On 14, August 2025, the dance wing of Narada Gana Sabha inaugurated the 27th edition of its annual five-day thematic dance festival, Natyarangam. This year’s theme, Acharya Bharatham, paid homage to great spiritual masters — Adi Shankara, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramana Maharishi. Each presentation was to be staged by a team comprising dancers and musicians, who collaborated with a resource person on the chosen theme.

The festival opened with a welcome address by President Mohan Srinivas, outlining the vision of Narada Gana Sabha and this year’s unique homage to spiritual gurus. Chief Guest Devaki Muthaiah was introduced along with committee members Sudha Sheshayyan and Sujata Vijayaraghavan. The highlight was the conferment of the Natyacharya Ratna on Ambika Buch, senior Kalakshetra dancer and direct disciple of Rukmini Devi Arundale and Sharada Hoffman. Several annual endowment awards followed, each preceded by citations. Devaki Muthaiah lauded the Sabha’s service to the arts in her address, while Ambika Buch, in her acceptance speech, recalled her Kalakshetra training, the influence of Rukmini Devi, and the family support that sustained her journey as dancer and teacher.

Then it was time for the first performance of the festival.

Day 1: Adi Shankara, performed by the trio of Vidhun Kumar, Uma Govind, and Sibi Sudarshan. The piece was titled Shankaram Smaramahe. The resource person for the presentation, Sudha Sheshayyan gave a brief talk highlighting the greatness of Adi Shankara and important episodes of his life. The dance presentation attempted to trace this journey of Adi Shankara, his trials and tribulations, the challenges faced by him, his encounter with the Lord, his exposition of Advaita philosophy which was the cornerstone of his teachings. The theme, though abstract in nature, was handled in a lack luster manner. The episodes could have been given greater elaboration to create a visual impact which was what the dance was meant to do. This aspect left much to be desired. The orchestra with Jayashree Ramanathan on nattuvangam, Venkatesh vocal, Vedakrishnan on mridangam, Soundararajan on veena, and Prasad on flute were very competent. 

Day 2: Ramanujacharyar, performed by K P Rakesh, Girish Madhu and Vidya Girish Madhu.  The introductory talk by Dushyant Sridhar was screened. He spoke about the origins of this great Vaishnava saint and of his journey in spreading the philosophy of Vishisht advaita school of vedanta. Sridhar made the distinction between this advaitam and the one espoused by Adi Shankara. Rakesh had divided the performance into scenes and preceding each scene there was a brief description of what was about to take place. This made it interesting for the viewers as we were able to understand what was being enacted. The introduction with Ananthalwar’s description of the saint, the story of the saint Alavandhar passing and the mystery of the three folded fingers and the miracle of them opening on enunciation of the three regrets, the 18 attempts by Ramanujar before finally obtaining the ‘mahamantra’, the story of Dhanurdasa at Srirangam, the portrayal of the 18^th Tiruppavai pasuram and the sight of the acharya’s daughter as Andal herself, the introduction of ‘arayar sevai’ at Srirangam, and finally the miracle of the stolen idol returning to Ramanujar purely with prayer. The episodes were well conceived and executed by the three dancers. The trio concluded with a tillana, an apt closure for a dance performance on such a grave subject as of the life and teachings of a great saint.

Orchestra: Parur Ananthashri (vocal), Sudarshini (Nattuvangam), Guru Bharadwaaj (mridangam) Shreya (violin) Anantharaman (veena) and Advait Anand (flute). Music was good, Sudarshini’s singing of the ‘arayar sevai’ was very good.

Day 3:  Madhvacharya, performed by Praveen Kumar. Resource person Arjun Bharadwaj a research scholar who gave an introductory talk on the uniqueness of Madhvacharya. He talked of the Dvaita philosophy of Madhvacharya, also known as Ananda Thirtha, the premise and foundations of which are credited to him. Arjun also mentioned his penchant for physical fitness. He spoke about the acharya’s belief that he considered himself an incarnation of Vayu Bhagawan and that he was the third, after Hanuman and Bhima. Arjun mentioned his association in this project and highlighted the episodes from the saint’s life that were going to be depicted.

The performance by Praveen Kumar was excellent. He chose to tell his story in a Harikatha style of narrative which was carried off very well. The dancing was vigorous and precise with not a foot or gesture out of place. The talks in between scenes were measured and beautifully delivered with no hesitation and in full confidence. Each philosophical concept was explained by an example and performed. The first was an introduction to the subject from verses taken from Kalyani Devi, the acharya’s sister. Here the lineage from Vayu Bhagawan is mentioned, the incarnations of Hanuman, Bhima, and Madhva. Next was the enunciation of the nine tenets of Madhva Siddhanta which were designed to protect and uplift. Dasavatham was performed to highlight the tenets. The refrain of ‘Hari sarvottama’ was to stress that there was no deity beyond Keshava. In this manner each scene unfolded with a commentary in between, the pancha bhootas to pay respects to nature, the prahalada story to demonstrate clarity of thought, the role of Lakshmana and his devotion to his brother, Lakshmana as Adishesha always accompanying Narayana, the different forms of bhakti as portrayed by Sabari, Guhan, and Kuchela, finally the story of a sinking ship saved and the Krishna idol retrieved, the advice of the acharya that Lord Narayana needs to be known, loved, and worshipped. The establishment of eight mutts the foremost being the one at Udupi. The performance ended with Hari sarvottama Vayu jeevottama.

The orchestra consisted of Pradesh Achar (vocal), Navyashree on (nattuvangam), Vinod Shyam (mridangam and table) and Mahesh Swamy (flute).  The music was competent without being extraordinary. The recitations and the jathi portions were well done.        

Day 4: Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sharada Devi, and Swamy Vivekananda, performed by Uttiya Barua; Radhika Vairavelavan; and Sundaresan Pandurangan. The resource person was Swami Dharmishtananda from the Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai. Swamiji was unable to give the introductory talk, so it was read by Swami Ramakripananda. His message stressed on the divine attributes of Bhagawan Ramakrishna, purity, devotion, and love. A person who was a world leader, compassion incarnate and believed that service to man was service to God. The message also pointed out that the performance was not only a cultural event but is also a profound experience that will be felt by the audience in the process of following the lives of these three great saints. There were many monks from the mutt in attendance as well as a number of children from the school.

The presentation by the three dancers was done to music with predominantly Bengali lyrics since that was where the story unfolded. In view of the length of the narrative as it involved three important personalities the team of Uttiya, Radhika, and Sundaresan must be commended for their effort.

The first scene opened with excerpts from the famous address by Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago on 11, Sept 1893.   The speech was meant to spread his ideas to inspire mankind and guide them on the spiritual road in the right direction.

The scene now shifted to Kamapukur in West Bengal, the birth-place of Ramakrishna Paramahansa. He was born Ramakrishna Chattopadhyay and was called Gadadhar in his youth. Born on 18, February 1836 to Khudiram Chattopadhyaya and Chandramani Devi, Ramakrishna’s birth was preceded by supernatural experiences for his parents, which reinforced the belief that God Himself has chosen to be born as Ramakrishna, was portrayed.

Each scene traced pivotal moments from Ramakrishna’s life—the ardent Kali worship where he saw all religions as paths to Her; Rani Rashmoni’s founding of the Dakshineshwar Kali temple and his appointment as priest; the rectification of the Radhe Govindo idol; and his marriage to Sharada Devi, revered as an incarnation of the Divine Mother herself. The narrative then moved to the birth of Narendranath Dutta (later Swami Vivekananda) in 1863, his mischievous youth, and his transformation under Ramakrishna’s guidance. The story of Nachiketa symbolised his quest for Brahman, while Vivekananda’s prayer to Kali for knowledge rather than wealth marked the transfer of spiritual power. His meditation at Kanyakumari, extensive travels across India, address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions, and the founding of Belur Math and the Ramakrishna Mission concluded the portrayal.

Orchestra consisted of Saurav (vocal), Narendra Kumar (nattuvangam), M S Sukhi (mridangam) and V. Nair (Flute). Accompanying musicians were average without being special.

Day 5: Ramana Maharishi performed by Anand Sachidanandan, resource person Dr. Ambika Kameshwar.

Ambika Kameshwar is well-known for using performing arts as a developmental tool to help children with disabilities. A devotee of Ramana Maharishi, a connection she got from her parents who were also devotees. In her introduction she traced the advent of Ramana, the many indications that his was not just an ordinary birth and that the journey through this life, culminating in the final destination of Tiruvannamalai and the Ramana Ashram, is the gift bestowed by him to the world and us followers who revere him. Her introduction mentioned the various events in the life of the great saint which would be performed by Anand during his presentation.

The introductory piece begins with the birth of Ramana at Thiruchuzai in 1879 in the backdrop of the ‘Arudra Darisanam’ festival taking place at the nearby temple; the midwife witnessing a divine light around the newborn; his first brush with death at his father’s passing; the awakening of a longing for Arunachala after hearing from his relatives, and his own profound near-death experience that followed. The death episode was dramatically portrayed by Anand and the musicians and was an impactful moment in the presentation.

Ramana goes to Tiruvannamalai enters the temple and embraces the lingam declaring loudly, “Father I have come”; meditates at the Pathala lingam shrine where the final conversion occurs; he reveals his location to his family and his mother arrives to plead him to return home, but in vain; the incident of his disturbing a hornet’s nest and being stung by the bees, which was accepted by him; his mother returns to stay with him, he helps her in the path to self-realisation and also guides her to salvation on her passing; the final scene is about the animals at the ashram and his love for all living things. So many events performed in a period of about 90 minutes was remarkable and executed well.

The excellent visuals presented by Anand was ably complimented by some wonderful music. Aditya Narayan’s soulful singing created a great impact to this rather serious subject. Nattuvangam by Jayalakshmi Anand, Sukanya on the violin, Sarvesh Karthick on mridangam, and Sashidhar on the flute completed the ensemble and delivered a stunning performance.

A very perfect end to a very well organised Natyarangam 2025.