The Sacred Dance of Ancient India and its Relevance to Hindu Iconography

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archaeologists. Bhurata's Natruar, the earliest Sanskrit text on performing arts (100-500 BC) has Provided the description of the 108 karana-s which are the combinations of body postures, gestures and movements. This have already been analyzed and brought back in dance by scholars like Guru Ramarvah Pillai and Dr. Smt. Padma Subrahmanyam with the help of technique of performance, the author of this book, Sarah V. Magalhães, has taken an all But rather than studying the karana-s only from the perspective of dance and its encompassing approach to the karana-s as a multifaceted discipline with its connected aspects of ritual, yoga, and philosophy.

She has effectively substantiated this point giving various references from not only Indian authors but also scholars of the Perennial Philosophy from Europe.

The author has also dwelled extensively on the placement of Lord Siva's karana sculptures and their derivatives in the various temple precincts and their representation in the semi-nude female form. She successfully elaborates on the aspect of sacred nudity of the iconographic representation of the karana-s in feminine form and the icons of gods and goddesses in temples. She has drawn points to prove their significance which the readers will find noteworthy.

Pratyabhijna theory of Self recognition and their analogy in the truth that all human beings To prove her theory, she has also cited various tenets of Kashmir Saivism embedded in are the essence of that supreme Being which can be awakened through the karana-s of Shiva's dance. If God is the supreme creator, man also creates through art To my knowledge her approach towards the karana-s is unique which augments the very spiritual nature of Indian performing arts.

In the concluding part of the book, it is her contention that in the first sacrificial gestures of the karana-s there are the roots of the mythological postures representing gods and goddesses expressing the universal qualities of the divine virtues inherent in human nature This point finds satisfactory discussion in her study, and she has rightly concluded that the perennial symbolism of the human body is clearly present in almost all ancient Indian iconographic images. The karana-s are the foundation for this artistic expression that syntesizes the qualities of geometry, rhythm, strength, form, beauty and nobility.

All in all, going to the roots of the spiritual and ritualistic foundations of Indian classical dance, Sarah V. Magalhaes has succeeded in throwing light on the unique relation of Divine art and human art in ancient India which the readers would find not only fascinating but also enlightening.

From time immemorial, dance in India was associated with the divine. The genesis of such an art that is dedicated to the gods is therefore esoteric in nature, as it emerges from the mythical sacred dance of ancient temples. Historically, the living tradition of Guru Sirva Parampard, the remaining sculptures, paintings, literature, and inscriptions in temples trace the origins of dance, while myths provide the heavenly delight of its origins. These remote origins have also been discussed in the books that narrate the status of dance during the Vedic periods and in the time of the Epics, the Purana-s and the literary accounts that followed, preserving the spiritual ethos of the artform. On the other hand, as a living tradition, the art form still preserves the cultural and spiritual legacy of those ancient literary accounts.

This sacred art has preserved its inner dimension throughout millenia. However, contemporary times bring a new challenge to this heavenly artform. "It has been truly said that 'art is the mirror of its times'. This implies that the peculiarities characteristic of a given period are reflected in the art of that period. This is a real consideration. Today, the "fast tempo and fragmented contemporary reality" is indeed reflected in the performative aspects of this ancient art form.

The near-exclusive consideration of art as a means to entertain, exteriorise one's psyche and feelings without sufficient reference to its spiritual function of inwardness is a typically modern phenomenon. This approach both results from and leads to a lack of depth and understanding of traditional art in its function of transmitting and preserving spiritual and cultural values.

The influence of a globalized, modern mentality is reflected in performance of contemporary Indian classical dance, making it more and more exteriorised. The excess of the search for virtuosity brings a challenge to contemporary classical dance instead of highlighting what is spiritually meaningful in this art form. In the field of scholarly research, the very idea of the karana-s being interpreted only as dance patterns demonstrates a "forgetfulness of its origin," or an incomplete perception of the whole. Its genesis as a sacred phenomenon with proper ritualistic function is an important element to be considered and deeply reflected upon. In my opinion, without an all-encompassing approach to the ritualistic origin of dance, one cannot properly call attention to its spiritual dimension, which is the immortal source and very specific characteristic of all styles of traditional dance in India.

The contemporary dance-based researchers on this topic have done extraordinary work in the recomposition of the lost dance movements of the karana-s. However, no attempt has been made to insert the karass-s in the spiritual, cultural and philosophical framework of medieval and ancient India. This seems to me the sole way of unveiling and recognizing their primal purpose in the life of temples. In this sense, only an all-encompassing approach to the karana-s as a many-sided discipline in its conjoint aspects of ritual worship, yoga, dramatic dance movement, and archetypal postures can provide the key to the enigma of the lost esoteric tradition of the karana-s. This viewpoint proposes that the practice of the karana-s as 'instrumental action' (which is the etymological definition of the word karana) made them a central phenomenon, a ritualistic action correlating different streams of worship and art, which in the course of time became the basis for allied artistic expressions such as sculpture and iconography.

The central presence of the karana-s in Hindu art and worship is evident. The peculiarity of this research is that it proposes different and unknown facets for the karana-s. However, they are all coherent and cohesive to the extent that they all reveal an important feature of Indian tradition in the domain of the arts: the emergence of a rich visual imagery related to the spiritual ethos of India.

The perspective which underlies this book is rooted in the perennial philosophy which sees tradition as a means to expound divine truths and principles of a divine origin that is transmitted to mankind through all forms of expression of a specific culture being manifest in its mythology, religious worship, philosophy, literature and art. A quote from a Perennialist author defining tradition is worth here: "In its more universal sense, tradition can be considered to include the principles which bind man to Heaven, and therefore religion, while from another point of view religion can be considered in its essential sense as those principles which are revealed by Heaven and which bind man to his Origin." The karana-s speak of these Origins.

By articulating several aspects of a particular culture, in this case the Hindu tradition, it is possible to infer the deepest meaning of the sacred message enshrined at its core. My intention throughout is to draw from the study of different fields of knowledge in order to acquire and specify the primal understanding of such practices, as contrasted to a purely contemporary understanding of the karana-s grounded in a modernist outlook. Thus, the process through which I shall explain how the research problem is to be observed, analyzed and related to other sources is based on a particular viewpoint: I will interpret the collected research data using a Perennialist perspective, which is the methodology of this research and which shall provide the philosophical guidelines to approach and correlate the various fields of knowledge discussed in this book. Establishing the ground for the methodological approach of this study is an important step in appreciating this new perspective on the karana-s. As some terms may have varied meanings and as different people have different opinions of such terms, it is crucial to define the main research postulates within a particular perspective. In this regard, quotations from Perennialist authors will aid in clarifying the main concepts of the Philosophia Perennis relating to the subject matter addressed in this research.