The Legacy of Rajarshi Bhagyachandra

R.K. Singhajit Singh *

A portrait of Rajarshi Maharaja Bhagya Chandra Singh :: Pix - RK Priyojit Singh

The seed that germinated in perpetuity is what Maharaja Bhagyachandra sowed in the soil of Manipur. An attempt to peep into what might have happened opens an inexplicable and complex phenomenon far beyond what meets the eye and beyond the capability of common human comprehension. An awe-inspiring revelation that cannot be contained in simple words and thoughts, comparable to the vision of the infinite as experienced by Arjuna when Krishna granted him the vision of Bishwaroopa, a boundless effulgence engulfing everything. One is reminded of an omnipotent Atiya Guru Sidaba sitting alone in the midst of nothingness contemplating how to bring forth the universe lying dormant within him.

Now I take recourse to the invocation from the Upanishads:-

Poornamadah Poornamidam Poornaat poornamudyachate Poornashya poonamadaya Poornamevashishyate Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

"That is full, This is also full, from Fullnes comes that Fullness Taking Fullness from Fullness, Fullness indeed remains Om Shanti: Shanti: Shanti:"

One king, One Image and One Belief that was all that generated an unending chain of cultural revelations, giving birth to so many kinds of performing arts of the highest order. The ever-widening ripples kept expanding in the ocean of time with Govindji as the nucleus, radiating creative impulses. That is the inexplicable phenomenon bom out of a combination of a devotee and his God in a confluence of Bhakti.

Since ancient times the people of Manipur have been worshipping their gods through music and dance. Lai Haraoba the pre-Vaishnavite religious festival, whose origin goes back to antiquity, is a vivid living example. It is thus quite natural that the concept of Sankirtan and Ras as forms of worship found ready acceptance in the people of the land after the installation of Shree Govindji.

The resultant manifestation of every conceivable performing arts including singing, dancing, enactment, story telling and recitation kept on multiplying as time went by, begetting further sub-arts with a self generating momentum enhancing the spirit of Bhakti.

Natya Shastra is positively one of the greatest and most complete books on dramaturgy where every conceivable aspect of Natya has been thoroughly discussed. Therefore any kind of dance has reasonable similarities with Natya Shastra. It is thus only natural that one finds many similarities in a highly advanced art form like Manipuri. We had never heard of Natya Shastra and came to know about it much later.

Many books in India including religion and literature were influenced by Natya Shastra and rightly so in different ways. Thus many of its elements seeped into different works of art at various stages including those of Manipur in a remote manner even though we had no direct reference to it. Even now we accept and adopt many elements of this book wherever suitable and also reject it when it is otherwise.

Some scholars seem to forget that no Shastra was ever meant to be a dogma. They serve as valuable guidelines for the mind to ponder and apply appropriately but not a set of sacrosanct rules. That is why there are many commentaries or Bhasyas of the Shastras and these need not agree with each other. Even Brahma Sutra the most important book of Sanatana Hinduism has different commentaries completely opposed to each other and each one is right in its own place.

No knowledge is absolute, and the moment it is taken to be so it becomes obsolete: No true knowledge can become an impediment or intellectual strait-jacket stopping anyone from freely pursuing alternate avenues of insight. Such misleading thought processes have done considerable damage to priceless oral traditions of ancient civilizations with the unchallenged authority of the printed book.

I would like to mention two monumental books Ujjvala Neelamani and Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu written by Shriroop Goswami, exploring new avenues and minute areas of the sentiment of Shringara going far beyond where Bharata left. We generally speak of Nava Rasa but Bharata mentioned only eight Rasas, Shanta Ras was a later addition. Scholars of the Bhakti school added Dashya, Sakhya and Madhurya.

King Bhagyachandra's complete philosophy of religion is based on Bhakti and all the resultant manifestations of Manipuri religious arts follow the same course. The Rajarshi belonged to the class of saints who were blessed with direct Bhagavad Darshan bestowing unbounded spiritual experience and insight without any formal education. What he attained were revelations from Bhakti Yoga and not JnanaYoga.

Sankirtan and Ras Leela were all revelations, crystallized and made manifest with the help of great musicians, dancers and scholars of the time. Bhagyachandra himself took active part and supervised the process and made sure that it conformed to what he experienced in his vision. This includes not only music and dance but even the costumes of Radha, Krishna and Gopis. For the narrative part he dwelt on religious texts including Shrimad Bhagavad and other available Bhakti literature mostly in Sanskrit and Bengali. The king himself played the Pung (Manipuri Mridanga) in the first dedication of Maharas Leela.

The ritualistic aspect of all these arts as well as the presentation format were formulated and crystallized through time to give the arts a structured form, instilling a sense of sanctity and dignity with high degree of aesthetic excellence to sustain the spirit of worship and based on Bhakti. Strict rules were formulated to the minutest detail applicable not only to the performers but even the onlookers. This made it a highly sophisticated and dignified art conceptually and aesthetically, elevating it to a highly classical form of Natya.

For researchers it is quite tempting to speculate that Ras was based on Lai Haraoba and Bhangi Pareng was created out of Laipou. Although both are worship performances they are conceptually and empirically different and each one is great in its own way. The Rajarshi followed both the ancient and Vaishnavite forms of worship and the people of Manipur continued to do the same. One cannot deny the influence of various prevailing art forms but I don't share the view that the dances of Ras were created out of Lai Haraoba. No text or oral tradition of the unbroken chain of Gurus ever mentioned it.

The creators of Ras Leela had to invent many movements to meet the requirements of the new religion and depended mostly on aesthetic revelations as a result of introspection or Dhyana. The same is true of the Ragas of singing and drumming which were bom out of deep meditation attaining the status of inviolable religious rituals.

Bhangi Pareng, composed two and half centuries back is a great non-literal choreographic manifestation of creative sanctity. This ethereal garland of movements reflecting Bhakti remains sacred and sacrosanct. Through centuries it has remained unchanged. Viewed in relation to the time, place and ambience of that period, it is a profound example of Manipuri aesthetic genius with a proportionate combination of variety, contrast, balance, climax, sequence, transition, repetition, harmony and unity, clearly transcending cerebral verbal meaning. Some try to interpret such works of art by planting verbal and literal meaning to every movement bringing it down to earth, shattering the fragile evanescence of aesthetic spontaneity, denuding it of its abstract godliness.

Regarding Shastriyata I would like to add that merely conforming to any text does not make an art classical. It is the aesthetic quality of the art consonant with the unquestioned acceptance of a sophisticated civilization with a long and deep rooted tradition which matters. A man following religious rituals strictly need not necessarily be religious. Merely conforming to the exterior technicalities of any Shastra does not necessarily make any art Shastiya.

Another important point to note is that Manipuri classical arts were always religious and not secular. For example we do not have a tradition of court dances or music, and the performances were only in the temples. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Because of this we maintained its sanctity and element of Bhakti undiluted. Because of this those styles which were nurtured in the courts became early birds in adapting to presentations on the proscenium stage and had a head-start while Manipuri entered this arena much later. This is no reflection on the aesthetic excellence of either.

Bharata gave a lot of importance to the playhouse or Prekshagriha. Each kind of performance hall has its own unique qualities which affects the presentation and its effect on the onlookers. Traditionally Manipuri arts were performed in the Mandapa with the audience seated all around. In Raas Leela and Sankirtana spontaneous relation between the performer and audience are easily established as the relevant rituals and performances are designed for such a surrounding.

The continuous spiraling flow of energy from the artistes to the audience and again back to the performer is continuous, generating a palpable magnetism relating the performer and audience. At the same time performer and the onlooker are clearly separated by an imaginary dividing circle effectively placing the performers and their art in a world of make belief. This happens in both the elaborately decorated Raas Mandala and simply prepared performance area of the Sankirtan.

The audience feels a strong sense of belonging to the performance. There never is eye contact between the performer and audience strengthening the aura of other worldliness and avoid earthly closeness. This has become a strong characteristic of Manipuri performing arts both in the Mandapa and stage performances.

Now we have the inevitable challenge of stage presentation which is both necessary and desirable. Experiments in group choreography during the last 50 years both in and out of Manipur have been extremely successful.

The recent increasing demand for solo performances in a big way is a healthy sign leading to a new area of evolution and creative expansion of our arts. Solo Manipuri dance is fast adapting to the demands of stage and reinventing itself without losing its basic identity. Depending upon the skill and talent of both the choreographers and performers some recent experiments have been very encouraging.

Now dance becomes a language free to give expression to any subject. Besides the usual religious themes it can portray secular, nonliteral or abstract concepts, opening a new world of possibilities as well as challenge for the artistes. However Manipuri dance should never be used for undignified cheap entertainments for sheer money making or cheap popularity.

In the present trend of sound, fury and speed in the entertainment world Pung Cholom and Thang Ta have become favorites while the Jagoi aspect of art with its shy and delicate demeanor is comparatively slow in this race to catch popular public attention. In the world of performing arts there are many slow moving arts like ours which have found great following among the art lovers. On our part we must reach out to the world not by mere physical presence but by creating works of art which can create rasikas without compromising our identity.

We are in a challenging period of adaptation, innovation and evolution. Both choreographers and dancers should develop an attitude of high level of professionalism. There are new demands needing new solution. We need to extend its horizon without sacrificing the identity of the style. The new solo compositions are bound to be different in both content and presentation.

Some elements like Mudra and facial expression naturally come into focus in the new solo compositions. Both need to be understood properly and applied appropriately in our own way to seamlessly enhance the presentation. Any unsuitable implantation spoils the ethereal quality makes the rendering too earthly. In fact there are Mudras which blend naturally and also those which are accepted only as a matter of convention. A section of Manipuri dancers use such gestures as accepted sign language and not a spontaneous outpouring of aesthetic experience.

Margam or presentation procedure is another frequently debated factor. Some even consider it as a mark of classicism. Traditionally we have very elaborate rules of presentation and even engage specialized professionals to look after this aspect. These however are not applicable to stage presentation. To my mind Margam is only a packaging and is secondary to the art.

It can even be different from presentation to presentation giving enough elbow room to the artist to invent most effective way while maintaining the basic decorum suitable to our culture. The function of art in human society is multifarious. It ranges from the primitive and exotic to the most sophisticated and refined, from religious and sacred to purely commercial entertainment.

What Rajarshi Bhagyachandra did was unique in this regard, weaving the performing arts inextricably into the fabric of the people's life. To the Manipuri mind worship is almost synonymous to Sankirtan. Raas and many such Leelas are cherished offerings to obtain spiritual upliftment. Even the poorest of the poor spend all they have to offer Sankirtan as indispensable parts of their lives. This guaranteed the unquestioned voluntary social patronage and support to the arts making it a truly living art.