The warmth with which Annabattula Lakshmi Mangatayaru greets you touches a chord in your heart. We no longer feel like strangers as she braces herself for a conversation about her early life, her experiences and her present pursuit.
“I cannot trace the genealogy of my family, but all that I can state with conviction, is that my ancestors, who belong to the Devadasi clan, were summoned from Nelapalli in Yanam area of East Godavari district to Mummidivaram which later became our home, to perform at the Uma Suryeswara aalayam (temple) as a part of the daily temple ritual. I am the sixth generation in the line. They were allotted fertile agricultural land and gardens for their upkeep which in time to come dwindled with division among the progeny and loss of this ancient tradition called temple dance. I vividly recount my grandmother Annabattula Buli Venkataratnam dance till she was 70 while my mother Satyabhama was the vocalist for the dance. My grandmother gave her first public performance at the age of 14! At 50, I witnessed the applause, her ‘dharuvu' would elicit from the scholars and pandits who watched her perform! The knowledgeable priests would not spare the Devadasi if she faltered on one adavu. So we were tutored to be perfectionists in expression and footwork not to mention the knowledge of scriptures. We were taught to internalise the bhava at a very tender age, whatever that may be and recreate it with a natural grace and expression,” the picture of her grandmother and mother dancing and her own training conjures up a lovely expression in her eyes.
How exactly were you initiated into dance? “The Shivalayam tradition of initiation was rather simple. My sister and I were taken by our guru (mother/grandmother) to the temple on an auspicious day and after an abhisekham to the lord was performed by the priest, we were ready to begin our first footsteps in dance. Till the age of nine, I was taught adavu saamu (nritta or footwork) and when I graduated to Ganesha Koutvam, it meant Gajje puja (wearing the anklet bells). This again was a custom that had to have the deity's blessing and so the anklets were tied to my feet by my grandmother guru in the presence of the presiding deity in the temple.”
Trained in the arts
As Mangatayaru approached her teens, she was taught the Gollakalapam and Bhamakalapam as well as classical music from an outside musician guru.
“If my grandmother donned the make-up and went on the platform of the temple to perform, no one could say that she was 70! She was so flexible, so lithe and full of vigour. She would sing on her own as she danced. We were taught the mudras and as we grew up to dance after my mother, it so happened and still happens that my sister turned out to be a good vocalist while I danced. I was doing the Manduka Shabdam, Dasavatharam by the age of 10 with ease. The mothers in the family usually taught the padams and javalis while male dance gurus were summoned to teach us special and difficult items like Gollakalapam which required some amount of theory too,” she clarifies.
The Devadasis took a lot of care to maintain their body and flexibility. Says Mangatayaru, “We were massaged with a home-made herbal oil, after which the waist was tied tight with a cloth and we were asked to turn turtle early in the morning on an empty stomach. Then there was a ritualistic daily bath full of sandal paste and other herbal remedies for supple skin. We were staunch vegetarians as most of our gurus were Brahmins. This helped us retain a good figure for long time. From top to toe, we were taught how to care for the body and keep it in form. My children never took to dance or to music. The stigma of a Devadasi perhaps overwhelmed them. My grandmother, I am proud to say was the recipient of A. P. Sangeet Natak Akademi's ‘Bharata Kala Prapoorna' award. My sister Leela Sai is the vocalist in my troupe. We have a school here at Mummidivaram where we teach interested children, not our own,” her eyes twinkle.
Mangatayaru is the only one in the clan that is keeping the original Gollakalapam of Tarigonda Vengamamba alive. “The Devadasi act axed our art. I can even justify it as some of the practitioners in the later days shifted over to film record dance to keep the hearth burning. But, now I happen to view television dance shows where tender children from well-to-do families dance to vulgar lyrics culled out of third rate movies!. Now where is the public protest, I'd like to ask. Is this a healthy development for society?” she questions boldly like the Gollabhama she portrays on stage. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam project has turned the arc lights on her and her pupils to perform the original Gollakalapam at Tarigonda Vengamamba's commemoration. “I am happy that I'm able to bring this wonderful kalapam, our ancestral key piece, to the fore at last,” says the proud recipient of ‘Ugadi Puraskaram'.
