Seetarama Sarma A Rare Link To The Past

Seetarama Sarma A Rare Link To The Past

- Anjana Anand

There are some people whose loss is felt not just at a personal level. A deeper chord is struck with the sudden realisation that we have also lost a whole repository of knowledge. Bhagavatula Seetarama Sarma was one such person. I was a lucky beneficiary of his wisdom.

To merely state his skills as a musician, composer, choreographer, nattuvanar or teacher is like the proverbial blind men trying to describe an elephant. Few artists can assimilate so many tributaries into one flowing river as he did. Music, laya and dance came together so seamlessly, each with its own identity but bound together by a common thread of musicality. Every jati and music composition of his had this quality. The dance is visible in every gamaka and sangati of his music, while his jatis have a musical quality cloaking rhythmic complexity.

Jayanthi Subramaniam, one of his senior students says: “It is a pity that there is very little documentation of his compositions and choreography and more importantly his teaching methodology. It is a blessing that I was able to work with him on the DVD titled Bharatanatyam Nattuvangam - the Cadence and Conduct, produced by E-Parampara as part of their Kalakriya series. The DVD is but a small glimpse of the tip of an iceberg. He was a colossus who lived for music and dance up to his very last breath”. He has left a hard to fill vacuum behind him.