Sri Lanka's sculptural influence on Bharatha Natyam

by Subashini Pathmanathan

Lord Nataraja

The oriental classical dances are mainly influenced by numerous factors such as language, literature, culture, sculpture, religion, paintings, vocal and instrumental music. All these have influenced the classical Bharatha Natyam to a great extent.

The sculptures could be divided into different varieties. They are made out of different metals such as copper, iron, brass, Iyempon a combination of five different metals.

There are ivory sculptures, wooden made sculptures, granite stone made sculptures, lime stone sculptures and clay sculptures. Sculptures are the main source for the research study in oriental dance forms.

Bharatha Natyam is a Tamil classical dance form which is widely practised and preserved in Sri Lanka. So, it is quite appropriate and important to find out the close relationship between the sculptural influences of Sri Lankan sculptures on Bharatha Natyam.

Generally, for research analysis it is necessary to trace the coordination between these two different fine arts together. Islandwide there are a variety of sculptures available. Most of the sculptures are decorative sculptures which decorate the pillars, the roof tops of the pillars, carved in the pillars and walls of the archaeological sites, Hindu temple towers, temple walls, tunnel temples, art galleries and ancient royal courts.

For Bharatha Natyam, the Chidambaram and Thanjavur temple sculptures are the main productive source for dance research work. Similarly in Odissi dance, the Kalinga sculptures are the main source for research.

The Hindu sculptures provide ample opportunities for researchers to study the practical side of the Bharatha Natyam.

In Bharatha Natyam dancers try their best to imitate and adopt the sculptural poses, sculptural body postures, body positions, foot stances and positions, hand gestures and eye glances.

This helps researchers to conduct a comparative study of sculptures with practical Bharatha Natyam. Most of the Bharatha Natyam dance poses resemble the sculptural dance poses and the 108 Thandava Karanas of Lord Siva.

All the sources have been derived from the ancient sculptural poses especially from archaeological and ancient sources which are derived guidelines from the ancient Hindu Agama Sastra and sutras. That's why the Hindu deity sculptural poses all over the world must be the same. The basic structures of the Hindu deities are the same, but the basic style of the statues differs from place to place. If we analyse the cause of the differences we will come to the conclusion that these slight variations arise due to the local influences of the area where that particular sculpture was made.

Sri Lanka's Hindu temple sculptures are almost the same as those found in Indian temples. Yet to some extent they are being influenced by the local traditions and regional influences. It could be observed by the style of the structures. It is necessary that each temple deity, the sculpture should be based on a certain defined philosophy.

Lord Ganesh

For instance, Lord Nataraja's statue all over Hindu areas and Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu are almost the same. For instance, Lord Nataraja's statue which was found in Polonnaruwa is quite different from the normal Hindu Nataraja statues. This is due to the regional and cultural influence of the area. This particular Lord Nataraja's statue implies the Buddhist sculptural influence.

The ancient Siva Lingam structure found in Polonnaruwa is also entirely different from the normal Shiva Lingam statues in Hindu temples. The length of the Siva lingam is quite longer than that of the normal Siva Lingam seen in the Santorum of Hindu temples. Even these aerial, cultural and regional influences could be easily seen when we compare the Sri Lankan ancient sculptural images with the same Indian sculptures.

These differences could be seen in the One | could assume that this is due to the cultural, regional and ideological influence on the sculptor. In Hinduism some deities are in the standing position, and others are in the sitting position. Each hand of the deity depicts certain meaningful hand gestures.

If the dancer tries to depict the same sculptural pose in dance, the dancer must adopt the same hand gestures of the selective idol.

So, the sculptures provide the main source for Bharatha Natyam which is a Hindu religious dance form and it is necessary that we follow the Hindu agama and Hindu Sasta traditions.