Kathak

The term Kathak is rooted in the Vedic term Katha ({{langx|sa|कथा}}) which means "story, conversation, traditional tale".{{cite book|author=Reena Shah|title=Movement in Stills: The Dance and Life of Kumudini Lakhia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSKU2DROHMgC&pg=PA8|year=2006|publisher=Mapin |isbn=978-81-88204-42-7 |pages=8 }}{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch |url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8 |pages=358–359 }} Kathak refers to one of the major classical dance forms primarily found in northern India, with a historical influence similar to Bharatanatyam in south India, Odissi in east India and other major classical dances found in South Asia. It differs from the numerous folk dance forms found in the north and other parts of the Indian subcontinent.{{cite book|author=Martin Banham|title=The Cambridge Guide to Theatre|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh|url-access=registration|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-43437-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh/page/522 522]–525}}

The Kathak dancers, in the ancient India, were traveling bards and were known as Kathakas, or Kathakar.{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=5 }}{{cite book|author1=Bruno Nettl|author2=Ruth M. Stone, James Porter and Timothy Rice|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia : the Indian subcontinent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOlNv8MAXIEC |year=1998|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-8240-4946-1|pages=493–494}}

Kathak has inspired simplified regional variants, such as the Bhavai – a form of rural theatre focussing on the tales of Hindu goddesses (Shakti), and one which emerged in the medieval era, is presently found in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.{{cite book|author=Martin Banham|title=The Cambridge Guide to Theatre|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh |url-access=registration|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-43437-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh/page/103 103]–104 }} Another variant that emerged from ancient Kathak is Thumri.

Thumri was developed by the tawaif community who were called "nautch" dancers by the British.  Their history as Kathak dancers have been erased in modern India Pallabi Chakravorty. (2008).{{Cite book|last=Chakravorty|first=Pallabi|title=Bells Of Change: Kathak Dance, Women And Modernity In India|publisher=Seagull|year=2008|isbn=978-1905422487|location=India}}"Bells Of Change: Kathak Dance, Women And Modernity In India", also see "The Tawaif And The Item Girl: A Struggle For Identity" {{Cite book|last=Munsi, Chakraborty|first=Urmimala Sankar, Aishika|title=The Moving Space: Women in Dance|publisher=Primus Books|year=2017|isbn=978-9386552501|pages=65–80}}

File:Sharmila Sharma et Rajendra Kumar Gangani 2.jpg (November 2007)|alt=|left]]

{{Quote box | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right

|quote= Performance arts and culture

Let Nātya (drama and dance) be the fifth vedic scripture.

Combined with an epic story,

tending to virtue, wealth, joy and spiritual freedom,

it must contain the significance of every scripture

and forward every art.

|source =— Nātyaśāstra 1.14–15{{Cite web|title=Natyashastra|publisher = Sanskrit Documents| url=http://sanskritdocuments.org/all_pdf/natya01.pdf}}{{cite web|title=The Mirror of Gesture|author=Coormaraswamy and Duggirala|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1917|page=4|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924012568535#page/n5/mode/2up}}; Also see chapter 36}}

According to Mary Snodgrass, the Kathak tradition of India is traceable to 400 BCE.{{cite book|author=Mary Ellen Snodgrass|title=The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMGpDAAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-5749-8 |pages=xxii, 165 }} The earliest surviving text with Kathak roots is the Natya Shastra, attributed to sage Bharata. Its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE,{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=xxiv, 19–20}} but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.{{Sfn|Wallace Dace|1963|p=249}}

The most studied version of the Natya Shastra text consists of about 6000 verses structured into 36 chapters.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=1–25}} 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 including Kathak.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001}}{{cite book|author1=Cheris Kramarae|author2=Dale Spender|title=Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAOUAgAAQBAJ |year=2004|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-96315-6|page=296}} Dance and performance arts, states this ancient Hindu text,{{cite book|author=Guy L. Beck|title=Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UzUMCAAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-61117-108-2|pages=138–139 |quote=Quote: "A summation of the signal importance of the Natyasastra for Hindu religion and culture has been provided by Susan Schwartz, "In short, the Natyasastra is an exhaustive encyclopedic dissertation of the arts, with an emphasis on performing arts as its central feature. It is also full of invocations to deities, acknowledging the divine origins of the arts and the central role of performance arts in achieving divine goals (...)".}} are a form of expression of spiritual ideas, virtues and the essence of scriptures.{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=ix }}, Quote: "Like other Indian classical dance forms, Kathak also lays claim to ancient roots and a genesis as a temple dance or religious story telling method, and many dancers both in India and the diaspora will explain their art form in its purest state as a devotional activity, a type of sadhana or spiritual practice".

The 2nd century BC panels found in Bharhut show the dancers in a vertical stance with their arms' positions already suggesting today's Kathak movements. Most of the dancers have one arm near the ear in a pataka hasta (Mudra). In subsequent years, the hasta was lowered to the bust level.{{Cite book|title=Rhythmic Echos and Reflections KATHAK|last=Narayan|first=Shovana|publisher=Roli Books Pvt Ltd|year=1998|isbn=8174360492|location=India}}

The term Kathakas in the sense of "storytellers" appears in ancient Hindu texts, such as the Mahabharata:

{{Blockquote|

{{lang|sa|वेदवेदाङ्गविद्वांसस्तथैवाध्यात्मचिन्तकाः।

चौक्षाश्च भगवद्भक्ताः सूताः पौराणिकाश्च ये॥२॥

कथकाश्चापरे राजञ्श्रमणाश्च वनौकसः।

दिव्याख्यानानि ये चापि पठन्ति मधुरं द्विजाः॥३॥}}

Followed by the scholars of the Vedas and Vedangas, and by those who ponder on their soul,

by persons skilled in music, by the devotees of Bhagavata, (...)

by Kathakas (reciters of the sacred lore), by dwellers of forests, (...)

by those who sweetly recite celestial histories.

|Adi Parva CCVI.2-3 | Mahabharat, Book 1{{cite book|author=J.A.B. van Buitenen|title=The Mahabharata, Volume 1: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pPVJCgAAQBAJ |year=2011|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-21754-3|page=500}}{{refn|group=note|The verse number is of the critical edition used by JAB van Buitenen. There are many manuscripts of the Mahabharata, and in some versions such as the one translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1894, this verse is found in his chapter 226.}}}}

Bards, actors, dancers, songsters and musical reciters of legends and stories are mentioned hundreds of times in the Hindu Epics.{{cite book|author=J.A.B. van Buitenen|title=The Mahabharata, Volume 1: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pPVJCgAAQBAJ |year=2011|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-21754-3|pages=20–28, 55–58, 122–125, 170, 285, 347, 400}}

Textual studies suggest that "Kathak" as a classical dance form likely started in Banares (Varanasi) and from there migrated northwest to Lucknow, Jaipur and other parts of north and northwest India.{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA100|year=2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=100–102 }} The Lucknow tradition of Kathak dance attributes the style to a Bhakti movement devotee named Ishwari from the Handia village in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, who credited Hindu God Krishna appearing in his dream and asking him to develop "dance as a form of worship". Ishwari taught his descendants, who in turn preserved the learning and developments through an oral tradition over six generations ultimately yielding the Lucknow version of the Kathak dance – a family tree that is acknowledged in both Hindu and Muslim music-related Indian literature.

File:Kathak Dancers Namrata Rai & Vishal Krishna.jpg

The evolution in Kathak dance theme during the Bhakti movement centered primarily around divine Krishna, his lover Radha and milkmaids (gopis) – around legends and texts such as the Bhagavata Purana found in the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism. The love between Radha and Krishna became symbolism for the love between Atman (soul within) and the supreme source (Cosmic soul everywhere), a theme that dance ballet and mimetic plays of Kathak artists expressed. Although central Asian influence of Kathak rapid whirls has been proposed, Sangitaratnakara, a 13th-century Sanskrit text on Indian classical music and dance in Chapter 4 mentions a dance movement with rapid whirling around like a wheel keeping the arms in the Dola pose and bending the body inwards called 'Cakramandala' It is employed in worshipping gods and in vigorous movement.{{Cite book|last=srangadeva|url=http://archive.org/details/SangitaRatnakaraChapter4|title=Sangita ratnakara chapter 4}}

The emergence of Raslila, mainly in the Braj region (Mathura in Western U.P.) was an important development. It combined in itself music, dance, and the narrative. Dance in Raslila, however, was mainly an extension of the basic mime and gestures of the Kathakars or story-tellers which blended easily with the existing traditional dance.

With the coming of the Mughals, this dance form received a new impetus. A transition from the temple courtyard to the palace durbar took place which necessitated changes in presentation. In both Hindu and Muslim courts, Kathak became highly stylized and came to be regarded as a sophisticated form of entertainment. Under the Muslims, there was a greater stress on nritya and bhavag - the dance's graceful, expressive and sensuous dimensions.

The Mughal era courts and nobles accepted Kathak as a form of aristocratic entertainment, which low income families were willing to provide.{{cite book|author=Mary Ellen Snodgrass|title=The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMGpDAAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-5749-8 |page=166 }} According to Drid Williams:

{{Blockquote|

It should be remembered that the first Kathak dancers were, after all, Hindus who danced for Moghul overlords. Too much outward expression of religious belief was without doubt undesirable. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the wide use of 'abstract' dancing, intricate bell work (tatkar), dazzling turns and the fleeting, transient, glimpses of Radha and Krishna in Kathak arose both to remind the dancers about their reasons for dancing and (gently, unobtrusively) to deceive their courtly Moghul audiences. Perhaps tatkar and tukras formed the bulk of these first dancers' performances. Gradually more and more images, then stories of Krishna and Radha crept in.

|Drid Williams|Anthropology and the Dance{{Sfn|Williams|2004|p=85}}}}

File:Namrrta Raai (Kathak).jpg Over time, the Kathak repertoire added Persian and Central Asian themes, such as the whirling of Sufi dance, the dress replaced sari with items that bared midriff and included a transparent veil of the type common with medieval Harem dancers.{{cite book|author=Jonathan Gil Harris| year=2015| title=The First Firangis: Remarkable Stories of Heroes, Healers, Charlatans, Courtesans & other Foreigners who Became Indian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4i7BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT149 |publisher=Aleph |isbn=978-9382277637 |pages=149 }}{{cite book|author=Scott Kugle|title=When Sun Meets Moon: Gender, Eros, and Ecstasy in Urdu Poetry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMo3CwAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-2678-9|pages=228–230}} When the colonial European officials began arriving in India, the Kathak court entertainment they witnessed was a synthesis of the ancient Indian tradition and Central Asian-Persian dance form, and the Kathak dance performers were called the "nautch girls" (or natch, a derivative of the more difficult to pronounce Sanskrit natya).

With the expansion of British colonial rule in 19th-century India, Kathak along with all other classical dance forms were discouraged and it went into decline.{{cite book|author=Leslie C. Orr|title=Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F___xKcP8lMC |year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535672-4|pages=11–13}} This was in part the result of the Victorian morality of sexual repressiveness along with Anglican missionaries who criticized Hinduism. Reverend James Long, for example, proposed that Kathak dancers should forget ancient Indian tales and Hindu legends, and substitute them with European legends and Christian tales. Missionaries recorded their frustration in Church Missionary Review when they saw Hindu audiences applaud and shout "Ram, Ram" during Kathak performances.

The seductive gestures and facial expressions during Kathak performances in Temples and family occasions were caricatured in The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood, published at the start of the 20th century, as evidence of "harlots, debased erotic culture, slavery to idols and priests" tradition, and Christian missionaries demanded that this must be stopped, launching the "anti-dance movement" or "anti-nautch movement" in 1892.{{cite book|author=Nalini Ghuman|title=Resonances of the Raj: India in the English Musical Imagination, 1897-1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkVZAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-931489-8 |pages=97 footnote 72 }}{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA94|year=2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=94–98 }} Officials and newspapers dehumanized the Kathak dancers and the sources of patronage were pressured to stop supporting the Kathak performing "nautch girls" (also termed as devadasis and tawa'ifs in mid 20th century literature). Many accused the dance form as a front for prostitution, while revivalists questioned the constructed histories by the colonial writers.{{cite book|author=Leslie C. Orr|title=Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F___xKcP8lMC |year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535672-4|pages=5, 8–17}}{{cite journal|title=The Hindu Temple-dancer: Prostitute or Nun? |author= Amrit Srinivasan|journal= The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology|volume= 8| number= 1 |year =1983| pages= 73–99|jstor=23816342}}

Not only did missionaries and colonial officials ridicule the Kathak dancers, Indian men who had been educated in British institution and had adapted to Victorian prudery joined the criticism, states Margaret Walker, possibly because they had lost their cultural connection, no longer understood the underlying spiritual themes behind the dance, and assumed this was one of the "social ills, immoral and backward elements" in their heritage that they must stamp out. However, the Hindu families continued their private tutoring and kept the Kathak art alive as an oral tradition. Kathak teachers also shifted to training boys to preserve the tradition, as most of the 20th-century ridicule had been directed at Kathak "nautch girls".

Kathak was brought to the attention of audiences outside India in the early 20th century through Kalkaprasad Maharaj.{{cite book|last=Gassner|first=John |author2=Edward Quinn|title=The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama|url=https://archive.org/details/readersencyclope0000gass |url-access=registration|year=2002| publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=0-486-42064-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/readersencyclope0000gass/page/453 453]}}

The movement to end the colonial era and for an independent India, states Walker, also witnessed a revival of Kathak and more broadly, a cultural ferment and effort to reclaim culture and rediscover history.{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA99|year=2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |pages=99–102 }} File:Manisha.JPG]]The Kathak revival movements co-developed in Hindu gharanas, particularly by the Kathak-Misra community. Of these the Jaipur and Lucknow sub-traditions of Kathak have attracted more scholarship.

The oldest Kathak department pat a degree college (university) was formed in 1956 at Indira Kala Sangeet University, a public university located in Khairagarh where Puru Dadheech instated the first Kathak syllabus for degree programs.{{Cite web|url=http://www.iksv.ac.in/department-kathak-dance|title=Department of Kathak Dance | Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya}} It was inspired by the diploma syllabus of Mohanrao Kallianpurkar at Bhatkhande College.{{cite news| url = https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/interview-with-kathak-exponent-subhash-chandra/article7481903.ece| title = In tune with the old world - The Hindu| newspaper = The Hindu| date = 30 July 2015| last1 = Rajan| first1 = Anjana}}

According to a BBC Arts article, Kathak is unique in being practiced by the Muslim community of the India, and thus has a "historical link to Islam."{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2MMxwpfq6Dm0b5ywHRJkwHq/kathak-does-every-gesture-have-a-meaning|title=BBC Arts - Kathak: Does every gesture have a meaning? - BBC Arts|website=BBC|access-date=2017-07-29}} Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, a Muslim and a disciple of Pandit Chitresh Das in the Lucknow school, considers Kathak as a "confluence of Hindu and Muslim cultures", and has presented her performance in Pakistan.{{Cite news|url=https://images.dawn.com/news/1175112|title=Kathak is a confluence of Hindu and Muslim cultures, says Farah Yasmeen Shaikh|last=Noorani|first=Asif|date=2016-04-06|work=Images|access-date=2017-07-29|language=en}} In contrast, states BBC, Nahid Siddiqui (a legendary Kathak dancer from Pakistan, settled and nurtured in the UK), has a hard time practising and presenting her [Kathak] art in her birth-country of Pakistan".

While most scholars consider Kathak as an ancient art, some such as Margaret Walker suggest the modern Kathak is a 20th-century phenomenon, more a form of cultural revival, if one relies on the music-related Indian documents.{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker |title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA8|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-11737-7|page=8}}

File:Kathak 3511900193 986f6440f6 b retouched.jpg]]

A modern Kathak, in all three major sub-traditions called Lucknow, Banares and Jaipur styles (gharana), states Bruno Nettl, consist of three main sections - the invocation, one pure (abstract) dance recital and one expressive dance.

The invocation (vandana) consists of the dancer coming to stage and offering respect to his or her guru and the musicians on the stage. If the team is from the Hindu tradition, the dancer(s) combine facial expressions and hand gestures (mudra) to invoke Hindu gods and goddesses; while a Muslim performance replace the devotional expressions with a salami (salutation).

The pure dance is called a nritta, while the expressive dance is called a nritya.{{cite book|author=Ellen Koskoff|title=The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73MO0eiQD_EC&pg=PA955 |year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-99404-0 |pages=955 }} A Kathak performance can be solo, duo or team. In a technical performance, the speed and energy the dancers exchange with the audience increases in multiples, that is the tempo doubles or quadruples.{{cite book|author=Margaret E. Walker|title=India's Kathak Dance in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC83DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-11737-7 |page=2 }} During the performance, one or more of the Kathak artists may come to the microphone, interact with the audience, explain something, tell an anecdote in a particular language, or rhythmically recite a song.

The dresses of the dancer and the facial cosmetics between a Hindu or Muslim Kathak dance troupe varies. The stage typically is bare with no distracting background, states Williams, with musicians seated on rugs downstage right (audience's left), and if it is a Hindu performance there is an image of dancing Shiva (Nataraja) or a Ganesha on the stage's left with flowers and perfumed incense burning.{{Sfn|Williams|2004|pp=85-86}}{{Refn|group=note|Alternatively, there may be an image of a spiritual leader or someone that the Kathak artists revere.}}

The nritta performance starts off with a thàth sequence, which is a slower graceful movement of wrists, neck and eyebrows. Thereafter, the dancer gradually increases speed and energy, while completing a sequence of bol (mnemonic syllables in Indian tradition). Each bol has short sections, similar to technical exercises in western dance traditions, wherein the dancer engages the audience with tora, tukra, parhant, paran and others stressing footwork, gestures and turns. Each section when completed has a punctuation mark, usually a sharp turn of the head. Each ankle is adorned with small bells (ghungroo), which may have just one bell or hundreds. The dancer's rapid movements and footwork in a nritta is perfectly timed to the musical beats (tala) and tempos, and the footwork sequences are called tatkars.{{cite book|author=Mohan Khokar|title=Traditions of Indian classical dance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=prjnAAAAMAAJ |year=1984|publisher=Clarion Books|pages=136–138 |isbn=9780391032750 }}

Most of the Nritta performance is abstract, fast and rhythmic aspect of Kathak. In a Kathak nritta, as with all classical Indian dance forms, the viewer is presented with pure movement, wherein the emphasis is the beauty in motion, form, speed, range and pattern. It aims to engage the senses (prakriti) of the audience.{{cite book|author=Janet Descutner|title=Asian Dance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8tCYjXOtkdgC |year=2010|publisher=Infobase|isbn=978-1-4381-3078-1|pages=45–46}}

File:Kathak dance India November 2011.jpg

Nritya is slower and expressive aspect of Kathak that attempts to communicate feelings, storyline particularly with spiritual themes in Hindu dance traditions. In a nritya, the dance expands to include words, musical notes and gestures to articulate a legend or message, it is more than sensory enjoyment, it aims to engage the emotions and mind of the viewer.

File:Kathak Solo Performance (15).jpg

The expressiveness of Kathak is also found in other classical dances of India. Its roots are found in the Natyashastra text which defines drama in verse 6.10 as that which aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator, through the medium of actor's art of communication, that helps connect and transport the individual into a super sensual inner state of being.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=3}} The Natya connects through abhinaya (literally, "carrying to the spectators"),{{Sfn|Massey|1999|p=10}} that is applying body-speech-mind and scene, wherein asserts Natyashastra, the actors communicate to the audience, through song and music.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=3}} Drama in this ancient Sanskrit text, thus is an art to engage every aspect of life, in order to glorify and gift a state of joyful consciousness.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=5}} According to Massey, another important ancient text that has influenced Kathak is the Abhinaya Darpanam of Nandikeshvara (~2nd century CE).{{Sfn|Massey|1999|p=10}}

In Kathak, abhinaya is in the form of expressive gestures and pantomime set to music that usually outline a legend or the plot of a well known story. The gestures and facial expressions convey the ras (sentiment, emotional taste) and bhava (mood) of the underlying story.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|p=10}} In the Hindu texts on dance, the guru and the artists successfully express the spiritual ideas by paying attention to four aspects of a performance: Angik (gestures and body language), Vachik (song, recitation, music and rhythm), Aharya (dress, make-up, jewelry), and Satvik (artist's mental disposition and emotional connection with the story and audience, wherein the artist's inner and outer state resonates).{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=10-13}} A Kathak nritya performance, however grants flexibility to the artists and invites improvisation, and it may not be accompanied with a song or recital about the legend.{{Sfn|Kapila Vatsyayan|1974|pp=94, 90-96}} The stories in Kathak performance generally tend to be about the Hindu god Krishna (or in some cases Shiva or Devi), and the stories come from sources such as the Bhagavata Purana, or the Indian Epics. This form of expressiveness is also found in thumri and Persian ghazals.

File:Nahid_Siddiqui.jpg, in Muslim dress]]

The dresses vary among Kathak performers, and find their sources in either Hindu or Muslim culture.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=30-31}}

The Hindu dress for female dancers has two variations.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=30-31}}One is based on a Sari, but is worn in a style different from the customary style that goes over the left shoulder. A Kathak artist generally wraps the sari around the waist and it hangs down from the left.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=30-31}} A blouse called choli covers the upper body.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=30-31}} The artist may wear a scarf (called orhni in some places). Hair, face, ear, neck, hand, wrist and ankle jewellery, typically of gold, may adorn the artist. A tika or bindi in the middle of forehead is common.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=30-31}} The second variation of a Hindu Kathak dancer uses a long, full (just above the ankle), light-weight skirt usually with embroidered border that helps highlight the dance motion. The skirt is contrasted with a different color choli, and a transparent scarf typically drapes over it and the dancer's head. Jewelry is typically present in the second variation.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=30-31}}

The Muslim dress for female dancers also uses a skirt, but includes close fitting churidar pyjamas and sometimes a long coat covering hands and the upper body. The head has a cover scarf and the jewelry is light.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0D3msgEACAAJ|title = The Unity of Music and Dance in World Cultures|isbn = 9780786497157|last1 = Akombo|first1 = David|date = 26 January 2016| publisher=McFarland }}{{Cite web|title=Kathak Dance Requirements {{!}} Kathak Dance Dress {{!}} Kathak Dance Costumes|url=https://fancydressnoida.com/kathak-dress/|access-date=2023-02-13|website=www.fancydressnoida.com}}{{cite book|author=David Akombo|title=The Unity of Music and Dance in World Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ByGCwAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2269-9 |pages=164 }}

The Hindu dress for male Kathak performers is typically a silk dhoti draped around the waist, and covered with a silk scarf tied over the top.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=31-32}} The upper body is usually left bare or with only the Hindu thread, but is sometimes covered with a loose sleeveless jacket. Kathak male artists also wear jewelry, but often of stones and much simpler than the female artists.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=31-32}}

The Mughal dress for male Kathak performers is kurta-churidar. The kurta can be a simple one, or cut as an angarkha. There is also the possibility of adapting the angarkha or kurta for dance to incorporate wider flare in the lower portion. Particularly older variety dress include the small peaked cap too.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

File:Flickr - dalbera - Henri Tournier (spectacle de danse Kathak, musée Guimet).jpg

The ensemble of musical instruments vary with any Kathak performer, ranging from two to twelve classical Indian instruments or more in versions with synthetic innovations. The most common instruments that go with Kathak are tabla (a pair of hand drums) that syncs with the dancer's feet rhythms, sarangi or harmonium with manjira (hand cymbals) that meters the tal (cycle), and other instruments to add effect, depth and structure to the expressive stage of a Kathak performance.{{cite book|author1=Bruno Nettl|author2=Ruth M. Stone, James Porter and Timothy Rice|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia : the Indian subcontinent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOlNv8MAXIEC |year=1998|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-8240-4946-1|pages=331–343}}

The ancient music genre of India, Dhrupad, was re-introduced into Kathak for the first time by India's senior Kathak exponent Mahamahopadhyay Dr. Pandit Puru Dadheech. He is India's first Kathak dancer to bring back 'Dhrupad' on the formal Kathak stage and this composition in 28 matra. Shankar Pralayankar, his Dhrupad composition, has the unique status of regularly being sung in concerts by 'Dhrupad' maestros the Gundecha Brothers.{{Cite web |url=http://www.afternoondc.in/culture/sunil-performs-the-naayak-in-kathak/article_235028 |title=Sunil performs 'the Naayak' in Kathak |access-date=11 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711061813/http://www.afternoondc.in/culture/sunil-performs-the-naayak-in-kathak/article_235028 |archive-date=11 July 2019 |url-status=dead }}

Kathak is a diffuse tradition, of which three gharanas (schools) are more well known and studied – Jaipur, Banares and Lucknow.{{Sfn|Williams|2004|p=83}} The schools place different relative emphasis between aspects of a Kathak performance such as the acting versus footwork. The Lucknow style, for example, emphasizes acting while Jaipur style emphasizes the dance and footwork. Traditionally, the Jaipur gharana has had a strong spiritual flavor, covering a diverse range of ideas in Vaishnavism and Shaivism.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=25-26}}

File:Shovana Narayan.jpg, recipient of the Padma Shri for contributions to Indian classical dance]]

The Jaipur gharana traces its origins to Bhanuji, a famed Shiva Tandava dancer who upon visiting Vrindavan was inspired and taught Natvari Nritya.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=25-26}} Bhanuji's grandons Laluji and Kanhuji were similarly inspired by Krishna. They returned to Jaipur, and together they began the Jaipur gharana of Kathak.{{cite book|author=Ragini Devi|title=Dance Dialects of India|url=https://archive.org/details/dancedialectsofi0000ragi |url-access=registration|year=1990|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0674-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dancedialectsofi0000ragi/page/166 166]–167 }} The Jaipur style developed under the sponsorship of Rajput rulers, and they favored the Kathak dance with Hindu religious themes.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=25-26}} In the modern era, this school has continued their emphasis on dance and footwork with Jai Lal, Janki Prasad, Kundan Lal, Mohan Lal and Nawal Kishore.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=25-26}} This school is best known for its systematic innovations in rhythmic dancing, and the use of dance movement to express a story.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=36-43, 54-55}}

The Lucknow gharana of Kathak dance attributes its origins to a rural Krishna devotee named Ishwari from the village in southeast Uttar Pradesh, who aimed to develop Kathak dance as a form of loving devotion to Krishna. This school thrived after the Mughal Empire collapsed, when Kathak artists moved from Delhi to Lucknow under the sponsorship of Avadh nawabs who favored court dance culture.{{Sfn|Massey|1999|pp=26-28}} In the modern era, the Lucknow gharana style influences the dance school in New Delhi with Shambu Maharaj, Birju Maharaj and Lacchu Maharaj. Kathak choreography there has developed themes beyond Krishna-Radha, such as those based on the drama works of Kalidasa's Shiva-Parvati and Bhavabhuti's Malati-Madhav.{{cite book|author=Ragini Devi|title=Dance Dialects of India|url=https://archive.org/details/dancedialectsofi0000ragi |url-access=registration|year=1990|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0674-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dancedialectsofi0000ragi/page/172 172]–173 }} This school has also attempted a Hindu-Muslim Kathak fusion style, highlighting the court dancers theme.

The Banares gharana is the third major style, traditionally believed to be the oldest. Its history is unclear. According to Kothari, the school started with Janakiprasad from a village near Bikaner who resettled in Varanasi,"Kathak Dance" https://www.auchitya.com/kathak-banaras-gharana/ but one whose ancestors were famed dancers and musicians. Janakiprasad was a dancer and a Sanskrit scholar, and credited with inventing the bols of Kathak, which are mnemonic syllables within the language of this classical dance of India.{{cite book|author=Sunil Kothari|title=Kathak, Indian Classical Dance Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZAbMS6ynGJ8C |year=1989|publisher=Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-81-7017-223-9 |page=59}}

According to Nicole Lehmann, modern Kathak dancers show, to varying degrees, a fusion of the styles from all three gharanas.{{cite book|author=Nicole Manon Lehmann|title=Sama und die "Schönheit" im Kathak: nordindischer Tanz und seine ihn konstituierenden Konzepte am Beispiel der Lucknow-gharānā|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTQSh4o9gcUC&pg=PA290 |year=2010|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-643-10252-2 |pages=290–291|language =de }}

The north Indian Kathak dance differs from the south Indian Bharatanatyam in several ways, even though both have roots in the Hindu text Natya Shastra. Kathak expressions – particularly in Hindu devotional styles – are more introverted and withdrawn, while Bharatanatyam is more extroverted and expansive.{{Sfn|Williams|2004|pp=85-86}} Kathak is normally performed in a standing form with legs and torso typically straight, while Bharatanatyam extensively utilizes bent knee form (ara mandi, half sitting position that is somewhat similar to Demi Plié ballet move).{{Sfn|Williams|2004|pp=85-86}}

Kathak is also different from Kathakali, though both are Indian classical dance traditions of "story play" wherein the stories have been traditionally derived from the Hindu epics and the Puranas. Kathakali emerged in the southwestern region of India (modern Kerala), and is distinctive in its elaborate codified colorful makeup, masks and dress.{{cite book|author=Carol E. Henderson|title=Culture and Customs of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CaRVePXX6vEC |year=2002|publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0-313-30513-9 |pages=171–172 }} Kathakali traditionally has been troupes of predominantly male actor-dancers, who dress up as hero, heroines, gods, goddesses, demons, demonesses, priests, animals and daily life characters. Both dance forms employ elaborate footwork, choreography and hand gestures, but Kathakali integrates south Indian martial arts movements such as leaps and jumps. Both dance forms trace their roots to classical Sanskrit texts, but Kathakali has relatively more recent origins, more closely follows the Hastha Lakshanadeepika text and began flourishing in the 16th century. While each has a different musical and dance language, both deploy a host of similar traditional Indian musical instruments.{{cite book|author1=Peter J. Claus|author2=Sarah Diamond|author3=Margaret Ann Mills|title=South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ienxrTPHzzwC |year=2003|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-93919-5 |pages=332–333 }}{{cite book|author=Phillip B. Zarrilli|title=Kathakali Dance-drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to Play|url=https://archive.org/details/kathakalidancedr0000zarr |url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-13109-4 |pages=xi, 17–19 }}

According to Miriam Phillips, the Indian Kathak and the Spanish Flamenco dance share many visual, rhythmic and kinesthetic similarities.{{cite journal | author=Phillips | title=Becoming the Floor / Breaking the Floor: Experiencing the Kathak-Flamenco Connection | journal=Ethnomusicology | publisher=University of Illinois Press | volume=57 | issue=3 | year=2013 | pages=396–427 | doi=10.5406/ethnomusicology.57.3.0396 }}

File:Kathak dance.jpg|Kathak Facial Expressions

File:Kathak Duet Performance (5).jpg|Kathak duet performance

File:Kathak dancer Namrata Rai with her group.jpg|Kathak group performance

File:Kathak Dancers Namrata Rai & Vishal Krishna.jpg|Namrata Rai and Vishal Krishna

File:Kathak Facial Expressions (14).jpg|Sufi style-based Kathak

File:Kathak Rounds (13).jpg|Kathak pirouettes

• List of Kathak exponents
• Khattak dance

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Hinduism}}

• {{cite book|author=Natalia Lidova|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |doi=10.1093/obo/9780195399318-0071 |title= Natyashastra }}
• {{cite book|author=Natalia Lidova |title=Drama and Ritual of Early Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TKarwqJJP0C |date=1994 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1234-5 }}
• {{cite journal|last=Williams|first=Drid|title=In the Shadow of Hollywood Orientalism: Authentic East Indian Dancing|url=http://jashm.press.illinois.edu/12.3/12-3IntheShadow_Williams78-99.pdf|journal=Visual Anthropology|volume=17|issue=1|year=2004|pages=69–98|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.1080/08949460490274013|s2cid=29065670|access-date=12 May 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121105/http://jashm.press.illinois.edu/12.3/12-3IntheShadow_Williams78-99.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite book |title=India's Kathak Dance - Past, Present, Future |last=Massey|first=Reginald|year=1999 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=81-7017-374-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFXkPk3zMeYC }}
• {{cite book |author=Tarla Mehta | title=Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7naMj1UxIkC | year=1995| publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1057-0 }}
• {{cite book|author= Emmie Te Nijenhuis |author-link=Emmie te Nijenhuis |title=Indian Music: History and Structure |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrgfAAAAIAAJ |year=1974|publisher= BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-03978-3 }}
• {{cite book|author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Bharata, the Nāṭyaśāstra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKW1PAAACAAJ |year=2001|publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-260-1220-6}}
• {{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Classical Indian dance in literature and the arts |year=1977 |publisher=Sangeet Natak Akademi |oclc= 233639306}}, [http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/toc/z2008_2719.pdf Table of Contents]
• {{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Indian classical dance |year=1974 |publisher=Sangeet Natak Akademi |oclc= 2238067 }}
• {{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Aesthetic theories and forms in Indian tradition |year=2008 |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal |oclc= 286469807| isbn= 978-8187586357}}
• {{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Dance In Indian Painting |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=58fUibaZdGYC |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-153-9}}
• {{cite journal | author =Wallace Dace | title=The Concept of "Rasa" in Sanskrit Dramatic Theory | journal=Educational Theatre Journal | volume=15 | issue=3 | pages=249–254 | year=1963 | jstor=3204783 | doi=10.2307/3204783 }}
• Kothari, Sunil (1989) Kathak: Indian Classical Dance Art, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi. {{ISBN|81-7017-223-3}}
• Kippen, James and Bel, Andreine [https://web.archive.org/web/20060615102638/http://www.pathcom.com/~ericp/kathak.html Lucknow Kathak Dance], Bansuri, Volume 13, 1996
• Pt. Birju Maharaj (2002) Ang Kavya : Nomenclature for Hand Movements and Feet Positions in Kathak, New Delhi, Har-Anand, photographs, {{ISBN|81-241-0861-7}}.
• Bharti Gupta (2004) Kathak Sagar, New Delhi, Radha Pub., {{ISBN|81-7487-343-0}}
• Sushil Kumar Saxena (2006) Swinging Syllables Aesthetics of Kathak Dance, New Delhi, Hope India Publications, {{ISBN|81-7871-088-9}}
• Shivvangini Classes Shiva Mathur(Lucknow Kathak Dance)
• Dr. Puru Dadheech Kathak Nritya Shiksha, Bindu Publications, Indore, MP, India
• Narayan, Shovana (2004) Kathak, Wisdom Tree, {{ISBN|9788186685143}}
• Marami Medhi & Debasish Talukdar (2022) Kathak Volume-1 A Theoretical and Practical Guide{{ISBN|9789357804202}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.607.7843&rep=rep1&type=pdf Courtesans and Choreographers: The (Re) Placement of Women in the History of Kathak Dance], Margaret Walker (2010)
• [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/ethnomusicology.57.3.0396 Becoming the Floor/Breaking the Floor: Experiencing the Kathak-Flamenco Connection], Mariam Phillips (2013)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZQeZWj_SRw Ganesh Vandana], Meghranjani Medhi, Section 1: Invocation of a three part Kathak dance
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KYZ9D3uaXw#t=565 A Kathak performance], Shinjini Kulkarni, Aarohan (2015)

{{Dance in India}}

Category:Culture of Awadh

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Category:Classical dance genres of India

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