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 We have seen up to this what forms the fundamentals of Bharatam and how it grows into a firm structure of an individual performance, step-by-step. That completes half our job. In the remaining half we shall wee things like
adavu, theermanam etc. where there is not much scope for
Nrtha but where the performer concentrates on
abhinaya, in expressing various human emotions.
From what has been described till now, we can see that the dancer would have exerted himself or herself in footwork and rapid movements of all limbs and would be fatigued by now. Moreover, the mind and intellect of the audience would have moved along with the performer and perhaps need something lighter now.
The next in the sequence is Padham. As we saw above, the body, mind and the legs of the performer would have overworked until now and there is need to give respite for a few moments. The song selected for expression would require more facial expressions aide by the hands and not require much strain on the other parts of the body. The songs selected for
Padham would therefore be emotionally charged and would have a deeper connotation. Mostly they are romantic -
srngara rasa. The raga of the song would be of heavier kind. It would be set to a slower pace, not requiring swift movements. The emphasis would be on
bhava or the innate feelings.
The lyric would be set around one of the eight nayakis or any of their subgroups or inner-groups of the subgroups. It would consist of the
pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. The
nayaki portrayed would be the one from Virahoth Kantithaa or
Vaasava Sajjika or Vipra Labdhaa or others described under our earlier instalment. (See:
Abhinayam). Many base their performance of
Padham on such lyrics only. Poets of those days have written countless lyrics, expressing such feelings.
 We saw earlier that there are 384 groups, subgroups and inner-groups of
nayakis. Obviously, lyrics on a few are available in abundance and on a few others are rare. There are a few rare lyrics that express the feelings of a woman in a particular day - that is, ‘not usual’ - and also during a particular hour of the day - ‘very unusual’ kinds of feelings. But these cannot be performed to by the blossoming artiste. These require deeper involvement, matured understanding and sharpened and finely honed skills. Only artistes belonging to the traditional schools and who are highly talented use such lyrics for performance of
padham.
Sometimes such lyrics express the ‘young feelings’ of a middle-aged woman. A middle-aged woman nursing the passions and feelings of a young girl. Or it may be set around a young girl carrying the feelings of a middle-aged or old woman, who has crossed many situations and acquired multifarious experiences in her life. It is a real challenge to the performer and calls for the employment of all his or her skills in expressing the moods and feelings that run as the under-current of the lyric taken for the performance of
Padham.
Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Postures by Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan
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