Amazing Dance Extravaganza by Dr.Padma Subramanian-Thanjavur

[kssr]

1000 Bharathanatyam dancers from all over the world led by Dr.Padma Subramanian performed at Thanjai Periya Koil on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the Kumbabishekam of the temple by Raja Raja Cholan. What an amazing spectacle it was. Congratulations to Dr.Padma. A huge achievement indeed!

[veeyens3]

There is a popular legend about Dr.Padma Subramanian ,Karanam carvings in Tanjore temple and Paramacharya. It seems that sometime in 60s when nearly 80 carvings of Various dance Adavus were discovered in an enclosure on the first tier of the Gopuram, Dr Padma was curios to know why the figures were depicted with two legs and four arms. It seems that she could not get a satisfactory answer from anybody. When she mentioned about this to Paramacharya next time she met him, It appears that he told her that the feet are in the same position after every "Karanam" but the hands position vary. That is why you see four hands and two feet in every Karana silpa. Knowledgeable rasikas may throw fresh light on this

[vs_manjunath]

It was broadcasted live on Podhugai channel. It was an wonderful dance spectacle.By chance,i tuned and enjoyed the whole programme. A tamil song in Ghana Raga Panchakam was an item. This was followed by "nAgendra hArAya". Tune was different, not as sung by MS.
CONGRATULATIONS to all the artistes !!!
veeyens3- The temple under discussion betn Paramacharya and Dr Padma Subramanian- Was it Chidambaram or Tanjore ??

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

I remember attending one of Dr Padma Subramaniam's lec-dems long ago in Bangalore, where she explained that these karana sculptures could be compared to 'animation' where each drawing in the animation storyboard is done to show the next second of the movement. We used to get little books when we were young, where you flipped the pages fast to see the figures 'move'.
So she said this was an attempt by the sculptors in those days to show the progression of the movement. She demonstrated this beautifully. So it could be that in these sculptures, the emphasis is on how the hands move from one moment to the other.
I think it was a good explanation.
Dear rasikas, if anyone gets to know about such un-missable programmes in advance, please let us know. I do hope DD does a repeat telecast.

[tkb]

It was indeed a grand event and congrats to Dr. PS and all the artists / people involved.

[csuresh]

Rasikas,
Those who missed the DD Podigai telecasting yesterday can log to www.kalakendra.com tomorrow 27th evening 5pm IST for the recorded webcasting of this programme.
Infact they have live webcasted yesterday.
Regards.
C.Suresh

[thanjavooran]

shri C suresh,
Many thanx for the information.
Thanjavooran 26 09 2010

[veeyens3]

Re#4 the flicker comparison is valid if the figurines had two arms and the theme is one. Since I undestand that they were depicted with four arms (I had not seen them myself inspite of being a native of tanjore dt)and they were part of 108 Karanas described in Natya Sastra and represent individual themes, I feel Paramacharya's explanation more valid and applicable Probably if Dr Padma subramanyam herself were to come across these blogs, we may know the answer

[mohan]

This was streamed live on the Kalakendra website. I watched a bit of it and it was indeed interesting to watch 1000 dancers dancing in unison!

[kssr]

In connection with the millennium function, there were two articles in the Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-an ... 793145.ece

http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/24/stories ... 780200.htm

Padma Subramaniam, at the end of the programme, requested that "if it is possible" to make a small inscription in some corner of the temple about this grand event to record it for history. The administrators may probably be more inclined to inscribe about Kalaignar's achievement than the music and dance extravaganza.

[mankuthimma]

I once watched a BBC show about a Top Secret Scientific effort on recovering all sound waves that would have impinged on the walls of an enclosure . Does any one else here remember seeing it ? I am pretty sure I have not dreamt it up

[kssr]

I once watched a BBC show about a Top Secret Scientific effort on recovering all sound waves that would have impinged on the walls of an enclosure . Does any one else here remember seeing it ? I am pretty sure I have not dreamt it up

No. I haven't. But I am reminded of a story a Swedish friend told me. Northern Sweden is totally frozen in winters. It appears that it was so cold that no one could hear each other speaking as the "words were frozen when they came out"!! At the beginning of spring when the snow melts, the noise (from molten words)would be intolerable cacophony Maybe it is not such a good idea "to recover" sound from the walls. They also say that walls have ears and I am always so scared as I say so many dirty things about others, which I would not like the walls to remember