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 Abhinayam gains all the importance when
padham is performed. The artiste would bring out the moods of a past day and the present when performing
Padham. The past may be distant or recent. Supposing the
nayaki is in a melancholic mood today, estranged from her sweetheart, the
Padham would be a combination of expressions of the joys of yesterday and the pangs of separation of today. These two emotions would find facial expression, alternatively. Even while expressing the joy that buoyed her up in the past, the artiste would show a trace of agony in her face, signifying the suffering that the
nayaki is undergoing today. The themes may differ. It may be that the
nayaki is thinking of her lover who has forgotten her now and of the good old days that she had spent with him. The expressions of joy and sorrow would alternate on the face of the artiste who would very
skillfully mix both these extremes and bring out the crosscurrents that are running a riot in the heart of the
nayaki. The basic idea is that the nayaki would be in a contemplative mood, thinking of the joy of those days, while she is immersed in sorrow in the present. This is known as
sthayi bhava.
It is not that sthayi is confined to
padham alone. It is used in all the other items. Only that artiste who
skillfully brings out the  emotions bubbling in the verses that are taken for performance - the basic emotion as well as the mixtures that run underneath the lines -can be considered to be talented and matured.
In the present days lyrics in Marathi, Kannada and other languages are used for performing
padham. However, in the olden days it was limited to Telugu and Tamil only. And then there is the variety known as
Kshetragnar padham, which every artiste considers to be quite a challenge to execute. The verses of
Kshetragnar are set to slow rhythm but the emotions that are expressed in them are a bit too complex and a real challenge for the artiste to bring them out through
sthayi bhava. If an artiste can perform to the verses of
Kshetragnar he or she can be considered to have mastered the art a great deal.
Most of the padhams are woven around God. Since the main theme of
padham is the expression of feelings of the
nayaki - estranged or otherwise - it can safely be concluded that the
rasa would always be srngara and the God on whom the verse is written would always be in the male form.
Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Postures by Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan
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