International Odissi Festival 2006: Chitra Krishnamurti performs Priye Charusheele
Director: Kelucharan Mohapatra
Duration: 00:09:39; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 14.975; Saturation: 0.249; Lightness: 0.126; Volume: 0.469; Cuts per Minute: 1.243; Words per Minute: 24.138
Summary: The 3rd International Odissi Festival was organised by IPAP between December 26 - 30, 2006 in Bhubaneswar. Dedicated to the memory of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, the festival also saw the construction of a gigantic open-air dance theatre in the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya campus. The daylong performances included leading and upcoming Odissi dancers. The festival also made space for seminars, Odissi music and lecture demonstrations.
Chitra Krishnamurti is an Odissi dancer and director of Nrityalaya, school of Odissi dance in the Washington DC metropolitan area. She learned Odissi from Sanjukta Panigrahi and Kelucharan Mohapatra. She is an accomplished choreographer and has been invited to present her work both in India and the US. She is the recipient of awards from the Arts Council of Montgomery County, MD and the Commission on the Humanities, Montgomery County, MD. She has produced several shows in the area with the singular purpose of raising funds for charitable organizations in India and USA.
Here, she performs Priye Charusheele, one of the final ashtapadis from Jayadeva's 12th century epic Gita Govinda, choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Also included is a layer of sanchari where dancer Kumkum Lal comments on the original composition and its choreography.
Bhubaneswar
Jayadeva
Kelucharan Mohapatra
Krishna
Radha
The dancer, playing Krishna, enters; looking for Radha, he finds her, sitting by herself in a corner and proceeds to placate her.
Kumkum Lal on sanchari: This is actually a cajoling item. Krishna methodically tries to win Radha over
Krishna is genuinely repentant now. He had gone to the other woman, he admits, but Radha is the one he loves the most. My heart belongs to her, he says. I offer my crown to her.
Oh, beloved one, stop being indifferent towards me, he pleads. Don't enforce this unreasonable separation on me. My heart is aflame with the fire of love. Cupid's arrows pierce me from all sides, my body burns with this passion. Let me drink the nectar of your lotus face.
priye! charusheele! munca mayi manam anidanam
sapadi madananalo dahati mama manasam
dehi mukha-kamala-madhu-panam
Translation:
My beloved! My graceful one, forget this causeless aversion
while you sulk, the fire of amorous desire burns my heart,
allow me to drink the honey of your lotus face...
Kumkum: Were you to say even a few words, one could see the beauty of your teeth, which dazzle like moonlight. Their radiance could remove the deep darkness of the night, in my heart.
He describes the glow on her moonlike face, saying that his eyes are drawn to her face like the chakora to the moon.
vadasi yadi kincid-api danta-ruci-kaumudi harati dara-timiram ati-ghoram
sphurad-adhara-sidhave tava vadana-candrama rocayati locana-cakoram
Translation:
If you speak to me, even a little, the shining moonbeams of your teeth will dispel the terrible
darkness of fear within my heart.
Your moonlike face makes the chakora bird of my eyes anxious to drink the nectar of my lips.
Kumkum: You are my ornament, you are my very life.
The sanchari implies the inseparable quality of their relationship. Krishna and Radha are as bound to each other as the creeper which circles a tree, as the fish in water, as the bee attracted to a lotus flower, as the wick which helps light a lamp. Krishna poses with his flute; the image of Krishna playing a flute owes its life to Radha's presence, he says.
Tvam asi mama bhusanam
tvam asi mama jivanam
tvam asi mama bhava-jaladhi-ratnam
bhavatu bhavatiha mayi satatam anurodhini
tatra mama hridayam ati-yatnam
Translation:
You are my only ornament
You are my very life
You are the jewel in the ocean of my existence.
Therefore, always remain favourably disposed towards me - my heart continually strives only for the sake of receiving your favour.
smara-garala-khandanam mama sirasi mandanam
dehi pada-pallavam udaram
jwalati mayi daruno madana-kadanaanalo
haratu tad-upahita-vikaram
Translation:
The devastating effects of Cupid's poison will be alleviated when you place on my head, as an ornament,
your enchanting feet that resemble fresh buds.
Kumkum: The effects of Cupid's poison have destroyed me. His arrows come flying at me and I burn with unfulfilled desire. Please end my suffering by placing your enchanting bud-like feet on my head, as an ornament.
Radha is shocked at Krishna's request. As he tells her that he will be freed from the fire of kama if she complies with his request, she attempts to say that she could never allow the lord of the three worlds to place his head at her feet. Don't curse me thus, she pleads.
He gives her the peacock feather in his crown, and they make up at last.
The line
dehi pada-pallavam udaram is repeated as Krishna implores that he be allowed to place his head on Radha's feet as he asks for forgiveness. Moved by his anguish, she finally gives in and forgives him, bowing down to him.
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