Kuchipudi - A Muslim Art Connection!

The great churning of cultural oceans during medieval times produced quite a few distinctive and lasting innovations in Indian society. In the Deccan, the coming together of diverse socio-religious factions had a far reaching and rather enchanting effect on devotional practices; the crystallization of which can be traced to the unrestrained interactions between mystics of the Sufi and Bhakti traditions. 

Within a century of Bahmani emperor Ahmed Shah’s veneration (as al-Wali, or the saint, by Muslims and Allama Prabhu by Hindus) after his death in 1436, the region witnessed the emergence of unprecedented devotional adoration in worship. One such example is manifest in the advent of the Satyabhama cult, the origins of which are to be found in the teachings of Siddhappa or Siddhendra Yogi from Srikakulam. 

    
The tale of Siddhappa is a truly captivating narrative of the origins of the Bhama cult and the birth of the Kuchipudi dance-drama tradition. Orphaned in infancy, Siddhappa was raised by his neighbours who ensured he received a good education apart from arranging his marriage with a girl from a nearby village. On completing his studies and attaining maturity, Siddhappa was dispatched to consummate his marriage. En-route, the young lad was confronted with a river in spate. 

Caught up in the current, the floundering young man vowed that he would dedicate his life to the cause of Lord Krishna if delivered from the ordeal. The prayer being granted, Siddhappa reached his in-laws home only to be confronted with the dilemma of choosing between two vows; the one of matrimony given at his betrothal and the other solemnised in his moment of peril. It is in this moment of great tribulation, the story goes, that Siddhappa saw Satyabhama in his wife and she espied Lord Krishna in him. Thereafter the young man spent a life dedicated to composing hymns in praise of Sri Krishna and after setting them to music, danced to his own compositions spreading the message of Krishna being the only male, the true beloved and all others merely his enamored gopikas. The performances of Siddhappa’s wandering troupe came to be known as Parijalam or Bhama Kalapam and were the precursors of the Kuchipudi dance form. 
    
With the fall of Vijayanagar, Kuchipudi artists suffered greatly due to a loss of patronage and the once thriving art form became restricted to one small village on the Vijayawada-Machlipatnam highway. It remained confined there until a visit in 1678 by Abul Hasan Tana Shah, the last Sultan of Golconda. The Sultan, on a peace-time excursion to the eastern parts of his kingdom, was camped for a night near the village of Kuchipudi when the local inhabitants ingratiated by his gift of sanctioning an irrigation tank during a severe drought, regaled the ruler with a Parijalam performance. 

Greatly impressed, Tana Shah granted the village in favour of the Brahmin family which had kept the tradition alive despite all odds. It is said that the Sultan subsequently referred to the dance form by the name of the village where he had first witnessed it and thus Bhama Kalapam gained popularity once again as Kuchipudi. The grant was subsequently upheld by succeeding administrators of the region and descendents of the original grantees are said to be in possession of documents endorsed by the second Asaf Jahi ruler, Nizam Ali Khan (1762-1802). 
    
Originally Kuchipudi performances had merely three characters; Krishna, Satyabhama and Madhavi with a single storyline. With time numerous other themes were added and the repertoire gained immense diversity. The most notable innovations are said to be the Movvu Gopala Padamulu, distinctive footwork introduced by one Kshattrayya of Movvu village during the reign of Abdullah Qutub Shah. Another major change brought about has been the removal of the centuries old ban on women taking part in performances. Tradition restricted teaching of the art to only male members of the family and even daughters of the house were forbidden from learning it. 

As such it was men who impersonated the female characters in a tradition called streevesham. It is said that the gender bias arose due to the difficulty of having women as part of a traveling group which was permanently on the move and often put up all-night performances. Some scholars feel that the reason for this bias lay in the inability of medieval women from Brahmin families to convincingly perform publicly; especially given the amorous sequences that are integral to the Krishna-Bhama legend. 
    
Though all that has now changed and women exponents of Kuchipudi far outnumber men, a few traditionalists still strive to keep the streevesham traditions alive. Among them Haleem Khan seems to be the most prolific performer if one is to go by the number of times he has been on stage. Presently based in Hyderabad, Haleem has resolved to dedicate his full time to the promotion of this historic dance form.