Rāma’s Story to Baby Kṛṣṇa
The first segment of the production is centred around the verse rāmo nāma babhūva[1] found in the work Śrī-kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛtam composed by Līlāśuka. It involves mother Yaśodā narrating the story of Śrī-rāma to the Purāṇa-śiśu – the Timeless and Immortal Child, Kṛṣṇa. Before transforming herself into Yaśodā, Padma performs a quick nṛtta for the phrase rāmo nāma babhūva even as she holds Rāma’s posture, establishing his grace and finesse. Mother Yaśodā sees her baby in the cradle and starts narrating the story of Rāma. Every mother desires that her child grows up to become like Rāma and follow his ideals. Moreover, no child ever sleeps without a bedtime story! Every Indian child has slept listening to the story of the Rāmāyaṇa.
For the word babhūva, Padma indicates through her action that it has been heard that he existed long, long, long, ago – the word babhūva which is in the liṭ-lakāra (parokṣa-bhūta-kāla) comes about very effectively in her abhinaya. She narrates the story as she swings the cradle with a smile and even asks the child to listen to the story and fall asleep. Padma elaborates upon how Rāma came into existence – Long, long ago, a king (called Daśaratha) had three wives and none of them begot a son; even as she says this (through abhinaya) she spontaneously improvises as Yaśodā and shows that she is very fortunate to have a child – a lovely and cute little child, Kṛṣṇa; she smiles at the baby in the cradle and gently pinches his cheek out of joy. Such nuances in expression can actually happen only when the artist has completely transformed herself into the character she is presenting.
Padma then indicates the aśvamedha (and the putrakāmeṣṭi) performed by Daśaratha – the rhythms on the mṛdaṅgam, and tāna on the vīṇā that accompany her footwork (in taṭṭumèṭṭu) indicate the flames of the agni in the yāga. She shows the divine being coming out of agni, offering pāyasa to the king and four children being born out of three wives. She then indicates that the first born was Rāma thereby summarizing the meaning of the line rāmo nāma babhūva; this serves as an example for an elaborate vākyārthābhinaya. Mother Yaśodā gently peeps in to see if the child has fallen asleep, tucks him in, and tries to walk away, but the next moment, the child utters a hmm – ushering the mother to continue telling the story. The hmm, is in fact, from the original verse and is beautifully accommodated by the poet in the Śārdūla-vikrīḍītam meter!
Going ahead to the next phrase of the verse – tad-abalā sīteti (his wife was called Sītā), Padma (Yaśodā) indicates that long, long ago there also lived a king called Janaka – the manner in which she depicts Janaka is different from her depiction of Daśaratha; while Daśaratha is shown only by using the abhinaya-hasta (tripatāka over the head) for a king, Janaka is also shown to have a long beard – this indicates his age and also that he was wise and learned – a rājarṣi. The name Sītā is established by indicating the manner in which Janaka, while ploughing the land, heard a baby cry and found Sītā. Janaka, who was also childless, is extremely happy finding the child in a casket; he imagines the child to be Devī Lakṣmī incarnate – these are improvisations on the epic theme by the master artist. Padma never fails to effectively establish different characters; she first transforms herself into Yaśodā, through Yaśodā’s words into Janaka, through Janaka’s thoughts into Devī Lakṣmī! She traverses the eyes and the hearts of many purāṇic characters, feels, and becomes them![2]
In no time, the little girl Sītā grows up into a young maiden. Once, as she is playing with a ball, it rolls down close to the Śiva-dhanus, the divine bow gifted by Śiva to the ancestors of Janaka. She casually lifts the bow, places it aside, picks up the ball and continues playing. Janaka, who happens to observe this is very surprised and decides that he must find the best match for her calibre. [This sequence does not appear in the critically constituted text of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, but is present in the popular narrative]. He sends out missives to kingdoms in all directions and gets it announced throughout his kingdom through drum-beaters. Padma indicates the drum-beaters with special movements to the accompaniment of tāla – the movement is a combination of various cārīs as well as novel movements conceived by her. The mother quickly narrates how many kings came to Janaka’s court to try their hand at the bow and how no one was successful. Finally, Rāma strung the bow and broke it as well and married Sītā – this concludes the elaborate vākyārthābhinaya for the line tad-abalā sīteti.
Now, Padma as Yaśodā again thinks that the child has fallen asleep and tries to walk away, but the baby Kṛṣṇa utters a hmm once again. The second hmm is also from the original verse. The musicians also echo the hmm, as though to suggest the combined voice of all children of India who are curious to hear the story further!
To be continued
The current article is an extract from the book Nayana-Savana, authored by Shatavadhani Dr R. Ganesh and Arjun Bharadwaj.
[1] This performance of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam inspired Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh and the dancer duo, Smt. Nirupama Rajendra and Sri T.D. Rajendra to conceive an entire nāṭya based on the story of Rāmāyaṇa as imagined by the little child Kṛṣṇa. The production, which is akin to a Broadway show is titled Rāma-kathā-vismaya and has enraptured audience for two decades!
[2] Such seamless portrayal and switching between characters are possible because of thorough understanding of original literary works, connection with the unbroken cultural and spiritual heritage of the country, as well as the ability to dive deep into the hearts of the various personalities. This should be accompanied by mastery over āṅgika. Along with intense mental involvement which is important for effective portrayal of characters, the artist must possess profound detachment to quickly switch between them. An artist who is attached to a particular character only, might find it difficult to come out of his/her mental and physical state. This is quite common in dramas and movies, where the actor/artist, due to his/her own limitations is able to don the role of a particular character only and none other. It requires immense detachment to dive deep into one character at a moment, and present with same intensity another character, the next moment. Padma has mastered this art and it has been possible only because of her vedāntic perspective leading to sublime detachment. One can see her switching between devas, ṛṣis, noble humans, rākṣasas, animals, birds, trees, and creepers in no time. It almost seems like every devatā and character finds his/her/its fulfilment through Padma’s portrayals. It appears like every being is waiting for his/her/its opportunity to get sanctified through the maestro’s sāttvikābhinaya. [Our gratitude to Dr. Shobha Shashikumar and Smt. Madhulika Srivatsa, who are both wonderful artists and scholars, for providing some of these insights.]
