Yami He for the Srjan archives
Director: Ratikanta Mohapatra
Duration: 00:17:59; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 128.711; Saturation: 0.029; Lightness: 0.189; Volume: 0.131; Cuts per Minute: 1.223; Words per Minute: 24.131
Summary: Kumkum Lal has been a disciple of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra for more than four decades. Her initial training in Odissi was under Guru Harekrishna Behera, and she has also studied and performed creative dance with Narendra Sharma, and Chhau under Guru Krishna Chandra Naik. She has taught English at Delhi University. She was a keen reviewer of dance and has acted in plays. She has worked with Sangeet Natak Akademi as the head of their dance section and was awarded a senior fellowship by the Indian government to work on a Sanskrit treatise on Odissi.
In 1998, after a long hiatus from performance, Kumkum went to Orissa to attend and perform at an Odissi conference organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. During her time in Bhubaneswar, she also recorded a version of the ashtapadi ‘Yami He’ for the archive being set up by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s son, Ratikanta.
While Kumkum did not have much to say about the conditions in which this recording was created, the absence of such detail created a continuous narrative of sanchari; simply put, sanchari is the mimetic elaboration of the text.
Kumkum returned to the video on a rainy afternoon, when all of Delhi was asleep. Here, her student Ranjana Dave is in conversation with her. The years Ranjana spent learning from Kumkum were full of invaluable dancing, enriching conversations on all and sundry, and much relief from hostel food.
Translations of the ashtapadi 'yami he' have been adapted from 'Sri Gitagovinda' (trans. Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, Gaudiya Vedanta Publications, Mathura, 2005) with inputs from Kumkum Lal.
Gita Govinda
Kelucharan Mohapatra
Krishna
Kumkum Lal
Radha
Srjan
Srjan, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India
Yamihe
ashtapadi
Kumkum: I recorded this in 1998, for Shibu (Ratikanta Mohapatra), when I was in Bhubaneswar. I was attending the Sangeet Natak Akademi Odissi conference there (in Bhubaneswar). The sections of text marked
'sanchari' are scene-by-scene elucidations of how these verses are translated into dance.
A recording from the Srjan archives.
Instrumental music begins, Kumkum (as Radha) is in the forest, looking for her beloved, who has not come to meet her at the appointed time. The night is about to fade.
Sanchari:
Radha is in the
Vetasa vana for her tryst with Krishna. The
Vetasa vana is a forest of tall aquatic grasses on the banks of the river Yamuna. She is weaving her way through the grass hoping to find him, parting it as she walks, to meet him, since he is supposed to be here.
Prasarati sasadhara-bimbe vihita-vilambe ca madhave vidhura
viracita-vividha-vilapam sa paritapam cakaroccaih
Translation:
The moon had risen to its zenith, and Radha's hopes that Madhava (Krishna) would surely come, waned. Afflicted by separation, she began to weep aloud in helplessness. Radha was in intense agony and expressed her lamentation in various ways.
Kumkum: I sat down suddenly because I realised the music was ending.
Sanchari:
The moon has risen. All the clandestine lovers met in the early part of the night, before the moon rose, because the light from the moon was the enemy of secret lovers; it renders them visible. It's a song of jealousy - the nayika here is the virahotkanthita nayika. Krishna has gone to another person. Radha is the one who is suffering because of separation.
Kumkum: Normally this is sung in the sloka way, this is the first stanza. The poses he has used here...Guruji hasn't used them earlier. Jiwan Pani helped with interpreting the verses.
Her suffering is compounded because she feels she has been let down by the sakhi, who was supposed to bring him here, and she feels that the sakhi has cheated her. So it's not only the
viraha but also this feeling.
(Mardala begins playing, followed by a verse)
Yami he! kam iha saranam
(sakhi)-jana-vacana-vancita
Translation:
To whom should I turn for shelter now?
All my friends have gone back on their promises
Sanchari:
All my friends have cheated me. Whom do I go to for shelter now?
Kumkum: So she suffers so much that she even contemplates committing suicide in the water. It has come as a sanchari here but it's there in the text somewhere. And she wants to jump into the fire.
Kumkum, vocalising Radha: I have made up my mind that I am going to give up my life. This is a pose for dying - with
kartarimukha. All my friends have cheated me.
Kathita-samaye 'pi harir ahaha na yayau vanam
mama viphalam idam amalam api rupa-yauvanam
Yami he! kam iha saranam
(sakhi)-jana-vacana-vancita
Translation:
Hari has not come at the designated time,
my youth and beauty are rendered useless by this neglect.
To whom should I turn for shelter now?
when all my friends have gone back on their promises
Sanchari:
Krishna did not come to the forest at the time that was decided upon. My whole youth was laid waste by his not coming.
Kumkum: '
Ahaha' is a lament that repeatedly appears in the text. This composition is devoid of hurried or frenzied motions; not too many intricate details either.
Yad-anugamanaya-nishi gahanam api shilitam
tena mama hrdayam idam asamasara-kilitam
Yami he...
Translation:
Alas! That very person, in whose pursuit I entered this wild forest on a dark night, facing great dangers along the way, is piercing my heart with the arrows of sensuality.
To whom may I turn for shelter now?
Sanchari:
I went through so many difficulties in the darkness of the night. (Kumkum: And now this is the usual
abhisarika nayika scene) First I slyly slipped out of the house. While I was going towards the meeting place, I encountered a pathik, a traveller, and was nearly caught by him. But I hid behind a tree. Then I saw a snake. I went through so much for the sake of meeting Krishna. I wove my way through the tall aquatic grasses - walking in the forest, a thorn pierced my foot. I was in great pain. My heart stopped when I felt something pulling me back - to my relief, I realised that my veil had snagged on a tree branch.
Ranjana: Where are these
sancharis derived from? They say a lot about how women were imagined in their time. Is it folklore that they originate from?
Kumkum: No, I think
sanchari is derived from classical literature. In classical literature, the heroes are described and they give examples of what happens to the different types of
nayikas. For instance, this is the classical representation of an
abhisarika nayika.
Kumkum: This kama bana movement, emerging from the hip area, is typical of Odissi. You don't see it in any other style.
Sanchari:
That person, for whom I underwent so many difficulties, he is now assailing me with this
asama bana. My heart has been pierced by this arrow.
Kumkum:
Asama bana is a
bana of five flowers. We will come to the description of the effects of these flowers in the next few stanzas.
Sanchari:
As she waits, she suddenly feels a coolness on her body. She looks up and sees the moonbeam, which is giving her so much pleasure. But then, she is reminded of the one who has not come, and that very moonbeam becomes unwelcome. At that time, she reminded of some other person who must have the good fortune of enjoying the company of Krishna, she who would be kissed by him, as Radha waits desolately.
Mam-ahaha vidhurayati madhura-madhu-yamini
kapi-harim anubhavati krta-sukrta-kamini
Yami he...
Translation:
How unfortunate I am to be alone on this
rasa-laden spring night, unsteady with the pain of loneliness and abandonment, lamenting my separation.
Simultaneously, some other fortunate young damsel must be in Krishna's arms, playfully making love to him.
To whom may I turn for shelter now?
Sanchari:
Even her jewellery becomes heavy and difficult to bear. These bangles on arms that embraced him are now mere encumbrances.
Kumkum, vocalising Radha: My body has now wilted in
hari viraha, in his absence, my body burns.
Ahaha kalayami valayadi-mani-bhusanam
hari-viraha-dahana-vahanena bahu-dusanam
Yami he...
Translation:
My bangles, the jeweled belt on my waist, all my ornaments burn my body like tortuous flames of my unfulfilled sensual desire. These ornaments have turned into curses that inflame the fire of separation and inflict extreme misery. They are not dear to me anymore, for their value is only realized by the lover's glance.
To whom may I turn for shelter now?
Sanchari:
Unfortunate that she is, she beseeches the earth to open up and swallow her.
There is elaborate sanchari set to the first line of this verse. Kumkum describes the five flowers that induce love and make up the
panchabana of cupid. The flowers in the
panchabana are likened to the garland of flowers Radha is wearing.
Kusuma-sukumara-tanum atanu-shara-lilaya
srag api hrdi hanti mam ati-visama-silaya
Translation:
What can I say about my other ornaments, even the garland of forest flowers on my chest inflicts terrible blows like the arrows of cupid raining down upon my body, which is more delicate than the most fragile flower blossom.
Sanchari:
And now, she is in such a delicate condition, that her flower-like body has become the battleground of the arrows of cupid.
Kumkum: 'My body, as delicate as this flower, because of it having become the battleground of cupid is unable to bear a flower garland because even the garland lacerates her heart.' There's no mention of
panchabana in this. In the original composition, the flowers in the garland become like the panchabana and therefore they lacerate the heart. He composed it here in Delhi but when he taught it in Orissa he incorporated the
panchabana sequence using the first line '
kusuma sukumara'. However, in the original, the
panchabana sequence was set to a separate piece of instrumental music. The second time, he just had the music composed and then set his dance to that. So each flower's sanchari became longer. For some of the flowers, I had to shorten my enactment, and for some, they became unnecessarily long. Here, what I'm performing doesn't always match the music. He would record the music and compose on it, which is what happened here. Originally, it went according to meaning.
Kumkum, speaking about the
panchabana, the arrow of five flowers:
This is the
kamal (lotus). It is just the beginning of love. This is when the first flower hits you...it is the awakening of love. You're just affected but you don't know what has happened to you. It is like what the
mugdha nayika feels. In the second one, the
neelkamal there is a feeling of attraction for someone and you don't know why you are attracted to that person. The third flower, ashok, causes a physical thrill in the body, making the hair stand on end. The fourth flower, the
amramanjari, causes thirst and the heat of the body dries up her breath. So she takes sandal and applies it to her body with a lotus leaf but she finds that the
chandan burns her like snake's poison, so she wipes it off. The fifth flower,
malli, makes the body burn with passion; cool things don't help her state.
Malli puts the
nayika in a state of
stambana, stupor.
I haven't done the
malli description properly because I was short of time.
The entry for this piece is from the opposite side; so you enter from stage right, from where the musicians sit. Guruji thought so much about this - because Radha is already supposed to be at the meeting place, she doesn't enter from 'outside' (stage left), so stage right is used. These details - one only notices them if one is around at the time of composition. This was composed in 1979 with Madhavi Mudgal, Rani Karna and I. The original music composition was in Sri Raga, by Madhup Mudgal. Later, Bhubaneswar Mishra changed it to Raga Shankarabharanam in 1986.
Yami he! kam iha saranam
(sakhi)-jana-vacana-vancita
Yami he...
Translation:
To whom should I turn for shelter now?
All my friends have gone back on their promises
Oh! Where do I go? Where do I go?
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