Address at the Valedictory Function of Rukmini Devi Arundale Birth Centenary Celebrations

Music and Dance Elevate the Minds

I am indeed delighted to participate in the Valedictory function of the Rukmini Devi Arundale Birth Centenary celebrations. I greet the organizers, distinguished artists, art lovers and participants. As a part of the centenary celebrations, the Kalakshetra has organized number of dance and music performances by the alumni of this institution and other well-known artists during the last one year. It was a beautiful thing to see that many of the disciples who have deep respect for the work of Rukmini Devi participated in the Kalakshetra programme and paid homage to her. Shri R Venkataraman will always be remembered for his contribution in providing continuity to Rukmini Devi s work on art and culture. I am also delighted to see that two books are being released today which provides an insight into the work of Rukmini Devi.

Rukmini Devi's multi-dimensional contribution

Rukmini Devi Arundale belonged to the select galaxy of Indians who had been able to strongly influence the opinions beliefs and led to actions for the society. She has made commendable impact on performing arts, development of weaving patterns and design of sarees, kalamkari printing. She innovated, improved and modernized each one of these items and made people see the use and duty in them. Rukmini Devi was a multi-faceted personality and indeed a phenomenon of the 20th century.

Rukmini Devi entered into the arena of dance and music when she was around 30. The divinity of Bharatanatyam and its generating capacity of happiness were not visible to the common man and parents were shunning away their children from the divine art. To change the situation Rukmini Devi learnt dancing herself and started the institute Kalakshetra to teach dancing. She had tremendous difficulty in motivating parents from sending their children to her institute. To overcome this situation she developed the concept of dance-drama. She had enacted 26 dance dramas and we can say that she is a pioneer in this field. Some of her famous dance drama s are Kutrala Kuravanchi , Kalidasa s Kumara Sambhavam and Valmiki Ramanayanam in 6 parts. The idea of dance drama was to inject the divinity of the dance and portray it as a part of the story. This technique worked well and people started sending their children to Kalakshetra for learning. Added to this it also preserved and highlighted the mythological elements contained in our literature.

Kalakshetra Institution

Today, Kalakshetra has an intake of 35 to 40 children every year for a four-year course in dance or music. The entry is at the 10th class level and they are awarded a diploma in dance or music. They have an aptitude test to select the students and the students are kept under probation for a period of one year. If the student is not able to show consistent performance, they are advised to take up the field of their choice. Dance theory, Yoga, Music, Telugu, Sanskrit and Tamil are compulsory for these students. During the four-year period they graduate to conduct a dance programme, teach Bharatanatyam independently and perform a solo for at least three hours. With this qualification all the students are able to find a placement immediately after completion of the course. Another important point I found was the funds for running of this institution was generated through the performance of the dance drama by Rukmini Devi Arundale and her team. This was progressing satisfactorily for many years. However, after her passing away in 1986, the Kalakshetra found difficulty in arranging funds for the running of the institution. It is heartening to note the department of culture has taken over this institution through an Act of Parliament and now they are providing the funds for this noble cause.

In addition to the above she has been the force behind revival of crafts education for women, revival of old pattu Saris, Kalamkari natural dyes which are being run as vocational course in Kalakshetra even today. I would suggest these courses can be added with modern technology for creating small scale enterprises in our village complex for providing employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to the rural population and also the poorer section in the small towns.

Contribution to Animal world

Rumi's poem aptly reflects the great mission of Rukmini Devi,

Angel is free because of his knowledge,

The beast because of his ignorance,

Between the two remains the son of man to struggle

Rukmini Devi worked for elevating the human minds. At the same time she showed extreme kindness to animals. Her compassion for animal world found expression in the Bill for prevention of cruelty to animals which she moved as a Private Member and got it passed by both Houses of Parliament and made it an Act of the Republic. It was the first Private Member s Bill to be passed by our Republic. Her speech moving for the consideration of the Bill is one of the best pieces of Parliamentary eloquence. She spoke virtually from her heart.

Human Resource Development

She has been a great educationist. Child development was her passion. She was responsible for instituting the Montessori system of education in India for the first time. Kalakshetra today is running Basant Arundale Senior Secondary School and Basant Theosophical High School for plus two and tenth class respectively. These schools in addition to the regular curriculum are imparting value based education and provide facilities for the children to learn fine arts like dance, music and painting after the normal school hours. Education without fear and art with decency was her motto. Students from all over India and abroad are coming to Kalakshetra for learning this art. It is interesting to note that at least 10 to 12 students are coming every year to pursue their studies here from abroad. As far as India is concerned students are coming from all regions.

Rukmini Devi Arundale has definitely brought a special place to Bharatanatyam in performing art through education, research in Dance, Music and Drama. Due to her pioneering effort in preserving and practicing this art, it is being taught and researched in many universities in the country. The message she gives in all her thoughts and actions is that Bharatanatyam is a lovable art, a noble and a divine profession. With this nobility, there was great rush in the later part of 20th century from young people to take up the study of Bharatanatyam, which enhanced the physical and spiritual dimensions of the individual.

Beyond the details of her contributions to music, dance and education which were phenomenal she has been a forerunner of a movement to assert the magnificent role that women can play to shape modern India. She did it by positive actions in a major scale and a mighty force. I would particularly appeal to young people to draw inspiration from such great souls and achieve many path-breaking peaks of excellence not only in music and art but also in several other fields where women have not yet entered.

Art, Music, Dance, Drama for Unity of minds

I had the opportunity of witnessing to great exponents of music and dance. The experience of listening and seeing them leads me to the think that whether music and dance can be used as a tool for ensuring global peace and act as a binding force. In recent years, terrorism is taking a heavy toll of many innocent lives. I was thinking whether there is any alternative solution other than military, economic and judicial approach to end this problem. I am now convinced that one of the important tools in our country could be music and dance for containing terrorism. Fortunately, we have a rich civilisational heritage of 5000 years blending literature, music, dance and dramatics.

Can music and dance bind the hearts when the minds are disturbed and hearts are heavy Answer seems to be a positive "yes". It can. In 1962 when India suffered a set back in the Indo Chinese conflict and the people of India were at its lowest. At that time many groups of musicians and artists went to the warfront close to our borders and gave musical and dance drama performances, which gave strength to the troubled hearts and elevated the spirits of the troops and the people of a nation. But what is now required is to use the same music and dance to remove hatred from the mind and to disarm those who stockpile terrorist tools to attack the innocent.

The need of the hour is the Unity of Minds and hearts not only within our country but also universally. In my opinion music and dance can play a balancing note and unify the mind for a harmonious living cutting across geographical boundaries.

When I was studying about Rukmini Devi and her contributions, I found many contemporary personalities who were working in different areas of Arts, Drama, Dance, Music and Philosophy, which I would like to share with you.

Contemporaries of Rukmini Devi Arundale

During the period Rukmini Devi Arundale was working to uplift the cause of Bharatanatyam, Uday Shankar had earned great respect for Indian dance by succeeding in placing it on the world map in 1930 s. At the same time, the poet Vallathol in Kerala was inspiring people to re-establish the Kathakali dance-dramas and Madame Menaka was bringing prestige to Kathak, which till then was called Nautch, by establishing her dance school in Khandala near Mumbai. This was the same period when philosopher J. Krishnamoorthy taught that truth couldn t be reached by any path, religion or sect. To find it, the seeker must strive to ascend to it through self-effort. It is possible by casting aside past conditioning, and stilling thought that impedes awareness of what is.

I was asking myself, when we are paying our tribute to the pioneering work done by Rukmini Devi Arundale what our present generation can do to further the cause of this art form in the present context. Now I am reminded of my younger days in Rameshwaram.

Contribution of artists and poets in India's first vision

Way back in 1941, I had heard a beautiful song sung by village folks among themselves. Even we school boys used to sing it together amongst ourselves. Today I would like to share with you that song, which goes like this:

That means, let us sing, let us dance that we have achieved our freedom, a hard earned freedom. It is time now that we "Build our nation". This had become the patriotic song, which ignited the minds of many young people to participate in the freedom. On the day we got the freedom, this was the song, which engulfed the whole India with happiness. An outstanding Bharatanatyam dancer, Kamala became a sensation with her dancing on the screen of this patriotic song sung by Pattammal.

Similarly there were many poets who sang patriotic songs in many languages and inspired the people to work for our independence. A unique movement of revival of classical dances had begun and dancers were attempting to discover our classical dance heritage and tradition. This was but natural in a period when the spirit of nationalism was awakening with the freedom movement, and Indians were taking legitimate pride in their indigenous arts in the face of alien rule. This is the time Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore s composition Jana Gana Mana was first sung on December 27, 1911.

Conclusion

With this background, I have a dream which I am sure can take a shape with the support of this audience and institutions like Kalakshetra. Just like Subramanya Bharatiar, Rabindranath Tagore, inspired this nation towards the freedom movement through their poetry and Rukmini Devi brought back the glory of Bharatanatyam, I would like to see the present day artists, in Bharatanatyam, Carnatic Music, Hindustani Music, and the poets of our nation should collectively create a theme in their visulisation of India achieving the second vision that is developed India. They should envision and imagine our young people living in a prosperous India, living in a safe India and living in a happy and developed India. If all of you convert this into action, the nation will be ever thankful to all the artists and the divine souls of Rukmini Devi Arundale, Rabindranath Tagore and Subramanya Bharatiyar will pour their blessings on them for transforming their vision into a reality.

Wish you all the best.