Bharatanatyam is one of the oldest classical dance forms of South India, said to have originated about 5000 years ago. The divine art form has evolved from the cosmic dance, Lord Shiva, and when performed it evokes devotion and bhakti within the dancer and the audience. It was nurtured in the temples and king’s courts of Tamil Nadu since ancient times. This dance form was traditionaly performed by a community of temple dancers, who handed down the knowledge of this art from generation to generation. The present form of Bharatanatym as we know it was codifed and documented in the early 19th century by four brothers, who were known as the Tanjore Quartet.
The name Bharatanatyam has two distinct roots. The first is its reference to sage Bharata, the author of the Natya Shastra, an ancient Sanskrit text that serves as a guidebook to clasical dancers even to the present day. Natya shastra talks about dance being the science of the body. It deals with the usage of mind and body in its full - anga (major limbs), upanga (supporting limbs) and anupanga (minor limbs such asfingers, eyebrows etc).
The second root of Bharatanatyam, as the name depicts is a combination of: BHA- Bhava (expression), RA- Raaga (music) and TA- Tala (rhythm). A Bharatanatyam performance a combination of intricate hand gestures, body movements, foot work and facial expressions are performed to Carnatic classical music. Bharatanatyam has three distinct elements to the dance form: Nritta (rhythmic dance movements), Natya (dance combined with a dramatic aspect) and Nritya (combination of Nritta and Natya).Combining these three aspects with the hand gestures (Mudra), a dancer speaks a language in abhinaya or narrative dance through which stories and descriptions about Gods and Mythology are portrayed to the audience.
