Kuchipudi (/kuːtʃiˈpuːdi/)( Telugu: కూచిపూడి) is one of the eight major Indian classical dances.[2] It originates from a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.[3]
Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with it’s roots in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text of Natya Shastra.[4][5][6] It developed as a religious art linked to traveling bards, temples and spiritual beliefs, like all major classical dances of India.[7] Evidence of Kuchipudi's existence in an older version are found in copper inscriptions of the 10th century, and by the 15th century in texts such as the Machupalli Kaifat.[8][9] Kuchipudi tradition holds that Tirtha Narayana Yati – a sanyassin of Advaita Vedanta persuasion,[10] and his disciple, an orphan named Siddhendra Yogi, founded and systematized the modern version of Kuchipudi in the 17th century.[11][12][13] Kuchipudi largely developed as a Krishna-oriented Vaishnavism tradition,[14] and it is known by the name of Bhagavata Mela in Thanjavur.[8]
The traditional Kuchipudi was performed by all males troupe. A dancer in a male role would be in Agnivastra, also known as Bagalbandi, wear a dhoti (a single pleated piece of cloth hanging down from the waist).[15][16] A dancer in a female role would wear a Sari with light makeup.[16]
The Kuchipudi performance usually begins with an invocation. Then, each costumed actor is introduced, their role stated, and they then perform a short preliminary dance set to music (dharavu). Next, the performance presents pure dance (nritta).[17] This is followed with by the expressive part of the performance (nritya), where rhythmic hand gestures help convey the story.[17][18] Vocal and instrumental Carnatic music in the Telugu language accompanies the performance.[19] The typical musical instruments in Kuchipudi are mridangam, cymbals, veena, flute and the tambura.[20]
The popularity of Kuchipudi has grown within India, and it is performed worldwide.Kuchipudi, like other classical dance forms in India, traces its roots to the Sanskrit Natya Shastra, a foundational treatise on the performing arts.[4][5] Its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE,[27][28] but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.[29] The most studied version of the Natya Shastra text consists of about 6000 verses structured into 36 chapters.[27][30] The text, states Natalia Lidova, describes the theory of Tāṇḍava dance (Shiva), the theory of rasa, of bhāva, expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, standing postures – all of which are part of Indian classical dances.[27][31] Dance and performance arts, states this ancient text,[32] are a form of expression of spiritual ideas, virtues and the essence of scriptures.[33]
The dance-drama tradition in Andhra Pradesh is of ancient origins, and the region is mentioned in the Natya Shastra. Bharata Muni credits a graceful movement to Andhra region and discusses it as Kaishiki vritti. The pre-2nd century CE text calls one raga as Andhri, that is from Andhra.[34] The Andhri, is related to Gandhari and Arsabhi, and is discussed in many other 1st millennium Sanskrit texts.[35] Some, state Bruno Nettle and others, place the origins of Kuchipudi to 3rd century BCE.[15]
Dance-drama performance arts related to Shaivism, in Telugu-speaking parts of South India, are evidenced in 10th-century copper inscriptions, and these were called Brahmana Melas or Brahma Melas.[8][36] The medieval era dance-drama performance artists were Brahmins.[37][38] This art was likely adopted by the musical and dancing Bhakti traditions of Vaishnavism which grew in the 2nd millennium, whose devotees were called Bhagavatulu in Andhra region and Bhagavatars in Tamil region of south India.[8] In Andhra, this performance art evolved into Kuchipudi, while in Tamil Nadu it became known as Bhagavata Mela Nataka.[8] According to Saskia Kersenboom, both the Telugu Kuchipudi and Tamil Bhagavata Mela are strongly related to the classical Hindu dance tradition of Yakshagana found in Karnataka, all three involve Carnatic music, but these dance-drama traditions have differences such as in costumes, structure, interpretation and creative innovations.[15]
According to Manohar Varadpande, the Kuchipudi dance emerged in the late 13th century, when Ganga rulers from Kalinga were patrons of performance arts based on the 12th-century Sanskrit scholar Jayadeva, particularly the Gita Govinda.[4] This royal sponsorship, states Varadpande, encouraged many poets and dance-drama troupes to adopt Radha-Krishna themes into the then prevailing versions of classical Kuchipudi.[4] These were regionally called Vaishnava Bhagavatulu.[4]
The modern version of Kuchipudi is attributed to Tirtha Narayanayati, a 17th-century Telugu sanyasin of Advaita Vedanta persuasion and particularly his disciple, a Telugu Brahmin[15] orphan named Sidhyendra Yogi.[40][39][41][note 1] Tirtha Narayanayati authored Sri Krishna Leela Tarangini and introduced sequences of rhythmic dance syllables at the end of the cantos, he wrote this work as a libretto for a dance-drama.[10] Narayanayati lived for a while in the Tanjore district and presented the dance-drama in the Tanjore temple.[10]
Narayanayati's disciple, Sidhyendra Yogi, followed up with another play, the Parijatapaharana,[note 2] more commonly known as the Bhama Kalapam.[42][note 3] When Sidhyendra Yogi finished the play, he had trouble finding suitable performers.[40][43] So he went to Kuchelapuram, the village of his wife’s family and present-day Kuchipudi, where he enlisted a group of young Brahmin boys to perform the play.[40][43][46] According to the tradition, Sidhyendra requested and the villagers agreed to perform the play once a year, and this came to be known as Kuchipudi.[40][43][46]
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