Samhara: collection, drawing together




Saw Samhara yesterday at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, a collaboration between the Nrityagram Dance Company and the Chitrasena Dance Company.  The programme combined Odissi, one of the oldest classical dance forms of India,  danced beautifully by Surupa Sen, Bijayini Satpathy and Pavithra Reddy from Nrityagram with the Sri Lankan Kandyan dance, danced by Chitrasena and Vajira's granddaughter Thaji Dias, and Mithilani Munasingha.

A long term follower and fan of Chitrasena, Vajira and Upekha (who incidentally was in my French class!), I remembered my very first exposure to their artistry, when Karadiya was put on the boards at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in the early 1960s.  Reading Radhika Coomaraswamy's tribute to the Art of Chitrasena, I recalled that that  performance filled me too with a profound joy and sense of excitement.  I  remember too sharing the experience with my mother and my maternal grandfather, Sir Arthur Ranasinha,  who responded to my description of the Karadiya ballet, with the dry observation "that is not ballet".  More British than the British, despite his work to achieve Ceylon's independence, Sir Arthur's remark epitomised the challenges that Chitrasena and Vajira must have faced reviving a dying art form and also transforming it from its ritualistic tradition, to a theatrical performance to be viewed and enjoyed by all.

Radhika makes two observations in her tribute, which, though written in 2007, struck a chord with me  today. One is about national pride.  She recalls "the days of innocence"  before the Sri Lankan nation became such a fractured space, when " national pride was a simple thing".   She also talks about the importance of being "as Gandhi advocated -  to open our windows to the world, with the confidence and the certainty that we will not be blown off our feet." 

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