Notes on the Relationship of Music and Dance in India

Abstract

making, and the art of music before he learnt the art of the dance; he added that rhythm (tila) was basic to them all. This story is significant from the point of view of the Indian arts, since it points towards the inter-relationship of the arts not on the level of the aesthetic experience alone, but also that of technique. The aim of the Indian artists, in the field of literature (Sahitya), sculpture (Silpa), painting (Chitrakala), music (Sahgita) and dance (Nritya), has been the evocation of a state of mind (often termed sentiment'-Rasa). The smallest units of space, colour, sound, movement have been recognized in India for their emotive content and their related Rasa, Sthiyi Bh~va (permanent states) and Sanchiri Bhiva (transitory states). The aesthetic theory of the ancients was only a codification of a principle already in practice and the artist very consciously and deliberately employed this complex technique in his art. In Indian dance and Indian music, the continuity of this practice has been preserved, as it has not been in the other arts in India. If we analyze the constituents of the Indian, particularly of South Indian, dance, we discover that the Indian dance combines, in one art form, the techniques of several other art forms. It takes a piece of poetry, which has its particular Rasa, Sthayi Bhiva, etc. and this piece of poetry, narrative or lyric, is set to music in a particular Raga (melody) and a particular Tdla (metrical cycle): the tala and the more particularly the raga also has its particular rasa, sthiyi bh~va, etc.: Each note of the melody and each word of the poem have to synchronize with each other and with the single aim of evoking a particular emotive state (the rasa). The dancer pursues the same aim in her interpretation of this poetry and this riga through movement. The poses she strikes are sculpturesque, not only because she holds a stance in a given point of time, but also because through a succession of these she realizes the moods and attributes of gods and goddesses, as laid down in iconography. Her treatment of space is similar to the sculptor's and each single unit of movement of the human form is significant in so far as it is related to the ultimate objective of evoking the particular emotive state (Rasa). There are thus points of contact between the Indian arts where two arts become one and indistinguishable. The sculptor captures a movement in static form and the dancer gives movement to the static form; indeed it is often said that the Indian dance is a continuous stringing together of many static poses. Music organizes sound to create a particular aesthetic state; dance does the same through the human form. To this end, the dancer makes use of the achievements of sculpture, literature and music. The relationship of Indian music with Indian dance has to be viewed and analyzed in this context. We know that the superstructure of musical composition is built by Svares (notes in an octave) which are charged with