Discovering genuine Indian culture through 'Tridhara'

By Emilie Sueur

JAKARTA (JP): Should Indonesians wish to discover India's culture, they could turn on their televisions any morning to watch some of the numerous Indian movies being aired.

But then, would we be effectively talking about real Indian culture? Aparesh Mukherjee, who founded the Indonesia-India Cultural Assembly (Abhyudaya) in 1993, definitely doesn't think so.

According to him, India's true cultural heritage is quite different. And Abhyudaya's precise role is to promote genuine Indian culture in Indonesia.

In 1994, it organized a performance entitled Chitrangada which blended the Indian and Indonesian cultures.

This first performance was based on the traditional dance drama Chitrangada written by the late Indian poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore.

Nilanjana Mukherjee, Mukherjee's wife, invited Balinese dancers to participate in the performance, creating an encounter of traditional Indian and Indonesian dances in Chitrangada.

Organizing this performance was quite a challenge in itself because the Indian texts and explanations had to be translated into English and then into Indonesian.

But the success of the performance proved that despite these obstacles, people from different cultures can find a common language in art.

For the 50th anniversary of India's Independence, Abhyudaya has organized a second performance entitled Tridhara, scheduled tomorrow at the Fine Arts Theater of the Jakarta International School, Cilandak, South Jakarta.

The ambition of this new performance adheres to the spirit of the Indonesia-India Cultural Assembly with the hope of promoting genuine Indian culture in Indonesia.

Literally, Tridhara, a name found by Nilanjana Mukherjee, means three streams. The three streams, in Hindu tradition, are dance, instruments and vocals, which together create music.

The program will follow this partition as the performance starts with Geet (vocals) from North India, followed by Nritya (dances) and end with Vadya (instrument) through a sitar recital accompanied by tabla, a traditional percussion instrument.

The dance part will include three of the most important schools of classical dance in India: Bharata Natyam, Kathak and Odissi.

Indian dances are characterized by two different natures. First, tandava refers to Siva, the ambivalent God of destruction and creation, who represents the fearful masculine energy. Second, lasya, referring to Siva's wife Parvati, is more graceful and lyrical.

Bharata Natyam, a dance from southern India, belongs to this second category.

Kathak, a dance from central India, is influenced by Hindu and Moslem cultures. Combining lasya and tandava features, Kathak can be performed by men as well as women.

Odissi, coming from Orissa, eastern India, will be performed by Nilanjana Mukherjee, who began studying this particular form of dance in 1987 after having already learned many other traditional dances.

The idea of Tridhara is to perform the three different dances on stage simultaneously using three different dancers before displaying them separately.

Indian art in general, and dance in particular, is inseparable from Indian religious and traditional concepts of the world.

In Hindu tradition, the world itself was created in a dance. The rhythm of Siva's dances is the vital source behind the organization of the cosmos.

All Indian traditional arts are an extension of this belief. Thus, art is a way to elevate spiritually, to reach for the path to wisdom and self knowledge.

The aim of Abhyudaya is to preserve a culture that was in danger of disappearing with the younger generations.

This is why Mukherjee uses an audiovisual documentary presenting the traditional dances, songs and instruments of India at the beginning of the program.

Mukherjee asserts it would be a disaster if those cultural traditions were lost. But he feels confident as he notices that with each passing year, more and more young people are attending the performances.