With my love for poems, and as an amateur poetess, I learn a lot from reading the works of some great poets. Today, I came across this blog while searching for some old Tamil poems online. Till this time I had a positive impact about quotations and proverbs because of the philosophical nature of most proverbs I have read. But the proverbs that are talked about in this blog shows how much of differences people had in the society a century ago. How peoples perception changes about an individual based on his/her profession.
Dance, which is today considered a very lively form of art, was some time back considered as the prostitute's job, and the dark comparison people have made with their superstitious beliefs, cultural and ethical standards, comparisons with laziness, selfishness etc had all the more brought down the reputation of dancers in those days.
The blog gives detailed explanations of the foreign authors interpretation and the view points of the present day dancers and other people, regarding this topic.
But what confuses me is, if dance and dancers were considered so awful, then how did bharathanatayam, kuchipudi and other classical dances get popularity over time? Were they specific about what kind of dance/dancers to be put in the above mentioned category?
Brahmins are considered the highest caste in the tamil society, And as far as my knowledge goes, almost all my Tamil brahmin friends have classical dancing as their hobby. How did they face this situation then?
Having read this article in the blog, with the foreigner's 'so-called' exaggerated interpretation of these proverbs may not actually be as hyped. May be the Indian society before the British Raj would have had more number of prostitution going on.
Dance, which is today considered a very lively form of art, was some time back considered as the prostitute's job, and the dark comparison people have made with their superstitious beliefs, cultural and ethical standards, comparisons with laziness, selfishness etc had all the more brought down the reputation of dancers in those days.
The blog gives detailed explanations of the foreign authors interpretation and the view points of the present day dancers and other people, regarding this topic.
But what confuses me is, if dance and dancers were considered so awful, then how did bharathanatayam, kuchipudi and other classical dances get popularity over time? Were they specific about what kind of dance/dancers to be put in the above mentioned category?
Brahmins are considered the highest caste in the tamil society, And as far as my knowledge goes, almost all my Tamil brahmin friends have classical dancing as their hobby. How did they face this situation then?
Having read this article in the blog, with the foreigner's 'so-called' exaggerated interpretation of these proverbs may not actually be as hyped. May be the Indian society before the British Raj would have had more number of prostitution going on.
Things have changed a lot.True decades back why dance even music on stage was not popular.It was the advent of Rukmini Arundale and DK Pattammal that shook the conventional thinking.Those days the women never performed arts publicly.Cinema acting was also a taboo.But old order yields place to new and there is hardly any field that women are not shining in.Fifty years hence there may be changes in society and its norms that you would scarcely believe now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr parthasarathy! I love DK pattammal songs too. My grandpa introduced her music to me first :)
ReplyDeleteArchana,
ReplyDeleteYou do bring out relevant issues. I can well relate to what you say about senior citizens and feel that homes for them have become more like business ventures. Please tell your friend that one has to face what life throws with courage. I say this from experience. Wish I could speak or write to her, if she wishes. Our culture has become richer over the centuries but some small group of people do say things for reasons best known to them. Before I forget, I missed mentioning in my comment in your Poetry blog - Very nice way of giving recipe of Chicken Makhani.
Take care