How Dhandayuthapani Pillai built a distinct Bharatanatyam repertoire

One of the problems in teaching Bharatanatyam to young students is the lack of suitable varnams that are geared towards dancers in the eight to 12 age group. Amazingly, the multi-faceted and celebrated Bharatanatyam guru, K.N. Dhandayuthapani Pillai spotted this gap and created a marvellous varnam ‘Annayai maraven adi’ in Abhogi raga. It narrates the simple and meaningful ways in which parents endear themselves to children. As a pedagogical tool, this was a fabulous eye-opener. Before young students can understand sringara rasa, they can be taught the varnam format. So in many ways, this varnam is one of my top favourites.

I trained under Swarna Saraswathy before taking to the Dhandayuthapani style, learning from his younger brother, guru K.N. Dakshinamoorthy in Delhi. He also taught me nattuvangam and urged me to teach. And that’s how I went on to establish my school Natya Vriksha.

K. N. Dhandayuthapani Pillai
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Over the years, many elements of Dhandayuthapani style have stood me in good stead. Foremost, of course, is the unique jathi theermanams, which are crisp and full of magic in terms of the arresting pauses and karvais, which are effective tools for choreography, and I adapted them to the content that I created later.

The sheer musicality of his varnams is another awesome aspect. Some of the dance abhinaya to the libretto were beautifully linked with matching sangatis — a hallmark of his style. I have transposed this to my teaching pedagogy at Natya Vriksha.

Dhandayuthapani Pillai sir was an amazing poet and composer. I have frequently danced his Karaharapriya varnam, ‘Mohamaaginen’, in which all the pristine varnam emotions are delineated with deep grace and beauty. And Karaharapriya in an evening concert takes the dance experience to another level.

Impact of the Thanjavur Quartet

His understanding of dance imagery imbues the varnam with so many possibilities for the dancer’s creativity. The frequent use of samayam, maaran and the pining nayika in a highly tethered manner reflects the impact the Thanjavur Quartet had on him. But then, his work in films also provided the flashes of both poetic and lyrical genius that makes his varnams eminently danceable.

Another piece which is a must and much-loved by many of us is his Kanada jatiswaram. I had worked with his senior student Usha Srinivasan on this piece and we would often wonder how the korvais would sit so aptly on the cadence of the swaras. The piece for me also had great potential mainly because of its lilting music. I later improvised and visualised it differently. And the end product, which I call Sakhi-Swaram, uses different childhood games to make for an interesting choreography.

Dhandayuthapani Pillai’s ragamalika thillana is another piece which I have cherished. Many of my students have learnt and performed it. The musicality and the appropriateness for dance are both great qualities which sir brings out in this piece. It lends itself to dance patterns and sequences easily because it was composed for dance. Hence the beauty of the format of a thillana for Bharatanatyam comes across superbly.

The writer is a well-known Bharatanatyam artiste.