Ashta nayikas, Vasakassaja, Shringaram, Bharatanatyam and Feminism in 2021.

over 10 years ago, my teacher was teaching a new piece to the class, but only those who were over 18 years of age were allowed to learn/perform this piece, because the piece she was about to teach was ‘Ashta Nayikas’ or the 8 heroines in Bharatanatyam. My teacher was of the opinion that to explore and perform the Abhinayam for the ashta nayikas, one should be of a mature age and have experienced what romantic love is, and only then can you truly feel what each of those heroines felt, particularly the first one — Vasakkasaja; the heroine who is decking her house and herself to receive and welcome her lover, whom she has been waiting eagerly to spend time with and re-unite. At the time, I must have been 13 or 14 and I thought it was unfair that Mythili teacher wouldn’t let me dance this piece. But of course, she encouraged us young ones to sit and observe her and the older students and learn by just watching! I would sit down and watch with mild amusement, as the older students repeated what my teacher taught them. Taking note of each subtle Abhinayam and mudhra, sweeping the house, decorating the walls with flowers and braiding her hair and anxiously waiting at the door. Displaying true Sringaram. I remember thinking to myself, surely, this is archaic and is so mysogynistic! Why would a woman waste her time cooking and cleaning for a lover who only decides to meet her occasionally? Does she not have self respect? Is this what she does with her life? wait around and not do anything else? When I grow up, I will have a high stress job and I will have a partner who will be an equal, who will understand that I have a busy life of my own and will not expect me to wait around and do such elaborate things!. Cut to 2021, I indeed have a high stress job, ( I work in tech in Silicon Valley, and we all know how stressful that can be!). Just recently, my partner went on a long trip and guess how I welcomed him after spending 3 weeks away from him? You guessed it right. I spent the whole weekend cooking an elaborate meal, cleaning the house, making a rangoli in our patio. I even changed the bedsheets to his favorite color and bought him roses and lit candles and made a hand painted menu card for the 5 course meal I had made him! I took time out from my busy schedule of work, dance and music pratcie. this is everything that the VasakaSajjA heroine does in the piece that my teacher taught us over a decade ago! The love bug caught me too, and I realized that my feminist ideology overlooked that I can both be an earning member of the family and have an equal say in decisions and equally contribute towards our mortgage, but that wouldn’t prevent me from showing my partner that I truly care for him, and that the separation only brought us closer and that he is special to me. I wouldn’t do this any acquaintance, let alone a stranger! A Vasakasajja is exactly that. Her language of love is an elaborate act of service to her lover. She wants to ensure that on his return, the two of them can spend good, quality time together and doing these things is not going to put her down! But my teacher was definitely right about one other thing, that you need to have truly experienced what each of these 8 heroines represent and only then can you do justice and keep the audience engaged throughout the performance! I think the next time I perform an item like ‘Theruvuvil VarAnO’ I will be able to do it full justice :)