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 It is through Shabdham that the aspirant is taught to express different kinds of feelings through the face. It is this skill to convey feelings through facial expressions that the dancer, which gives the dancer the first opportunity to prove his or her worth as a talented artiste. And it is this skill that is the first door that takes the audience to understand, appreciate and be immersed in the feelings and emotions that are expressed in the performance on-stage.
The songs that are used for performing Shabdham are always
raga maalikas comprising different ragas. The
tala would be of seven beats - misra
chapu. And all the raga maalikas would always start with
Kambodhi raga and also would end with
Kambodhi.
The structure of the song for Shabdham would not be in the usual pattern of
pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. It would be made of a series of couplets - two lines rhyming with each other, the rhyme being set either in the first word of each line or in the last word of each line. The songs would contain just simple, plain but very fluently running words, rhythmic and flowing, and would convey simple ideas. They would not contain deeper, hidden or inner meaning, stories or philosophy. The expressions would also be simple, without necessitating finer details. The
sanchari bhava would not be employed.
(Sanchari bhava would be explained in one of our later instalments, under
Varnam.)
The dancer would execute simple theermanas before taking up
abhinyam or bhavam. (See:
Abhinayam) In the olden days, all the songs for Shabdham used to be on Lord Krishna. But songs on Shiva, Muruga and others are also used nowadays for Shabdham. The song would be woven around the Lord and his
leela. The last two lines would describe or express the devotion that the dancer has for the Lord. The Shabdham would alternate between
theemana and bhava - a theermana followed by
bhava and again by another theermana and
bhava, in a series - and would therefore be enjoyable to witness. It would take the entire performance as an expression of devotion, gradually.
Shabdham is not performed these days, as widely as it used to be. There are still a few artistes, even in these days, who follow the traditional Jathiswaram, Shabdham and Varnam, as created by the Thanjavur brothers with the same
theermana and korvai, and preserve it in its pristine purity.
Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Postures by Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan
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