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 As we were discussing, Jayadeva’s
Ashtapati is woven around the theme of romance, depicting the higher and divine form of love, symbolising the quest of the
jivatma to unite with the Paramatma through the seemingly human form of love.
As the lyrics are woven around Lord Krishna, Radha and the gopikaas it offers a very wide scope for the artiste, demanding all his or her skills, understanding, maturity and ability to portray the divine through the mundane. It depicts women in love in all the eight different nayakis and therefore provides the artiste with a challenging opportunity to bring out finer nuances of the verses.
It can be performed by a single artiste, while the
ashtapati is sung in the particular ragas to which they are set, or two artistes may perform as Radha and Krishna depicting the happy moments of the divine lovers, with
swara jati and Nrtha. Further more, it has the scope of being performed as a dance-drama or group-dance with gopikaas joining them.
Several artistes have experimented with a mixture of the Indian dance forms, when performing to
ashtapati. That is to say, the movements of Lord Krishna would be in
Katak and the dance form adopted by the artistes who plays Radha would be Bharata, giving a different experience altogether, a virtual feast to the eye of the audience. Therefore, what the
ashtapati offers is a very wide field, limited only by the skill, talent and imagination of the artiste and/or choreographer.
 In the olden days, the
ashtapatis were performed to in the Puri Jagannath temple, in the
Odissi style by male artistes. It was restricted only to the male artistes. They used to begin doing so by dedicating themselves at a very young age as the
nayaki of the Lord and spend their whole life in the temple, dancing with dedication and, immersed in the divine service, dressed as women during the performance. This was something similar to the practice of women dedicating themselves to the temples, in Tamil Nadu.
This practice went through its metamorphosis and with the passage of time, women artistes danced in the temple, in
Odissi. Soon the beauty of the verses and the scope that they offered to the talented artistes were seen by the dancers of other states and nowadays
ashtapati is used for dance performances in every style of dance of the region, all over India.
Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Postures by Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan
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