Concept of Jathis in Bharatanatyam

Title -- Concept of Jathis in Nritta of Bharatanatyam
( A minute analysis of the structure and pattern of rhythmic syllables used in the Nritta of Bharatanatyam)

Name of Investigator --
Parimal Phadke , Assistant Professor , Lalit Kala Kendra .



Bharatanatyam like all the other classical dance styles has been passed on to us thru the vast oral and textual tradition. There are primary two aspects of Bharatanatyam. “Nritta” or pure dance and Nritya or Interpretative Dance. The musical components of “Nritta” are – Svara , Chollu / ,Rhythmic recitative syllables and Sahitya /Text.

The “Jathi” becomes a very important part of the “Nritta” or pure dance aspect of “Bharatanatyam” . A rhythmic pattern of syllables which ends in a teermanam or a tiny micro pattern. This “Jathi “ is reflected in several compositions of Bharatanatyam in different ways.
In the Allaripu and Jatiswaram it comes as a very small part, in the Varnam , it enters into the canvas 5 times , larger in quantity and quality. The tradition of using “Jathi-s” has been passed on to us thru a vast oral tradition which is the strong foundation of then luminous banyan tree of Indian Classical Dance.

The Varnam which is the piece de resistance of the Bharatanatyam Margam explores the character of jathi-s in all its entirety. The vocabulary of jathi-s , it is said it is inspired from different types of instruments. – Wind , Percussive , Metal and String. The length of the jathi for the Varnam used to be crisp and short which now has evolved into larger phrase going till 5 minutes.



Thus the following departmental research investigates Jathis from the perspective of --percussionist , nattuvanar , a dancer and a music composer . How do these four different entities bring a very different perspective to jathi-s

1) Introduction of the Jathi – Concept , Vocabulary , Mathematics in the rhymthmic pattern .

2) Collecting Vast Vocabulary of Jathi-s and its deeper analysis into its component parts—
1) Phrase
2) Vocabulary
3) Tempo or Laya
4) Structure of Teermanam

3) Analysis of aspects of Choreography in the Jathi—
Investigating into the interrelationship of the jathi and the choreography.

Thus the following research project investigated into the anlysis of jathi-s through four perspectives --
1)Percussionist (Expert -- Shri D.V. Prasanna ( Bangalore)
2)Nattuvanar ( Expert Shri Suresh Svamimalai)
3)Dancer ( Expert -- Guru Dr.Sucheta Chapekar)
4)Music Composer for dance ( Expert -- Guru Madurai Muralidharan)