A Dance Odyssey

For over five decades, she has enthralled people the world over through her grace and poise. With immense contribution towards Manipuri dance and Manipuri culture, Darshana Jhaveri is the youngest of the four internationally acclaimed Jhaveri Sisters whose name is today synonymous with Manipuri Dance. She has played a stellar role in establishing this dance form at the national and international level, in addition to securing the coveted recognition of Manipuri dance as a classical dance form.

As kids, the Jhaveri sisters learnt various classical and folk dances including Bharat Natyam, Kathak and Kathakali. Yet it was the delicacy and fluidity of the Manipuri Dance that endeared to the four talented sisters. Darshana Jhaveri's tryst with the Manipuri dance began in 1947 when she too like her elder siblings Nayana, Suverna, and Ranjana came under the enthralling spell of the Manipuri dance. Since then she has dedicated herself almost entirely to the research, perpetuation and popularization of the Manipuri dance under the tutelage of Guru Bipin Singh. Over the years, under the able guidance her guru, she has evolved into a technically versatile and an immaculately proficient dancer, specializing in the Tandav and Lasya elements of Manipuri Dancing and drum playing.


It was in 1956 that Darshana along with her sisters Nayana, Suverna and Ranjana, went to Manipur for the first time to learn the style and nuances of the three gharanas of Manipuri dance, under the three gurus, Guru Amubi Singh, Guru Atomba Singh and Guru Amodan Sharma. Since then, Darshanaji has visited Manipur for more than 30 times, meeting different gurus as also experts on Manipuri dance, residing both within Manipur and in adjacent areas like Cachar, Sylhet and Tripura; learning, collecting, recording the age-old oral traditions, studying the Vaishnavite shastras and establishing scientific tenets underlying these oral traditions: thereby developing a scientific and a systematized approach to Manipuri dancing. For this dance form has long been an oral tradition, with the bols and talas being handed down from one generation of artists to the succeeding one(s), owing to which many discrepancies had set in; apart from the fact that often the tradition died with the death of the artist. From 1956 to 1958, Darshana and her sisters, under the guidance of Guru Bipin Singh, performed dance dramas in Manipuri style at various places. The Manipuri Dance being a unique blend of art and religion, the people of Manipur hold it in utmost reverence. Erstwhile confined to the sacred temples of Manipur and to the Manipuri community alone, the Jhaveri sisters were the first to break the mould when in 1958 they became the first non-Manipuris to dedicate their dances in the hallowed precints of the Govindajee Temple in Manipur. As a matter of fact, a significant contribution of the Jhaveri sisters and Guru Bipin Singh towards Manipuri culture has been to bring in these traditional and classical dances from the hallowed precints of the temples to the stage without in the least sullying the sanctity and spirit of the original dance form. Of course, while performing on stage, they had to condense an eight-hour recital (performed in the temple) to a two/two-an-a-half hour recital keeping intact the sanctity and spirit of the dance form. Which, according to Darshanaji was a great challenge, for they were treading onto untrodden territory and there was every chance of a backlash from the art connoisseurs? Their fears came true when this endeavour met with much (vehement) opposition from the aficionados and experts in Manipur because they all felt that this was a dishonour to the spirit of the Dance form. To clear all these misconceptions the Jhaveri sisters along with Guru Bipin Singh personally went to Manipur and tried (attending seminars and conducting workshops), explaining to the people (especially the art critics and experts) that this condensing and consequent presentation of the dance on the stage wasn't bad or wrong. The 1960s saw the Jhaveri sisters, under Guru Bipin Singh embark on dance tours all over the country and abroad to present and exhibit Manipuri classical dance recitals, lecture demonstrations, contributing articles to the press media, radio talks et al… The 1970s saw establishment of Manipuri Nartanalaya to channelize study and research of Manipuri Dance in which the Jhaveri sisters had a pivotal role to play...


Today, Darshana Jhaveri remains actively associated with the 'Manipuri Nartanalaya' at Mumbai, Kolkata and Manipur in teaching, in creative productions and in the publication of books (essentially research-based works, till now this Nartanalaya has published 17 books, several of which have been written/edited Darshanaji herself). She has performed in different parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the USSR, West Europe (in fact her first foreign trip in the year 1957) , Africa, Mexico, Jordan, Thailand, Hongkong, Mauritius, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal among others. Her tryst with Manipuri dance spanning five decades, the world has recognized and honoured her immense contribution to Manipuri dance and the Manipuri culture at large. Of the many honours and awards she has been bestowed with, the notable ones include 'Vishwa Gurjari Award', Ahmedabad (1991); 'Nritya Vilas' by Sur Singar, Mumbai (1995); Honorary Doctorate from City University, Los Angeles (1984); 'Natya Praveena' by International Dance Alliances, Chennai; 'Nritya Mallika' by the Nikhil Vishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha, Asom apart from the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1996), and the prestigious Padmashri Award. She was also conferred with the 2000 Millennium Cultural Diploma of Honor by the American Biographical Institute, USA. In 1999, she was also felicited by the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation, Mumbai…






With an extremely hectic schedule the year round, especially one that involves a great deal of traveling (which is amazing, keeping in mind her age) it was with quite some difficulty that this writer managed to get an appointment with this Nritya Mallika for a very brief tête-à-tête when she was in town some time back for conducting a Manipuri dance workshop in the Manipuri Sewashram [organized by 'Selpung'-a socio-cultural-literary organization]. Put up at the aesthetically decorated residence of her friend Renu Duttabaruah, at Maligaon, Guwahati, Darshanaji was the very picture of refinement and simplistic grandeur: exuding warmth and beauty, evoking in yours truly a feeling of humbleness and reverence. To a query as to what was it that actually endeared her to Manipuri dance, she replied, in her characteristic soft calm manner, that apart from its gracefulness, delicacy and fluidity, the dance suited her nature and aptitude. And after all these years, it has entered into her veins in a way that renders it impossible to separate herself from the dance. As she herself would like to maintain, her astitva remains intrinsically intertwined with this sheer graceful of all dances. To another query as to whether she has formed any fusion of different dance forms in her productions, she replied that she is not much in favour of mixing different dance forms, (as is often seen nowadays in the name of fusion). In her own words, "once the essence and spirit of a dance seeps into ones body and soul, one cannot give much justice to the style and aesthetics of other dance forms and spontaneity is thus lost". Her absolute dedication to art is illustrated by the fact that she remained single all through her life; devoting herself entirely to the espousal of the cause of perpetuation and popularization of this most beauteous of classical dances. Besides, the ethereal bliss and peace of mind she derived/experienced never gave her any moment to spare for such worldly thoughts for nuptials…


Time is running out, for Darshanaji has to return to her students at the workshop who are eagerly awaiting for her to begin her classes again (it is worth mentioning that this interaction was possible during the few minutes of break that was given to the students at the workshop) ----blessed ones indeed---and the conversation has to come to an end. Yet the few moments that this writer spent during this interaction with this Nritya Mallika was an opportunity of a lifetime: an enriching and overwhelming experience----a glimpse into a dance odyssey.


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