'Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum': Saluting the Guru to the World

Silambam dancer Preethi Ramaprasad

When I think of the Hindu god Krishna, I can't help but smile. Raised as a child in the Sixties, I remember those bands of Hare Krishna devotees, with heads shaved, dressed in colorful robes, chanting, beating drums, and dancing through the streets, and even the airports, of various major cities. Those strange-looking men looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Well, wipe all ideas of bald, chanting men from your head should you attend Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum, performed by the Silambam Dance Company of North America, a troupe composed of eight women who dance in costumes resembling the traditional Indian sari. "'Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum' means, 'Lord Krishna, Guru to the World, I salute thee,'" says Ramdas Sunder, president of the Indian Classical Music Circle of Austin, which is sponsoring Silambam's performance. "In Indian mythology, Krishna is an iconic figure, universally beloved, a combination of Achilles, Hercules, Moses, and Christ. As a child, he is the apple of everyone's eye, a mischievous little boy who steals butter from his neighbors, who don't have the heart to punish him because he's so adorable. When older, as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, he protects his people from evil, including a monstrous snake that lives in the River Yamuna near his tribe and saves his people from the rain god by lifting up a hill and holding it on his finger while everyone takes shelter under it. Eventually, in fulfillment of a prophecy, he kills his uncle, a cruel king, and restores his grandfather to the throne. Later in his life, he narrates one of India's most sacred texts, the Bhagavad Gita, or the Song Celestial, India's most accomplished work of philosophy. The Gita, with its emphasis on the performance of one's duty as the path to liberation and salvation -- moksha or nirvana -- was a central influence on Mahatma Gandhi. The Silambam production dramatizes all these episodes and more in Krishna's life."

Silabam does it using a dance form known as Bharatanatyam, a 20th century re-creation of an ancient dance called Cathir. "Cathir was originally performed in temples hundreds of years ago," says Lavanya Rajagopalan, Silambam's lead dancer. "It was associated with a specific class of people called devadasis. Over the years, a negative connotation attached itself to these dancers, and it took a reform movement in the 20th century to bring Bharatanatyam to the stature it enjoys today."

"Virtually every Indian family in Austin has a child learning Bharatanatyam," says Sunder, "a trend more prevalent in the Indian diaspora in the West than even in India. Indians here feel the urge to reconnect with their culture. Austin itself counts no fewer than three schools that teach Bharatanatyam."

Silambam Dance Company of North America will present Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum on Sunday, Aug. 19, 5pm, in the Akins High School auditorium, 10701 S. First. For more information, call 448-6740 or visit www.icmca.org.