Kapila Vatsyayan, grand matriarch of cultural research, passes away

She effortlessly combined theoretical knowledge with rigorous practice and brought a multicultural approach to understanding Indian culture

September 16, 2020 11:40 am | Updated 09:06 pm IST - New Delhi

Kapila Vatsyayan. File

Kapila Vatsyayan. File

Kapila Vatsyayan, the grand matriarch of cultural research, passed away at her Gulmohar Enclave residence in Delhi on Wednesday morning. Her brother S.C. Malik said she passed away peacefully because of age-related issues.

Born into a Punjabi Arya Samaji family on December 25, 1928, the fiercely independent and multi-faceted personality effortlessly combined theoretical knowledge with rigorous practice and brought a multidisciplinary approach to understanding Indian culture. She saw culture as a flowing river whose path remains identifiable but whose contours change with time.

Her holistic approach broke new ground in the study of Indian dance forms and not only positioned them on the cultural map of the world for years to come but also led to extensive research work, opening new vistas.

Having imbibed the rich cultural values of Oriental dance during her stay at Shantiniketan, she went on to learn Kathak from Achhan Maharaj, Manipuri from guru Amobi Singh, and Bharatanatyam from guru Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai. She performed a Kathak recital at the first Dance Festival held at the Feroz Shah Kotla Grounds in 1945.

Also read | In dialogue with the doyenne Kapila Vastyayan

Over the years, the Padma Vibhushan awardee engaged extensively with western dance forms as well, and maintained that while the Indian tradition is in dialogue with the earth, the West aspires to be free from it. “But never manages to,” she would assert.

Blending tangible with the intangible and finding connections between the arts and the sciences, she wrote extensively on the geometrical body stances in Indian dance forms and complex rhythmic patterns that reflect mathematical flourishes in the Indian cultural firmament.

Not against change, she would often underline that any experiment should be to augment Indian classical forms, not to dilute or distract the new generation from its essence.

Her canvas was not limited to dance, though. This is evident in her vast corpus of writings, such as Plural Cultures and Monolithic Structures: Comprehending India and The Indian Arts, Their Ideational Background and Principles of Forms .

She could speak about the ethos of Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda and the nuances of Pablo Picasso’s works with equal intensity. In fact, she did her Ph.D. on the treatment of Jayadeva’s iconic poem in Indian visual arts from Banaras Hindu University under Vasudev Charan Agarwal. Like her guru, she worked towards taking off the label of exotica from Indian arts and tried to find ways for the coexistence of multiple streams at the grassroots through rigorous research.

Mentored by Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay and Rukmini Devi Arundale, as an able arts administrator, she was instrumental in laying the cultural landscape of the country with institutes such as the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts, Central University of Tibetan Studies, Centre for Cultural Resource and Training, and the India International Centre, among others.

No wonder, in Afloat a Lotus , Vatsyayan’s cognitive biography by Jyoti Sabharwal, the doyenne describes herself “as a rolling stone that has gathered much moss”. She goes on to say, “Indeed, so much moss that there is no stone left, only layers and layers of this vast moss of knowledge of the country of my birth...”

During the decades of the Nehru-Gandhi rule, Vatsyayan was the go-to person for showcasing Indian culture to the world. She helped legends like Birju Maharaj and Balasaraswati find a global audience. From taking troupes of artistes all over the world as part of Jawaharlal Nehru’s cultural diplomacy to borrowing Chola bronzes at the National Museum for the Non-Aligned Movement Conference in 1983 from south Indian temples, she did it all, cutting a lot of red tape along the way.

She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2006 but had to vacate her seat following the office of profit controversy. In April 2007, she was renominated to the Upper House.

Having been recognised as close to the Nehru-Gandhi family perhaps cut her ties with the non-Congress governments, who perhaps saw her as part of the Nehruvian vision of India.

She was married to eminent Hindi writer S.H. Vatsyayan ‘Ageya’. The two heavyweights from their respective fields separated in 1969.

Inside a seemingly impenetrable exterior, Kapila Vatsyayan carried a sharp sense of humour and practised a Gandhian way of life. Those close to her say she enjoyed the rasa of life.

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