‘Meyzuvani’ makes its path

Kuchipudi and Vilasini Natyam exponent Anupama Kylash is set to showcase her new production in Meyzuvani tradition today, writes Lakshmi Ramakrishna.

January 13, 2017 06:18 pm | Updated 06:18 pm IST

Anupama Kylash.

Anupama Kylash.

A fter performing in Bengaluru and Chennai, Anupama Kylash will be presenting ‘Meyzuvani’ in Vilasini Natyam style, at Saptaparni in Hyderabad on January 13. Giving a peek into her Meyzuvani presentation, Anupama says that she would present it in the ‘Aalaya Sampradayam’ (temple tradition), the ‘Aasthana Sampradayam’(courtly tradition) and the ‘Aata Bhagavatham’ (theatrical tradition).

“After a decade of performances, a dancer who wants to add creativity and abhinaya will always draw the audience. In Meyzuvani, it is the abhinaya that rules,” says Anupama.

Explaining Meyzuvani, the Vilasini Natyam exponent says that it has evolved from the Persian word ‘Mezban’ which means, ‘to host’. “Meyzuvani concerts were performed by the Devadasis for select audiences during special occasions. The repertoire of Meyzuvani consisted mainly of ‘Shringara’ based songs like Padams and Javalis,” she adds.

The dancer stresses that these concerts mainly focus on abhinaya or expression, and a unique feature of the Telugu devadasis’ abhinaya, was that they presented Padams in a seated position, using only the face, hands and upper part of the body to elaborate upon the lyrics of the song.Other than Padams, Javalis and poetry, the Devadasis also presented a special type of composition called the ‘Company Javali’, which were the songs specifically written and composed to entertain special guests from the British East India Company. “These were light and entertaining pieces with tunes inspired from the Celtic and Scottish bagpiper pieces. They were mainly in the Western major scale, and some of them even had lyrics which were a combination of Telugu and English,” informs Anupama. At the evening’s performance, Anupama Kylash will begin with the customary prayer to Lord Ganapati from the Shaiva Agama and another prayer to Lord Pashupati from Paancharaatra Agama. “These are from the ritualistic temple tradition of the Telugu Devadasis,” she says. That will be followed by Kshetrayya Padam and Kannavaride Kaada , an Annamacharya song composed in the Javali format, followed by Chaalu chaalu vaadu leni janma mela , another Annamacharya Padam.

The dancer states that the main attraction will be the Company Javali, Rajahamsa yaana ra , composed by Swapna Sundari. “The finale is the Padam to Lord Kukkuteshwara of Pithapuram, which describes the form, deeds, stories and philosophy behind the concept of Lord Shiva,” says Anupama before signing off.

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