Kuchipudi

1.1 Where does Kuchipudi come from?

Kuchipudi began in a village in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

1.2 What does the name mean?

Kuchi is a Telugu word that means small. Pudi means a hamlet or settlement. So the name means small hamlet. This is a good clue if an exam asks about the name.

1.3 What is the village like?

The village lies about 48 km from Vijayawada. It is about 22 km from Machilipatnam. The village is built around the Ramalingaswamy Temple. It is an agrahara. That is a settlement given to Brahmin families.

1.4 Who lives there?

Traditional Brahmin Bhagavatha families live in the village. They are the families who performed the dance-drama. The word Bhagavatha links them to it.

1.5 Did a ruler honour the village?

Yes. The last Nawab, Abdul Hassan Tani Shah, watched a Bhamakalapam show. He liked the art of the Kuchipudi families. He gave the whole village to them as an endowment for the dance. It covered about 600 acres.

2.1 Who founded the tradition?

Legend names Siddhendra Yogi as the founder. He was a devotee of Lord Krishna. He knew the Natya Shastra well. The Natya Shastra is an old Sanskrit text on drama and dance.

2.2 Where did he train the actors?

He trained actors at a village called Kuchelapuram. It lay in Divi seema, where the river Krishna meets the Bay of Bengal. There he built a style of his own, based on the Natya Shastra. His actors were called Bhagavatulu.

2.3 What did Tirtha Narayana Yati do?

He was a sannyasin of the Advaita Vedanta school. The Krishna district page says he and his disciple Siddhendra Yogi arranged the present form in the 17th century. So the 17th century is the safe date.

2.4 How old is the art?

The dance appears in 10th-century copper inscriptions. It also appears in 15th-century texts such as the Machupalli Kaifat. So the art is older than the 17th-century arrangement.

3.1 What is Bhama Kalapam?

Bhama Kalapam is a popular Kuchipudi dance-drama. Siddhendra Yogi composed it. It centres on Satyabhama. She is proud and gives Krishna little importance. When he goes away, she begs him to return.

3.2 What is a kalapam?

A kalapam is a lyrical drama. It cares little for plot and action. It shows the feelings of its characters through dance and song. Each movement of the limbs must carry an idea.

3.3 What else is in the repertoire?

The repertoire leans towards Lord Krishna and the Vaishnava tradition. The repertoire includes an invocation, a short dance called dharavu, pure dance called nritta and expressive dance called nritya.

Source: CBSE marking scheme for Kuchipudi.

3.4 What is Dasavatara Sabdam?

It is a traditional number that brought glory to Kuchipudi. It shows the ten avatars of Vishnu. Vempati Chinna Satyam choreographed it. It opens with a shloka from the Bhagavad Gita.

4.1 Who danced Kuchipudi at first?

Men did. The masters taught dancing girls, but did not let them join the Bhagavatha Natakas. So the stage dramas were an all-male affair for a long time.

4.2 Who changed this?

Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastry was a pioneer here. He is called a pioneer in bringing the dance to women. Until then it was kept for men.

4.3 What was the solo system?

Kuchipudi was a group dance-drama. Sastry is credited with adding solo dance to it. He choreographed solo numbers such as Ashtapadis, Padams and Javalis. These songs give ample scope for sattvikabhinaya, acting that shows inner feeling.

4.4 How did he save the art?

In the early 1930s the art was in crisis. Sastry, his son Jagannatha Sarma and Ayyanki Thandava Krishna toured India. They performed Kuchipudi as they went. In his career he also performed Bhamakalapam, Golla Kalapam and Dadinamma Vesham.

4.5 Who studied under him?

His pupils included Vempati Peda Satyam and Vempati Chinna Satyam. The next card tells the story of Chinna Satyam.

5.1 Who was Vempati Chinna Satyam?

He was an exceptional Kuchipudi teacher and choreographer. He was born in 1929 in Kuchipudi village. He belonged to the traditional community of Kuchipudi Bhagavatars.

5.2 Who taught him?

His gurus were Tadepalli Sastry, Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastry and Vempati Peda Satyam. As a young dancer he played many roles in Kuchipudi dance-dramas.

5.3 What did he build in Madras?

He moved to Madras, now Chennai. There, in 1963, he set up the Kuchipudi Art Academy. Learners from India and abroad came to study there. This is the year and city that exams ask about.

5.4 Which dancers did he train?

He trained many fine dancers. Vyjayanthimala Bali and Shoba Naidu are named in his citation. He also gave Kuchipudi more polish in both solo and dance-drama form.

5.5 Which honours did he win?

He won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1981. He was made a Fellow of the Akademi. He received the Padma Bhushan in 1998. Read about the Sangeet Natak Akademi for more.

6.1 How many classical dance forms does India recognise?

The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises eight. Kuchipudi is one of them. The table shows each form and its home.

Source: CBSE Class XII marking scheme (Kuchipudi).

6.2 Why do some pages say ten?

One government page counts Kuchipudi among ten leading classical forms. Counts differ between pages. For exams, learn the eight in the table. Read about the other forms in Classical and Folk Dances of India.

6.3 Is Bhagavata Mela a classical form?

No. It is not on the list of eight. Bhagavata Mela Natakam is the name for the dance-dramas Siddhendra Yogi’s actors performed. Exams use it as a wrong option.

7.1 What traps repeat?

• Village or state? The dance is named after a village. That village is in Andhra Pradesh.
• Which composer? Siddhendra Yogi composed Bhama Kalapam.
• Which year and city? The Kuchipudi Art Academy opened in Madras in 1963.
• Which is not classical? Bhagavata Mela is not among the eight.

7.2 How should you remember it?

Link the person to the place. Siddhendra goes with the village. Sastry goes with women and solo. Satyam goes with Madras and 1963.