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Legs and their positions in Bharata Natya
| Legs and their positions in Bharata Natya |
We saw the language of the hands in Bharata and the meanings of a few Mudras with examples. In the same way, dancers make use of their feet - bending, stretching, jumping, tapping with the toe, thumping with the heels - to keep timing, or
tala. With the different positions of the legs that we saw earlier, the artistes dance in three different speeds. This known as
'adavu.'
The most important of and the foundation for all other all
'adavus' in Bharata Natya is the position of legs known as
'arai mandi' (literally, half-kneeling). The artiste bends his knees sideways (not forwards). The legs and knees should be turned sideways when standing in this posture. The feet should also be turned sideways so that the heel of the one faces the other. In this position, there would be a distance of about 1½ inch between them. If one looks at the shape of the legs now, they would resemble the shape of a diamond. There are different types of
adavus - thattadavu, naatadavu, paravaladavu, sarukkaladavu, to name a few. There are many more
adavus. The number would differ from style to style and school to school.
 To start with adavus involve the use of legs. Then it integrates with hand movements and then with that of the body as a whole. These would be combined with Mudras - or the hand movements - and body movements like small hops, bends etc. Now there would be a doubt in the minds of the readers as to whether the Mudras that we saw earlier are the same as the Mudras referred to here or different. The Mudras do convey meanings when the artiste dances. But they do not convey any specific meaning when combined with
adavus. More over, the dancers use only a specific number of Mudras during an adavu. These Mudras would be used again and again. To put it differently,
adavus are something like the multiplication tables. All the
adavus would go with one or other of a specific
tala. By the way, those that convey a particular meaning are known as Mudras and those which do not convey any meaning, are known as
hastham (or the hand). We have used the word Mudra interchangeably in place of
hastham, to enable easy understanding.
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An adavu takes about a minute to execute. A few or more
adavus are combined to create a 'korvai.' A
korvai lasts two or three minutes. In a Bharata Natya performance therefore, there are
korvais that do not convey any meaning but execution of which demand a good amount of training, skill, imagination and talent. As these are to be executed with tala precision, a knowledge of
korvais would enable us to appreciate the skill, talent and imagination of the artiste.
We saw that the 'arai mandi' creates a diamond form. There are other angles like the triangle, obtuse angle, etc. All these angular forms have been practised and refined over and over again over the past fifty years that they have now reached a near perfection level.
As there is a base position for the legs in Bharata Natya called the
'arai mandi', there is a particular position for the hands too. This is known as the
Natyaarambham.
Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan
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