Cultural Festival: Hyderabad's Ananda Shankar Jayant's Ramayana Kalpavrksam brings the epic as a living tradition 

It's widely known that Hyderabad has an appreciation for arts and crafts. But what’s a rare find is an all-encompassing cultural fiesta that brings various art forms on one stage. Treating the city to one such cultural reverie, eminent dancer-scholar Padma Shri Ananda Shankar Jayant brings Ramayana Kalpavrksam — a three-day cultural festival that will present Ramayana as a living tradition. Expect a wide mosaic of scintillating art forms — dance, drama, puppetry, carnatic vocal, fusion music and a slew of interactive workshops on Kolams, garland origami, pictorial calligraphy, divine walks and more. What makes the extravaganza even more unique are the thought-provoking talks curated by dance scholar Anupama Kylash. It will discuss the epic through retellings, critical analysis and interpretation by experts from all walks of life, thereby spotlighting the vastness of Indic knowledge. To know more, we meet Ananda at her abode Shankarananda Kalakshetra in Film Nagar. The space has been pivotal in honing students in classical dance for the last 45 years and is nonetheless a mini museum of her art collectables — Indic wall art, sculptures and paintings adorning the interiors of her abode.

Inclusive curatorial
vision Ananda who embarked on her dance journey at the age of four has since then been thriving in the art form winning accolades like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, The Kala Ratna Award, Kalaimamani Award and more such notable recognition. However, the glitter of the awards doesn’t make her a veteran ready to retire. In fact, the 60-year-old has a pulsating heart for art and wants to contribute more to the arts ecosystem. “The reason why I am doing a festival like this for Hyderabad is because I have mostly done dance-based festivals until now. But I wanted something which is all-inclusive of arts,” she begins with a soft glimmer in her eyes. “I wanted to have something for everyone, youngsters to seniors to IT professionals or people from any field or of different taste living in the city. I see there are not many big cultural festivals that happen in our city which pushed me to curate it. Secondly, I want the young to engage with Indic arts. When I say young, I mean people in the age group of early teens to late 30s. They are doing very well in life, have time on their hands, and are well informed but they are not willing to indulge in learning or understanding their own culture. The idea is to tell them ‘hey come listen, watch, talk, question and revel in the beauty of Indian arts. You may choose to like or dislike it, but at least engage once’,” the curator adds.

Epic theme
The title of the festival is inspired by Srimad Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu, a six-volume magnum opus written in the 20th century, by Kavi Samrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana, the first Jnanpith awardee in Telugu. The book’s title further stirred the artiste in Ananda to use it for the festival, after seeking permission. However, her earliest brush with the classic epic began as a toddler learning shlokas like Ramaya Ramabhadraya Ramachandraya Vedase from her mother. She quips with a childlike expression, “As a kid when you’re afraid of monsters under your bed, my mother would ask us to recite shlokas to keep the nightmares at bay. We used to repeat it at night whenever we woke up with an eerie dream. (laughs) Later on in her dance journey, Rama the lead from the epic, kept coming back to the dancer’s life. Be it in her dance productions such as Thyagaraja Ramayanam, Sri Rama Namam Entha Ruchi Ra or convening the Natya Kala Conference at Chennai with the theme Ramayana in performing arts, the mythological character stayed with her only to inspire this multi-disciplinary arts festival, this time. We asked her why she picked the theme of Ramayana, and she elaborates, “Rama’s story transcends space and time, it’s an epitome of love, service and sacrifice. Everyone knows the generic story but still watches it as it has become a living tradition passed down from one era to another in its multiple versions. Moreover, none of the international epics, like Illiad, have stayed in our living memory as much as this text. And arts and Ramayana have been very closely intertwined since time immemorial making it organic to select it as a theme.”

Enthralling dance drama
Opening the festival, day one will have the magnum opus production Choodamani Pradhanam by Kalakshetra Foundation from Chennai. The Bharatanatyam dance drama based on the fifth of the six-part Valmiki Ramayana series choreographed by the late legendary Rukmini Devi Arundale will be presented by a troupe of 40 artistes. It will bring alive the Kishkinda Kandam of Ramayana accompanied by a mesmerising live orchestra and stellar acts by the artistes making it a top highlight. But that’s not all! Day two will have Ramayana Saptaswara, an exuberant puppetry showcase by maverick Anupama Hoskere of Dhaatu Theatre from Bengaluru. The master puppeteer believes that puppetry is a serious art and the festival is a perfect platform to showcase it.

She gives us a preview of the show that promises fun-filled activities and puppet manipulation, “We have opened up our puppet techniques at the workshop. It is all there for people to come and experience and our experts will be there to guide them. We will be bringing a human-size board game of Ramayana’s Aranya-Kanda where children will be the pawns and will experience Rama’s journey.” Day two will also have a Bharatanatyam performance by Shankarananda Kalakshetra Ensemble choreographed by Ananda herself. The production will be performed by eight senior dancers depicting select episodes of the Ramayana, performed to Swati Tirunal’s well-known kriti — Bhavayami Raghuramam.

Fusion to classical
renditions On day two, the festival promises carnatic music at its best with vocalist Vishaka Hari’s performance Navrasa Ramayanam that will bring an arc of nine different rasas (emotions) through nine varied characters from the epic. From a fairly classical route, the festival will pick an upbeat rhythm on closing day three with a live fusion performance, Taraka Nama by none other than Varaha Roopam (Kantara) singer Sai Vignesh and Super Singer fame Abhilash Venkitachalam. The duo is coming for a live show for the first time after making us groove to their earlier hits. “We will be covering various songs by legendary composers revering Rama and his values. We have also chosen some popular bhajans and namavali with which we are trying to engage the audience and make them sing along with us. It will be a memorable concert for all the people,” Sai informs us. Speaking about how he connects with Ramayana as a youth, Abhilash tells us that the epic has always been a part of his life, right from childhood.“I feel the values it enshrines should reach a wider audience. Sai and I are thrilled to get everyone grooving and bring them closer to classical music. It is going to be an up-close experience for all the youngsters and we are going to make it unforgettable.”

Engaging workshops
Ananda attempts to make the festival a vibrant jamboree where the audience is not passive but an active participant with a slew of interesting workshops like garland making — an art that has been practiced and handed over to current practitioners through an unbroken lineage, still preserved in temples and spiritual practices. Rahul Teddy, a scientist by profession and a current practitioner of flower art tells us what's in store for the visitors, “Mala Grathana is one of the 64 fine art forms that Krishna himself learnt from his guru (teacher) Sandipani. In Rama’s time, there have been outpourings by sages, saints and devotees alike, who devoted flowers in the service of the Lord as a means to reach him. My workshop will highlight this wisdom behind floral service as a means to reach God.” For those who love Kolams, prominent kolam practitioner Hema Kannan will be presenting what may turn into a crowd pulling event on designing kolams. She will be connecting this art form to various academic disciplines like Maths, Logic, Philosophy, and Geometry besides teaching the basic techniques. Giving us a preview she shares, “In the advanced batch, I plan to show the connection of kolams to Astronomy and will also take it to the contemporary world today. Such workshops of ancient arts are a great way to generate a renewed interest amongst the youth.”

Immersive discussions
Religious texts usually do not come into the purview of discussions for the fear of being run down by a derisive mindset. But the festival aims to have open-ended discussions to underscore the worldly knowledge they contain. “If you are throwing away such texts or in-depth knowledge, then you have no roots to fall back on. One can become as much a modern global citizen today, but they should not ignore their own culture,” says Ananda, who has roped in Anupama Kylash to curate a series of talks and question-answer rounds. Anupama further tells us on why discussions on epics are important, “Every indigenous civilization has their own epics which are called Ithihasa. They are not just simple stories that you read and enjoy but a metanarrative that encapsulate truth and values which are eternal and primary to human kind. Time and again one has to keep revisiting them, to apply them in our lives and enrich our present. Moreover, it’s important to reexamine them from different perspectives as Ramayana is living. It’s not exclusive to just scholars and academics to talk about.”

That explains why the festival will have eight speakers from different backgrounds, age groups, and varied scholarship levels. It includes veterans like Gauri Mahulikar, Sudha Seshayyan and Nagaraj Paturi to young speakers like Ami Ganatra and scholar Vinay Varanasi. There are speakers from diverse professions like IPS Hemant Pandey, journalist Surajit Dasgupta and dancer and storyteller Ramaa Bharadvaj. They will all take us through topics like Ramayana from the perspective of women composers, versions of the epic in South East Asia and many more promising a lively audience engagement.

From March 31-April 2. At CCRT, Madhapur.
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