Kerala

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Apr 142012
 

Although leaving the state of Tamil Nadu and entering Kerala seems in many ways like going from Arizona into California with all the requisite inspections, the differences are more dramatic. Kerala is lush, green and mountainous region/state whose government places a huge emphasis on environmental impact for all political and business decisions. The absence of litter, garbage and signage is astounding in comparison to the majority of Tamil Nadu. Population in the ghats (mountains) is less dense than in the cities and so litter is not as big a challenge as in the population centers like Kochin.

Tourism is Tamil Nadu’s major industry attracting both Indian and international visitors. Heavy taxation supports many social programs and one the highest literacy rates in India. As we were driving up into the mountains, we passed a small convoy of bullock pulled carts that our driver explained were smugglers who have ancient rights that allow them to circumvent the laws particularly those pertains to interstate transport.

 

In part because it is such a pleasant and comparatively tranquil area, Kerala is a mecca for traditional India arts including dance.  A recent Sunday New York Times Arts article explained that India has at least eight schools of dance that have been officially labeled classical (as well as innumerable folk forms). India’s 20th century of complex political and social history brought most of these forms close to extinction by the 1950s.

Schools of dance in the past were connected to female temple dancers known as devadasis. This legendary caste was surrounded in moral controversies (some were concubines, some were vowed to chastity, some dwindled into prostitution) and now are all essentially defunct. Classical dance forms today are revitalized and well established;they’ve been extensively reconstructed—and inevitably altered—during the last century. Odissi, which came the closest to total oblivion, evolved in the state of Orissa on India’s east coast.

Undergoing a renaissance, Odissi currently is strong. What’s special about Odissi? Its most distinguishing features are its sensuous shifts of weight (creating a series of S-bend curves primarily at knee, torso, and neck), its rhythmic phrasing and its connection to ancient sculptural depictions of dance. Like many of the traditional dance forms of Southeast Asia it derives from the Natya Shastra, the treatise on the performing arts written between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. Many of these bas-reliefs bear a point-for-point resemblance to the way today’s Odissi dancers move. Yet this ancient form is also a new one. Though once its greatest exponents were the devadasis, their art had dwindled largely to music making by the early 20th century. A separate Odissi lineage was (and remains) that of the gotipuas, boys trained until puberty to dance women’s roles and to perform acrobatic feats and tableaus (it was startling to see two of these troupes rehearsing in Orissa), and a third Odissi strain was a folk tradition. Core features have been codified only in living memory and are still subject to debate. Certainly Odissi’s range and rich beauties deserve to be called classical. Like several other classical forms in India, it has large capacities both for pure form (nritta) and for poetically dramatic expression (abhinaya). At Nrityagram it’s spellbinding, in the abhinaya sections, to watch the dancers’ facial mobility and rapt gestural communicativeness.


Making Tracks to Madurai…

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Apr 092012
 


A travel day with stops at a Dalit village and women’s’ cooperative, a Dravidian temple and a Chettiara town, we continue to Madurai, the second-largest city in the state of Tamil Nadu.

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Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. An important Hindu pilgrimage site, Madurai is a temple city that draws streams of worshippers to prayer ceremonies everyday. Madurai’s recorded history goes back to the 3rd century BC and the city is mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India. It was annexed by the British East India Company in 1801.

Meenakshi temple complex in Madurai is one of the largest and certainly one of the most ancient. According to legend Madurai is the actual site where the wedding between Shiva and Meenakshi took place. The gigantic temple complex,the statues exploring the entire range of human emotions,everything here is larger than life. The structures that are standing today date mostly from the twelfth to the eighteenth century.



We take tuktuks to the bustling marketplaces in the evening. All streets merge concentrically like lotus petals around Sundareswarar Meenakshi, the glorious fortress-like Hindu temple in the center of the city. Meenakshi’s is vividly colored and the labyrinthine grounds are dedicated to the Hindu Lord Shiva who, as legend has it, descended on Madurai to bless the city during its first days, and showered divine nectar down from his locks. Thus Madurai’s original name was the “City of Divine Nectar.”

Inland to Tajore…

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Apr 082012
 

We headed inland from Pondicherry toward Tanjore taking back roads through small villages and varied agriculture–rice fields, lentils, sugar cane, pepper, banana to name just a few. Lots of stops along the way.

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Tanjore

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Apr 082012
 

Yet another temple but it turns out to be more spectacular than any thus far. We get out early before the intense heat to visit Brihadisvara dedicated to Lord Shiva and the most powerful symbol of the Chola empire. This temple is the pinnacle of what we have seen thus far combining later technological developments in architecture, sculpture, painting and bronze casting. Built a thousand years ago it is still an active temple today filled with worshippers dressed in their finest praying and practicing in many different ways.

Up until 1600, the time at which both this, the Thirumalai Naicker Palace and its sibling temple, Brihadisvara temple were built,  maharajas left their legacy by building temples ONLY to glorify deities.  However both of these fabulous structures reflect European influence and have a stunning fusion of diverse architectural influences, including Italian, Dravidian and Islamic.  It was here in Tajore and Madurai and in Northern India reigning maharajas developed their “edifice complexes” and started constructing homes to impress.

Additions of outer walls were done about the same time as the Taj Mahal in northern India, Brihadisvara is a living temple dedicated to worship of Shiva and his wife Parvati.



After the Maharajas death this enormous palace designed by an Italian architect, was never occupied by his heirs and fell into disrepair. Today only a few of the main halls remain but provide a glimpse of the grandeur that once was.



The main temple is part of a compound with two enormous arched gates adding to the grandeur.

About a mile away is the Maharaja’s palace built to look like the temple which today is a wonderful museum filled with exquisite bronze sculptures and stone carvings.

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Pondicherry

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Apr 062012
 

Though very small, Pondicherry was the largest French colony in India. The city has a long and interesting history of trade and war. Even now there is a strong French influence in the city, especially in the old quarters, with Rues and Boulevards lined with Mediterranean style houses and bakeries. About 400 people hold dual citizenship today.  French is still understood and most busy vegetable vendors this morning greeted us with
Bonjour. The whole city is a colorful eclectic mix of East and West.
Pondicherry was designed  on the French (originally Dutch) grid pattern and features neat sectors and perpendicular streets. The town is divided into two sections: the French Quarter (Ville Blanche or ‘White town’) and the Indian quarter (Ville Noire or ‘Black Town’). Many streets still retain their French names, and French style villas are a common sight. In the French quarter, the buildings are typically colonial style with long compounds and stately walls.

Ville Blanche is dominated by well maintained prime properties painted taupe and trimmed in white. These are all part of the Aurobindo Ashram complex founded by Sir Aurobindo Ghosh in the mid-1920s.  The main building comprises the houses of Shri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mirra Alfassa, a French woman who accepted Aurobindo as her spiritual mentor and guide and later became his most important disciple).   The samadhis of Aurobindo and The Mother are in the courtyard where their mortal remains have been enshrined.  The complex stands out, in part because of the meticulous maintenance and because it dominates virtually every block in the French quarter. About 4,000 followers are part of the present communal and meditative community. It was in “flower power” hippie period of the sixties that was their halcyon decade of growth and domination. When the founding Bengali guru Aurobindo Ghosh died a few years ago the commune splintered into three factions and interests were divided. The headquarters, garden and school are flower filled sanctuaries for the meditators as well as visitors.