“Bharatanatyam is one of the most popular dance style from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.It is believed that God and Goddesses pleaded Lord Brahma, the Creator of the Universe, to create a Veda for the common man to understand. In keeping with this request Lord Brahma created the fifth Veda,
Natyaveda, which is an essence of the four Vedas. He took pathya (words) from the
Rigveda, abhinaya (gestures) from the Yajurveda, geet (music and chant) the Sama Veda and Rasa (sentiment and emotions) from the Atharvaveda to form the Veda.
After creating the Natyaveda, Lord Brahma gave the same to sage Bharata to popularize the Veda on earth. Following the instructions of the Lord, sage Bharata wrote the
Natyashastra, the Science of Dramaturgy, a great comprehensive work on the science and technique of Indian Drama, Dance and Music. It is believed that the dance form Bharatanatyam may have got its name from the great sage. There is another story, which says that Goddess Parvathi taught this dance form to
Uma, daughter of Banasura, a demon. Thus the devine dance form Bharatanatyam was introduced to mankind.
In Indian mythology Lord Shiva is considered as the Supreme Lord of dance. Lord Shiva and his wife Goddess Parvathi perform this divine art form. The dance performed by lord Shiva is known as
Tandava, which depicts its violent nature as the destructor of the universe. The tandava performed with joy is called Ananda Tandava and performed in violent mood is called Rudra Tandava.Tandava has vigorous brisk movements. The dance performed by Goddess Parvathi is known as Lasya,in which the movements are gentle, graceful and sometimes erotic. Some scholars call Lasya as the feminine version of
Tandava. Bharatanatyam has definitely gone through lot of changes over the years. In olden days mostly female artistes performed it. They were called
Devadasis, who would perform in the temples. These Devadasis were accomplished artistes who would sing, dance, and play many instruments. They were well versed in Sanskrit and other languages, which helped them to interpret compositions, which they would perform. But this tradition came to an end as the Devadasis lost their position in society. Then dance entered the royal courts. Here the artistes called the
Rajnarthakis, performed in the courts of kings who gave them shelter. Even these were accomplished artistes like
Devadasis.
In the first half of the 19th century the dance tradition was revitalized and defined a new through the contributions of four talented brothers (known today as the Tanjore Quartet):
Chinniah, Sivanandam, Ponniah and Vadivelu. By co-coordinating their diverse talents, the four managed to organize all the basic dance movements of pure dance into a progressive series of lessons
[Adavu Chapters]. Each Adavu (Basic unit of motion) was taught in systematic order and then combined with others to produce choreographed sequences based upon the rhythmic contour of a musical composition. In addition the brothers composed new music specifically for the dance and introduced a different sequence of items, which integrated the various aspects of dance and music into a carefully coordinated, aesthetically sound progression.