A North Indian Classical Dance Form: Lucknow Kathak

Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, Spring 2003 by Lalli, Gina

The word 'Kathak' now refers to a school of dancing and 'Kathak dancer' to a practitioner of that school. The old word kathak (story-telling, composition) is a Sanskrit word, as is kathaka, which means 'narrator' or 'one who recites'. Both words refer to a tradition of dramatic recitation, utilizing gestures and musical accompaniment, of religious teachings still practiced in the temples of India.1 The main schools of Kathak originated in Lucknow, Benares, Jaipur and (later on), Lahore. These schools have a general form in common, but they differ in emphasis of some facet of the dance form. Lucknow Kathak is noted for its development of the pantomimic part of the dance and for its balance between storytelling and more abstract aspects of the dance having no stories attached to them.

It would be difficult to trace the history of Lucknow Kathak with any accuracy beyond the past one hundred fifty years. It is known that in the early nineteenth century, two brothers, Thakur and Durga Prasad, migrated to Lucknow from Rajastan or Jodhpur (from Khokar 1959 and Birju Maharaj2). The then ruler of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah, was a great patron of the arts who, recognizing Durga Prasad's mastery as a dancer and musician, invited him to be his court musician and dance teacher.

According to Birju Marharaj, Durga Prasad taught the dance to his own sons, Kalkadin and Bindadin. The brothers were devoted, together deciding that only one of them would marry so that the other, free from the economic responsibilities of marriage, could spend his life in the practice and teaching of Kathak. Kalkadin married, and his three sons became the disciples of Bindadin.

It is said that Bindadin practiced Kathak as a religious devotion and had visions of Krishna while he danced. He is spoken of with reverence by Kathak dancers, and his songs about Krishna are favorite subjects of pantomime in Lucknow Kathak repertory today.

Kalkadin's sons; Aachhan, Lachhu and Shambhu Nath, acquired renown as dancers in the twentieth century. The respectful title, 'Maharaj' came to be attached to their names by lovers of the art. Aachhan Maharaj taught in Lucknow, Shanbhu Marharaj in Lucknow and New Delhi and Lachhu Maharaj in Bombay. Aachan Maharaj's son, Birju Mohan (Birju Maharaj) is the principal exponent of Lucknow Kathak today. Birju taught at the Kathak Kendra in New Delhi for several years, but is now teaching in his own school.

Originally, Kathak is believed to have been a religious dance similar in character to the other classical dance styles of India which are still closely associated with religious ritual. However, because of the patronage of rulers of the Moghul courts, Kathak has undergone extensive development into a more secular form that emphasizes lyrical pure dance designs, virtuosi footwork and sensuous expressions of love themes.

Although Kathak today is a theater art, it draws its themes and inspiration from the literature of Vaishnavism (that branch of Hinduism devoted to Vishnu as an all-encompassing god), including the two great epic dramas, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. It also draws from the Puranas (ancient stories of the gods) and from the devotional love-poetry of medieval India. The sacred and human loves of Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) and his beloved disciple (the milkmaid, Radha), are inextricably woven into the fabric of the Kathak dance.

The antiquity of Kathak can be appreciated with regard to its use of hand gestures (hastas or mudras) that are described in the Bharata Natya Shastra, a treatise dating from the second century BCE, although in Kathak, the hand-gestures are less stylized, being somewhat more 'naturalistic' than their descriptions in the Natya Sastra. The dance is also influenced by the literary works of medieval scholars that finely depict different types of heroes, heroines and their relationships. This type of literature was at first secular, later on developing religious overtones when the hero-figure was identified with Krishna. The first poetic work of this kind to show Krishna as hero was the Rasika Priya of Keshava Das, written in 1591 (see Coomeraswamy 1914).

The Krishna of the medieval period took on a curious ambivalence of character, combining superhuman characteristics of a spiritual teacher and god with a human lover, which is reflected in the figure of Krishna in the Kathak dance. Archer (1957: 92) might well be describing the essence of Lucknow Kathak when he says, "Adoration of God acquires the grace and charm of courtly loving, passionate sensuality and all the refinement and nobility of a spiritual religion."

Another possible source of inspiration for Kathak is the ecstatic songs and dances performed by the devotees of Krishna, the Bhaktas (people who practice devotional love of Krishna) of North India. Their songs of the divine lovers are similar in content and feeling to the mimed episodes of Radha and Krishna depicted in Kathak dancing. Jnanadas, a Bengali poet of the fifteenth century, describes in a song a scene which is depicted with many variations in Lucknow Kathak: