Indian Classical Dance: A Sacred Art?

Abstract

Is Indian classical dance a sacred art? A great many people tend to assume that the temple origin of the dance ensures that a sense of the sacred and a link with religion continues to shape its practice. In this brief paper, however, the author rejects this position, arguing that Indian classical dance has not been a sacred art for well over a century, due to the process of modernisation it underwent throughout the 20th century. The nostalgia attached to the notion of classical dance as a Hindu ‘sacred’ art is one example of a more widespread appropriation of Indian arts by contemporary socio-political agendas. Indian classical dance can however be a vehicle for modern spirituality, understood to be detached from any specific religious affiliation, and no longer dependent on tradition, but predicated on a modern subjectivity and on the performer's and audience's agency and interaction.