Because dance is the highest and most beautiful art form, it is life itself, not a refinement or abstraction of life; the reason is that our bodies act as instruments of dance.
On a cloudy day in the first week of August, the faint sound of drums filled my ears as I climbed the steep Cotter Road next to the Solis Hotel. I traveled thousands of miles to Sri Jayawardene Prakot to visit the founder of the Ravibandu Dance Academy and learn about different Buddhist traditions, including Sri Lanka’s unique music and dance forms. The knocking grew louder as I drove towards the main entrance of an old building, the Vidyapathy’s residence upstairs and the dance academy on the ground floor. Young people rehearse on the first floor – some playing drums, others practicing Kandy.
A first-floor balcony leads to a handcrafted antique lounge chair and a collection of paints and brushes against a lush verdant backdrop; the interior of the Vidyapathy home is a modest open space filled with drums, paintings, framed photos and other music equipment. We sat in the living room and he served me Ceylon tea and biscuits, introduced himself and his family, and chatted about traditional Sri Lankan dance techniques. The emotes include live demonstrations of him, his son Jeetendra and his daughter Amrita, as well as illustrations broadcast on the big TV.
Ravibandu is the eldest son of the famous Kandy dancer Malathi Somabandhu and granddaughter of the legendary 18th century dance master Algama Kiriganitha; Kalashoori Somabandhu Vidyapathy, a famous classical painter, sculptor and Sri Lanka’s first dance and ballet since the 1940s Costume and set designer. In 1997, Ravibandhu introduced the “Kala Beraya” drum to the island’s music scene, greatly contributing to the development of Sri Lanka’s progressive drum style. His maternal and paternal ancestors were both traditional Sri Lankan dancers and painters of temple murals.
Vidyapati describes herself as a dancer, choreographer, traditional percussionist, composer to a limited extent and amateur painter. Ravibandhu studied traditional drumming under the tutelage of renowned percussion masters Piyasara Shilpadhipathi and Guru Punchiguru, and classical Kandy under the tutelage of renowned dancers Great Gurus Chitrasena and Vajira. He is also a well-known Kathakali actor and dancer and studied in Karamandaran, Kerala, India, where he studied music with Shri PV Nandasiri in Sri Lanka and Ustad David Podiappuhamy in Mehar, India.
Today, he is an icon of Kandy music and dance, and his work includes traditional choreography, full-length ballets with linear plots, modern dance pieces, and short ballets with thematic and abstract themes. He has practiced classical dance for forty years, and the message he gave me on this day will stay with me for the rest of my life. Not only has Vidyapathi received numerous awards for his theatrical performances as a modern stage dancer, he is also a well-known drummer, adept at many Indian and Sri Lankan drums such as Gatabera, Pakhavaj and Tabla.
Ravibandhu brings a new dimension to Sri Lankan music by fusing traditional drumming with global genres such as jazz, Western classical and Indian classical. He is an eight-generation dancer of his mother’s lineage and has strong ties to Esala Perahera in Kandy. Given his rich heritage, it’s no surprise that Vidyapathy has such an in-depth knowledge of Buddhist traditions, rituals and dance styles. His ancestors can be traced back to the 18th century, and the history of solitude has about seven or eight forms of dance that have been passed down from generation to generation, of which Kandayan is the most famous.
Ravibandhu said: “Although Sri Lanka is an island country, it is a little far from India, but the two countries have similar cultures. Most of Sri Lanka’s culture is derived from or filtered from South Indian culture, and a small amount from North Indian culture. .Culture. As you know, Sri Lanka is primarily a Buddhist country. Still, there are sects of Muslims, Hindus, and several other religions. So Sri Lankan culture can be broadly described as a composite of all these civilizations, but it Mainly Buddhism, because Buddhism has been an important part of the growth of everyone in Sri Lanka from the Anuradhapura period, which dates back to the 2nd to 3rd century AD.”
He added: “Living in a Buddhist culture that incorporates all other civilizations, Sri Lanka is a place with a very diverse cultural heritage. Because in Sri Lanka, culture is everything, art is an important part of Sri Lanka and most importantly , dance, an art form created by the human body, is one of the basic driving forces of human beings. Because dance is life itself, not a refinement or abstraction of life, it is the highest art form; the reason is that our body acts as an instrument of dance .”
When it comes to Sri Lankan culture, the island is open to East and West and is a melting pot of various peoples, beliefs and cultural expressions. To showcase some of the styles of music and dance used in Buddhist festivals, we were joined by Ravibandhu’s son Jeetendra, who runs his studio on the ground floor and is also a percussionist, composer and sound engineer, and his daughter is a dancer The Academy’s principal dancer and teacher is a trained traditional dancer.
Amrita demonstrates the fundamentals of Kandy and Ravibandhu delineates the intent of each step. Later, I saw Kandy dancers perform precise movements at Kandy Perahela. While presenting Sri Lankan dance styles, Ravibandhu highlighted three main and distinct classical dance genres practiced across the country. According to Ravibandhu Vidyapathy, Sabaragamuwa Natum is the Sabaragamuwa dance of the central region.
“We have a Kandy dance from the highlands (central highlands) mountains, called Uda Rata Natum; and a lowland country dance from the southern plains, called Pahatha Rata Natum. Natum is derived from the Sanskrit word Natyam, which means dance,” he added.
The basic postures, gestures and many other features of Sri Lankan dance are very similar to Indian dance. However, the individuality of the Sri Lankan dance genre is more prominent in the application of Odissi, Kathak Kali, gestures and special mudras. These traditional dance genres have their roots in time-honored dance events. Ritual either heals the sick or blesses society as a whole, while dance is a form of psychotherapy. As a result, a suffering man must sit all night in a long and delicate performance.
All the performances, including cheerful dances and blessed carols, pounded the patient’s heart and relieved his pain. This is done by summoning a specific figure, demon or deity, and asking him to ward off any evil that may be present in the sick person. Offer offerings to a god or demon in exchange for his services. In some rituals, multiple gods and demons are summoned during the night, and by dawn the psychological burden of the patient is relieved. Theyyam is a traditional Kerala performance art that is closely related to the spirit of these rituals and serves the same purpose, so these performances often appear trance-like with frenetic hand and body gestures.
Festivals in Sri Lanka are held at certain times of the year. From January to February, then during the harvest in April and May, and finally in December, mostly due to weather patterns. Ravibandhu mentioned that the genre of folk dance depicting agricultural tasks is not very old. He told me that the harvest dance was created in the early 1950s by a pioneering dancer. Other traditional dance techniques that have been part of Sri Lankan culture for thousands of years include stick dancing and dancing with symbols.
The main dance style of Kandy Perahera, the Kandyan dance, is nurtured by the Kohomba Kankariya ritual. In this ceremony, the dancer represents the god Kohomba, also known as “neem”, a healing and cleansing plant. Similar to India, Sri Lanka uses neem several times for purification. The dancer’s costume is an illustration of the god Kohomba, a word also used to refer to rice fields, in which case it has both agricultural and medical significance.
Traditions thus include extensive ritual performances that last from dusk to dawn the next day, and sometimes until noon the next day. During the Kohomba Kankariya festival, dancers in Naiyandi costumes perform while the lights are on and prepare food for the demons. The dancers wear white costumes, white turbans, girdles, and ornaments such as rows of beads, silver chains, brass shoulder armor, anklets, and jingles around their necks. On certain occasions, this dance is also performed at Kataragama Devales and Maha Vishnu temples. Dancers are good at dancing, singing and exorcising evil spirits.
Ravibandhu sings Buddhist chants in the middle and plays two different drums with Jitendra. The Geta Bera drum is the main accompaniment to Kandy, similar to Tabla or Idakka in Kathakali. The decorations in Sri Lankan lowland country dances are more or less equivalent to those in Taiam, as they are made of delicate coconut leaves and stumps of banana trees, a reminder of the cultural connection between the peoples of South India and Sri Lanka.
There are three types of rituals: rituals that worship gods, rituals that worship demons, and rituals that are proportional to the deities of the planet to ward off any harm the planet may bring. The effort is marked by a one-of-a-kind ritual known as Pali. Both Kohomba Kankariya and Pali are related to God, and each has many important rituals, not just one. Perahera is associated with the tumult of the ritual, with dancers depicting the deity dressed in red, white and silver costumes.
The giant Pandal for each ceremony, made of palm and coconut leaves, depicts the abode of the gods. After being invited to this Pandal, it is believed that the gods will stay there throughout the ceremony. Apart from the standard Buddhist rituals, Hindus have their own set of rituals. Ravibandhu ends the conversation by showing the various Kandy dance forms used with his daughter Amrita during the Kandy Perahera, while his son Jeetendra plays the Geta Bera drums in the background.
The family also showed me original Kandy headwear and jewelry. These ornaments are exclusively used by professional dancers, making them a precious treasure. I passed the dance school one last time and drove to Kandy, where I witnessed each of these dance ceremonies with an audience of about 10,000 people on the penultimate day of Esala Perahera 2022 in Kandy. It’s amazing to say the least!
