universe is in a perpetual state of motion. Nataraja’s dance is not triggered by a special reason. The iconic representation as a metaphor for the entire cycle of cosmic activity comprising creation, sustenance and destruction, has inspired a great deal of dance imagery in India. One of the greatest motifs of all time is that of Shiva as Nataraja (the king of dance) whose theatre is the entire cosmos.