Odissi: Kumkum Lal - Performance at Zurich, 2004 (Aditya Banerjee)

Odissi: Kumkum Lal - Performance at Zurich, 2004

Director: Aditya Banerjee

Duration: 01:34:34; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 30.328; Saturation: 0.310; Lightness: 0.243; Volume: 0.301; Cuts per Minute: 0.243; Words per Minute: 49.063

Vastly differing from footage of the Japan tour in time and space, this is a record of Kumkum Lal’s performance for the Indian Association of Zurich in 2004. The performance was an impromptu happening, while she was on her way back from dance engagements in North America. In the first half of the performance, she sports a draped sari, tied in the style which her guru, Kelucharan Mohapatra, was so fond of.

Dancing on a makeshift stage, Kumkum begins with mangalacharan, going on to Saveri Pallavi, Kuru yadunandana, Dasavatara and moksha. Also present at this performance is veteran danbcer Minati Mishra. The performance was intended to be a tribute to their guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

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.

Here, her student Ranjana Dave converses with her as they watch these videos again, while reminiscence and hindsight come together. 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 all the ashtapadis seen here have been adapted from 'Sri Gitagovinda' (trans. Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, Gaudiya Vedanta Publications, Mathura, 2005) with inputs from Kumkum Lal.

(Credits)
Indian Association Zurich presents

in association with Dr. Smt. Minati Mishra,

Sristuti, a tribute to Guru Shri Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Odissi Dance Performance by Smt. Kumkum Lal

Organised by
Dipti Abhilash
Anjum Amirtham
Prya Apte
Anburajan Nainar
Sandeep Rajan
Nitesh Gandhi

Presentation
Arun Amirtham
Dr. Smt. Minati Mishra

Special Thanks to
HE Sri Praveen Lal Goyal
The Honourable Ambassador of India to Switzerland

Light and Sound
Sandeep Rajan

Camera, Editing and Composition
Aditya Banerjee

Production
Aditya Banerjee

25th June 2004, Friday
Aula, ETH Hauptgebaude
Zurich, Switzerland

The credits end and the frame dissolves into a close-up of a painting on the ornate ceiling of the performance venue. One is left dizzied by the camera's relatively swift panoramic sweep over the ceiling.

Further exploration of the surroundings are in order, as the camera takes in the hall and the audience. The anchor, Amritham, moves to the centre of the hall, standing at the base of the stage.

Amritham: Members of the Indian Association of Zurich, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this cultural event of the Indian Association. This is the very first event for the Association Year 2004-2005. It's a great honour for us to have today Smt. Kumkum Lal, when we pay tribute to Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, a legend (distorted words) and the person behind the renaissance of the Odissi style. He is credited with retrieving this classical dance form from the decay of time and refining it to one of the most great forms of dance (distorted words).

I'd like to extend a special word of welcome to the ambassador for his generosity and time, support and patronage towards the Indian Association. If in president Abdul India has found the people's president, I'm certain that, in you, the ambassador, we, in Switzerland, have found the people's ambassador. Thank you for being here.

Smt. Kumkum Lal has the privilege of being one of the closest disciples of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. And this over a period of four decades. She combines a perfect physical interpretation with a deep intellectual and spiritual appreciation of this classical dance form. Kumkum has performed at many festivals of dance, including the very well known Khajuraho festival. Her performances have won critical and popular acclaim from national and international audiences. She was instrumental in popularising the dance form in Japan. She was initiated into the dance form at the age of four and learnt Manipuri, Kathakali and Bharatanatyam before finding her vocation in Odissi. She has taught English literature at the University of Delhi and has reviewed dance and acted in plays. She was awarded Indian Government's senior fellowship to work on a Sanskrit treatise on Odissi. She has worked with the Sangeet Natak Akademi in the dance section. Other than pursuing Odissi and Sanskrit, she also works, and continues to work, with craftsmen and girls with disabilities on a voluntary basis.

The national press of India has acknowledged her mastery of the Odissi style in the following words.
(Quote from press review)
'Kumkum's Odissi has the indelible stamp of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, lyrical grace and wealth of choreographic beauty. She stole the show at Khajuraho Festival, both in terms of technique and appreciation from the crowd. She combines tremendous aesthetics and lyrical qualities of the style as also emotive excellence. We are truly delighted to have Smt. Kumkum Lal in our midst today.

I would also like to say a word of welcome to Smt. Dr. Minati Mishra, who is a star and a ripe talent that we have in our midst right here in Zurich. She has been trained in the Odissi dance form under the three great masters of this dance and that is a very unique honour that she has, under great Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Pankaj Charan Das. She is one of the senior dancers who pioneered the Odissi movement. She has performed extensively in India and abroad and we look forward to her dancing very soon for us in Zurich as well. She was awarded (indistinct) for her research on the Natyasastra. As principal of Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Bhubaneswar, she has passed on this dance form to many progenitors. She holds several honours, among them, the Natya Kala Bhooshanam, 1958, the Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 1975 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2000. We have the great privilege of having her here with us in Switzerland. She is based in _ and continues to teach Odissi. Before I invite Dr. Minati Mishra to talk to us about Odissi and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, may I invite the ambassador Mr. Goyal to light the lamp to mark the inauguration, the beginning of our cultural evening.

Goyal lights the lamp. The applause almost seems belated. He begins to speak. Much of what he says is indistinct.

Minati Mishra reads out a paper on Odissi.

Kumkum: I am grateful to my guru, to Minati ji, to Deepti, Anjum, all of you who have made this programme possible. I will be beginning the programme with the traditional prayer item called 'mangalacharan'. First, I will pray to the mother goddess on whom I am stamping so mercilessly - I'll ask for her blessings. And then, I will do a short poem to...a short prayer to the god - the elephant-headed god Ganesh. This is his ear (indicates with the position of her hands) and this is his trunk. (She continues to strike poses from the mangalacharan as she explains the meaning of the verse) He is the son of the goddess Parvati and the god Siva. Their favourite son. He sits under a tree - the mystical kalpa tree - this is the trunk, these are the branches. And these are the leaves. He has a big paunch and a big body because he is very fond of eating sweets. He is an excellent dancer and to him I pray that he makes this programme a success. I pray daily so that he will give me a good... (indistinct).
I will end this item with a three-layered namaskar - or obeisance to god, who's our creator, to the guru, who creates us as dancers, and to the distinguished audience to whom I am grateful for (indistinct). I'm particularly grateful that the ambassador is here and such a distinguished audience is here to see my performance. Today's items are all composed by my guru, the legendary Kelucharan Mohapatra. The music is done by Sri Bhubaneswar Mishra. Guruji has played the drum and Bhubaneswar Mishra has played the violin. The songs are by Parvati Brahmachari and the sitar is by Partha Das. To all of them, I express my gratefulness. And now I begin with mangalacharan.
She walks off stage.

Mangalacharan
Kumkum descends from the top of the stairs.

Parvati Brahmachari begins her alap. Guruji is saying the bols aloud. Kumkum has entered. She carries petals in her palms.

Mangalacharan
Bhumi pranam - Salutation to the earth, asking to be forgiven for stamping on it.
Combining the offering of flowers with this act, Kumkum bows to an idol placed near the lamp and deposits the flowers at its base.

Vandana, a verse in praise of the deity or figure being invoked during the mangalacharan.
The following verse/ sloka is from the Abhinaya Chandrika of Maheswara Mohapatra, a medieval text on Odissi dance. It is a common sloka, generally referred to as Ganesh Vandana.
Transcription:
Namami vighnarajatvam
Kalpavriksham tala sthitam
Uma putram mahakayam
Dantikam nrityakovidam
Tandava priya putraya
Tandava priya rupinam
Namo chintamani nityam shuddha buddhi pradayakam
Translation:
I salute the one who rises over obstacles,
The one who is to be found at the base of the Kalpavriksha (a mythical tree),
The son of Uma, the big-bodied one,
The tusked one, the one who is proficient in dance,
The son of he who loves tandava,
The image of he who loves tandava,
I salute thee, the one who bestows pure thought.

Sabha pranam - A rhythmic piece of dance with the hands mostly in Anjali hasta, the sabha pranam ends with trikhandi pranam, a set of three salutations, where the dancer pays her obeisance to the divine, the guru and salutes the audience, specifically in that order.

Pallavi

Kumkum: ...when we do a song, a poem, a piece of literature, and we dance to it. The other is a pure dance, where we just do beautiful movements and dance to mnemonic syllables, syllables which have no meaning - but they have a beautiful melody in one of the various typical patterns called ragas in Indian music. Now I'm going to do a pure dance in which I will dance to the raga Saveri, to the musical pattern known as Saveri. In this dance, you will see beautiful movements and there is a trace of the beloved (demonstrates) who is coming, who is dressing up, who's plucking a flower, wearing a necklace and earrings and she is meeting (her?) beloved. This is just a trace of a theme in this next item which is called pallavi. It begins with slow movements and gradually it builds up into a crescendo of dance, music and rhythm. The rhythm is very important. Rhythm is played out by our feet as you can see; and in this (piece), try to recognise the rhythm of four - 1-2-3-4/1-2-3-4/1-2-3-4, of seven - 1-2-3-1-2-1-2/1-2-3-1-2-1-2, of three - 1-2-3/1-2-3/1-2-3/1-2-3 in the melody which is called Saveri Pallavi in this mixture of talas.

Saveri Pallavi
Raga: Saveri
Tala: Talamalika
Choreography: Kelucharan Mohapatra
A pallavi is a pure dance (nritta) composition where a string of meaningless syllables called ukutas might be strung together in various rhythmic patterns.
The first two cycles of the ukuta are only sung and played by the musicians. The dancer is yet to enter. But in this case, Kumkum Lal starts moving when the music begins, first in the darkness and then as she walks down the stairs, because there is no private area for her to wait in - even as is she about to enter, she already faces the audience.

Tala: 8 beats in one cycle
Ukuta:
Ta-jham-ta-jham-tari-jham
Tari-jham-tari-jham
Tari-jham-Tari-jham
Tari-jham...
The syllables 'ta', 'jham' and 'tari' are used in different combinations.

Tala: 8 beats
Ukuta:
Drim-ta-drim-drim
Ta-drim-ta-ta-na-na
Ta-na-na-dere-na
Ta-drim-ta-dere-na
Kumkum has to adjust her sari as she sits down and gets up.

Tala: 7 beats
Ukuta:
Drim-ta-drim-drim
Ta-drim-ta-ta-na-na
Ta-na-na-dere-na
Ta-drim-ta-dere-na

Tala: 6 beats
Ukuta:
Drim-ta-drim
Ta-drim-ta-na-na
Ta-na-na-dere-na
Ta-drim-dere-na

Tala: 7 beats
Ukuta:
Drim-ta-drim-drim
Ta-drim-ta-ta-na-na
Ta-na-na-dere-na
Ta-drim-ta-dere-na

Concluding portion of the pallavi. The original ukuta is sung at a faster pace.
Tala: 8 beats
Ukuta:
Ta-jham-ta-jham-tari-jham
Tari-jham-tari-jham
Tari-jham-Tari-jham
Tari-jham...

Abhinaya
Kuru Yadunandana

Kumkum: ...a song, which I am going to interpret...(indistinct) dance. I will dance the song to you, I will say (?) the beat to you in dance. Now, there are many ways of miming a song. One is, if I say - oh my dearest one, come here (demonstrates). This is something you can all understand. But in Indian classical dance, we have a whole language of gestures. We have five fingers. We can make so many permutations and combinations with this. You can understand this - it's a deer (shows with her palms). You can understand this - this is a fish. But can you understand this? No. This is a woman. And this is a man. I'm sure you know why this is a man (the audience laughs). And so, if this is (indistinct), you know that this is an embrace. So that way we have many...many...uh..a whole language, made up of fingers, of joining of fingers. The song I am going to do is from the Gita Govinda, which was written...a Sanskrit treatise. Sanskrit is our very ancient language, much older than Greek or Latin. And in that language, this song was written in the fifth century. It describes the loveplay of the archetypal lovers of India, Krishna and Radha, who are regarded as gods in our country. There are various interpretations of why earthly love between two godly beings is considered spiritual. Well, there is this whole philosophy that every soul is longing for the permanent (indistinct) and the longing is so intense, it is so passionate, that it is akin to the longing of lovers. So, if you see lot of erotic sculptures in India, if you read a lot of erotic literature, you should know that there is a different level in which it is understood. The other ...(indistinct) is that in India, Hinduism is a holistic religion. It does not suppress anything that is natural. And desire is natural and it is sanctified by our culture, by our philosophy of living. Erotic love is the means for creation and creation is godly; only god can create. So, to sanctify it, to keep it within limits, love and erotic love has got a place in our religion.
So this song of the archetypal lovers, Krishna and Radha, has all the moods of lovers. There are 24 cantos/ songs in it and it shows lovers in various shades of longing, of feeling angry with the lover, of feeling jealous, of loving him and of feeling envious of the other woman to whom he has gone. So the beloved ...(indistinct) in various kinds, but this song that I will do is after a night of love. The beloved, the heroine, is completely satisfied because she has won the lover Krishna over. And after a night of love, she is confident, she is swadhin..she is swadhinpatika, she has won over her beloved and she can ask him to do various chores for her. She...her body is ...(indistinct), her toiletry is in a state of disarray and she asks him - oh dark one - Krishna's dark, this side is dark (gestures to the back of her palm), and this side is fair - oh, dark one, with your hands which are cooler than sandalwood paste, make a paste of musk, that aromatic fluid that we have; grind it to a paste, take the paste and on that beautiful breast make various designs, of leaves, of creepers, of flowers. Won't you do it - do it like this! And she tells him - this is the way you should do it. You will see me, you will see my hair in disarray, you will find my necklace(s) strewn all over and you will decide that you will make this paste and decorate my breasts.
Look at my eyes, my eyes which put even a cluster of bumblebees to shame. Oh! They are all smudged, because of your kisses. Come to me and brighten these eyes once again with collyrium.
And look at my hair; it flies like Cupid's flag; come here , tie it up and make it into a beautiful coiffure as like the peacock.
And now, look at my jewellery, look at my clothes; from my hips - beautiful hips, everything has fallen off. Come here, put the beautiful girdle here, tie the veil over here. Come to me, she says to him playfully.
Kuru yadunandana...
(Having said this, Kumkum retreats.)

One can hear the sound of ghunghroos. The music begins. Kumkum descends from the stairs, simply walking to the base, where she prepares to enter as Radha. After a circuitous entry, she sits down.

Transcription:
Kuru yadunandana chandana-shishiratarena karena payodhare
Translation:
O yadunandana, with your own hands more cooling than sandalwood paste, (make) on my breasts

Transcription:
...mrigamada-patrakam atramanobhava-mangala-kalasa-sahodare
nijagada sa yadunandane
kridati hrdayanandane (refrain)
Translation:
please paint leaf patterns in musk (upon my breasts), which are like the auspicious pitchers of Kamadeva.
Thus Radha spoke, while playing with her beloved, the delight of her heart.

Transcription:
Ali-kula-ganjana-sanjanakam rati-nayaka-sayaka-mocane
tvad-adhara-cumbana-lambita-kajjalam ujjvalaya priya locane
nijagada sa yadunandane
kridati hrdayanandane
Translation:
My eyes release the arrows of cupid; the kajal on my eyes has been smudged by your kisses. Please make my eyes shine with this kajal, this kajal that eclipses the dark beauty of a swarm of bumblebees.
Thus Radha spoke, while playing with her beloved, the delight of her heart.

Transcription:
Mama rucire cikure kuru manada manasija dhvaja camare
rati-galite lalite kusumani sikhandi-sikhandaka-damare
nijagada sa yadunandane
kridati hrdayanandane
Translation:
O you who gives respect to others, do up my hair, which fell loose as we made love; my hair which is like the whisk of Kamadeva's flag. It is more captivating than the plume of a peacock; please decorate my charming hair with flower blossoms.

Transcription:
Sarasa-ghane jaghane mama sambara-darana-varana-kandare
mani-rasana-vasanabharanani subhasaya vasaya sundare
nijagada sa yadunandane
kridati hrdayanandane
Translation:
My full hips are like the cave of the passionate elephant who is cupid. These beautiful hips full of rasa, decorate them with a waist belt, clothes and ornaments.
Thus Radha spoke, while playing with her beloved, the delight of her heart.

Dasavatara

Kumkum has now changed into a stitched yellow costume. She has come back to explain the meaning of the piece she is about to perform.
Kumkum: After the break, I am going to do another song from the same book of Gitagovinda - from which I did the erotic song, but this is a song of prayer for that very same Krishna who is the one with the flute. He is another form of Vishnu who is one of our great deities - the preserver Vishnu. He is the one who comes to help, up from the heavens down to earth whenever the earth is in distress for one reason or the other. And when he comes down to the earth, and he takes an earthly form, it is called an incarnation, an avatar in...in Sanskrit. And to date, nine times he has been down on the earth in various forms and the tenth one is still to come. So this is a song of prayer of praising Vishnu, the deva, the god, in his ten forms. If I go through the various forms you will think I am recounting Darwin's theory of evolution, because the first form he took was in water, the second form was that of an amphibian animal, half-water, half-earth, the third form is of an animal, the fourth form is half-animal, half-human, the fifth form is that of a little man, the smallest midget man, and then, you have various human forms.

So the first form is that of a fish; I'm sure you can make this out. When the sacred books of the Hindus, the Vedas, were being spirited away by the demon with tusks and teeth (demonstrates), he pulled it back and saved it and he carried it on his back as if he were a boat. The second time, the whole of the earth had fallen into the water. And he took the form of a tortoise, and on the back of the tortoise, he lifted the entire heavy earth and put it on the back. And that is why the tortoise has those marks over there. And then once again, when the earth had gone down during a cataclysmic time into the waters, he took the form of a boar. A boar is a wild pig with heavy tusks and with his tusks, he lifted...lifted the whole earth and put it on his tusks. His tusks were white, like the crescent moon, and the earth was a little thing in between, like the rabbit's tail on the moon. And then, he took the form of man. This is the symbol of Vishnu. And the lion. Because there was a demon who could not be killed either by an animal or a human being, who could not be killed at sunshine (sic) or at the darkness (sic)....(indistinct) dusk. He could not be killed either in the heavens or on the earth. So he put him on his lap, he tore him apart and took the form of half-man, half-lion. There was another king, demon king Bali...powerful on the earth, and he had to be pushed down into the earth into the netherworld. And for that he took the form of a wondrous little midget. This midget came to the king and asked for a boon. He said, "Can you give me three steps of land?" And the king said, "Yes of course, such a small man, how many steps can he take?" And because he was Vishnu, he took vast steps. He put...with one step he covered the heavens, with one step he covered the earth and then he said, "Where should I put the third step? There's no place." He (the king) said, "Put it on my head." And in that way he was able to push that evil king into the netherworld. And then, once when the whole of the earth was being terrorised by the warrior class, they became tyrants, very powerful, he took the form of the warrior priest and he killed them all and brought peace on the earth. And then there was the ten-headed king Ravana, who belonged to Lanka, Sri Lanka. He was very very powerful. But Rama, with his bow and arrow, cuts each one of his heads and distributed it to the ten directions, the gods of the ten directions who had suffered under him. Then he took the form of the man with the plough, Balarama. Balarama was the brother of Krishna, and he was likened to the first agriculturist. With his plough, he made a canal into the river Jamuna and brought the waters near him. He used to wear very beautiful blue clothes like the clouds. And the ninth avatar is that of Buddha - and this is a very strange thing. In the 12th century, when this poem was written, Buddha was regarded as one of the Hindu pantheon. Now Buddhism and Hinduism are separate, but at that time, he was regarded as an incarnation of Vishnu. And why did he come on earth? Because he saw the Vedic people, the priests used to kill a lot of animals for the sacrifices. And his heart was saddened by it. And so he came on earth to remove that and bring in the new kind of ...(indistinct) onto the earth. And now, Kalki is still to come; the form with a horse and a terrible sword. He will come and he will remove all the evil people from the earth. Today, Dasavatara...
(Kumkum leaves the stage.)

In the dark, Kumkum is a faint outline, discerned only by her glittering jewellery. She walks down the staircase, sometimes shuffling her feet rapidly to cover space and reaches the edge of the makeshift stage in time for the dance music. When it begins, she makes a round of the stage, before staking out the centre and dancing the nritta portion that precedes Jayadeva's verses.

Transcription:
pralaya-payodhi-jale dhrtavan asi vedam
vihita-vahitra-caritram-akhedam
kesava dhrta-mina-sarira jaya jagadisa hare
Translation:
O Kesava, you descended to the temporary world in the form of a fish and saved the Vedas from the ocean of universal devastation. Hari, may you be victorious!