 Natyanjali at Chidambaram (Part 2)
1984-99
 Last week I was narrating the resurgence of the tradition of dance at Chidambaram temple in South Arcot where I was District Collector during 1983-84. After the first and second attempts in 1981 and 1983, we conducted a three-day festival in 1984.
Then it occurred to us that for a festival to become popular it was necessary to conduct it on a definite date and time. After consultation with the Dikshitars (temple priests) we decided to hold it along with the Shivaratri festival. It was also decided to hold it for five days as a large number of dancers were desirous of performing at Chidambaram. Since 1985, the festival has come to stay in this form.
In 1993, the state and the central department of tourism recognised "Natyanjali" as a major tourism festival of India and started publicising it in India and abroad. In 1994, the poster of the Natyanjali won the National award in the all-India poster competition. Since then, there has been no looking back. Even though some assistance has been obtained from the state and central governments, Sangeet Natak Academy, South Zone Culture Centre etc, the festival is really conducted by the local citizens committee. It presently consists of Natarajan, Swaminathan, Ramanathan, V.S. Ramalingham, R Ramalingam, Sambandham, Ganapathy, Dr. Muthukumaran and Baladandayutham, son of Vagisam
Pillai.
 They receive hundreds of artists from all over the world, house them, host them and open their doors to guests, conduct the festival and make everyone happy. They are a dedicated group of people in the tradition of Vagisam Pillai. Local institutions like Annamalai University are always helping the organisers with boarding and lodging of artists and guests.
The festival is held in the outer prakaram of the temple since dancing within temples is banned under the anti-devdasi act. However, on the day of Shivaratri it is impossible to control the dancers who make a beeline to the shrine of Nataraja to perform in front of the idol. It is high time that the act which banned dance in temples is repealed.
During the five days of Natyanjali the whole town wears a festive look. Every house in the town receives relatives and friends and tens of thousands of people, sitting on the stone floor of the temple, watch the dance.
The dancers come in all devotion, from all over the world, to offer their dance to the lord. They do not receive any remuneration. The dance is purely dedicated to the lord.
From 1983, I have been present for all the festivals except for the one held last year, when I was away at Oxford on a year’s visiting fellowship. On the day of Shivaratri I felt terribly homesick and yearned to visit
Chidambaram.
During this long association with the festival we have seen a lot of high points. Once Mallika Sarabhai, while she was doing Mahabharata in France, wrote to me that she wished to dance at Natyanjali. When Vani Ganapathy wanted to restart dance, after going through the troubles of life, started from Chidambaram, when Meenakshi Seshadri was settling down in life she came and danced in Chidambaram. When Meenakshi Chittaranjan restarted dance after her brother’s tragic accident she first performed in
Chidambaram.
 We invited ‘Father Barbosa’, the first Catholic priest to learn Bharatnatyam, Natty, to perform in the temple. He was received by the temple priest with the ‘Poorna Kumbam’ the greatest honour given to a guest. Apart from the great Bharatnatyam exponents of this century, we have had all the great masters of Kathak, Manipuri, Kathakali and other dance forms perform here. One of the memorable occasions was when Kathak Maestro Durgalal enthralled us by his ‘Nagendra Haraya’, just a year before he died.
Once we had eight beautiful Swiss girls who looked like fairies, to perform Bharatnatyam. This year a lot of Russian students from Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, dominated the scene. For the young dancers, coming to Chidambaram is like getting a diploma. We also get a lot of foreign audience. The other day when Dr. Padma Subramaniam was dancing as Yashoda with little Krishna, a foreigner sitting next to me was so moved that she started sobbing.
One of the impacts of the festival has been that today there are more than ten dance schools in Chidambaram. Dance has really returned to Chidambaram.
Part
I
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