State Of The Art Sattriya Today Looking Beyond India

State Of The Art Sattriya Today Looking Beyond India

- Sunil Kothari

By fortuitous circumstances, I attended the All India Dance Seminar convened by the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi in April 1958, and was ushered into a world of Indian classical dances, where I saw for the first time Odissi dances presented in a demonstration by Guru Deba Prasad Das, and Sattriya dances of Assam, presented by traditional gurus like Maniram Dutta Mukhtiyar and inmates of the Kamalabari Satra, the celibate monks. Dr. Maheshwar Neog presented a scholarly paper in which he referred to Sattriya’s antiquity and as a living tradition for more than 500 years in more than 600 satras (monasteries) all over Assam. It was an eye-opener and Dr. Mulk Raj Anand entrusted me to edit a special issue of Marg. It took several years and was published in 2013 with contributions from gurus, scholars, and dancers from Assam with photographs by Avinash Pasricha.

It was during Bhupen Hazarika’s chairmanship of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, in November 2000, after four days of deliberations, demonstrations and performances, that Sattriya dances were recognised as the eighth Indian classical dance form. Since then the Assamese dancers have not looked back and today like in Manipur, you will hardly come across a young dancer who does not know Sattriya dances.

To strike a personal note, from 1966, after my visit to Majuli island for research work and studying its classical character, I presented several lecture demonstrations with Indira P.P. Bora, her daughter Menaka, and Guru Ghanakant Bora in major cities of India including New Delhi, to create an awareness about Sattriya as a classical dance form.