Rukmini Devi

Founder of Kalakshetra

[Rukmini Devi was the founder of Kalakshetra, a national institution in the best sense of the term. She rescued the dance from its debasing associations and restored it as the fine art it had been and was meant to be. She could have been the first woman President of India. But she opted to stay out of the race for the highest office in the country to continue her dedicated workfor the cause of dance and music. Born in Madurai on Feb. 29, 1904, she died in Madras on Feb. 24, 1986. – Editor]

The spirit of India has suffered two successive blows with the death of J. Krishnamurti and of Rukmini Devi. As a philosopher, Krishnamurti shed light into some dark corners of the soul. Rukmini Devi brought new refinement and grace to the soul through art.

Rukmini Devi was a masterful personality, one who had the courage of her convictions, one who could build and organize, one who could outface opposition, what she built has survived. Fortoo frequently with Indian leaders, what they make dies with, or soon after, them. But Rukmini Devi has built unduringly. That is because she dealt not with the externals or trappings, but with the fundamentals.

Her early life could not have held promise of what was to come. A first turning-point was her father joining the Theosophical Society circles in the story of the regeneration of the Hindu spirit from the morals of the eighteenth century and shortly after, the Theosophical Society has played a noble part. It is difficult in the year 1986 to realise the prostrate condition of Hinduism in the face of foreign onslaughts in the last century. But the hour brought forth the man and also the institution. If Swami Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, along with Swami Dayananda, each in his way, heralded the revival of the Hindu spirit it was left to an organisation like the Theosophical Society to consolidate the revival (though much still remains to be done).

The Theosophical Society was an unexpected gift. Who could have imagined that, from out of the West, there would come heralds of our renaissance? The Society taught the Hindu to be proud of his religion and culture. He had been told by some other westerners that it was something discreditable, fit to be discarded. No, said the theosophists, it is something to be cherished and valued, it is from the East that light has come, and it should be improved and refined.

The impact on thinking sections of the Hindu community in the old Madras Presidency was considerable. These sections ended to be “orthodox”, that is, to cling blindly to outworn customs and practices. The western theosophists encouraged them to realise that the old order changes, yielding place to new, and custom fulfils itself in many ways.

Rukmini Devi was rebel first, constructive builder later. She defied “orthodoxy” by marrying a foreigner, George Arundales but a foreigner who was more Indian than many Indians. Next, she defied it again by supporting the system of the dance called the “Bharatanatyam.”

The history of this dance is peculiar, but instructive. Originat­ing in an ancient art form which Bharata seems to have codified, it made a great appeal to the people. Early in the eleventh century, the great Chola, Rajaraja I, had the poses as described by Bharata carved in many sculptural relief in his mighty temple of Raja­rajeswaram, in Thanjavur. There are similar sculptural representations in other temples, notably in Chidambaram, where each pose is depicted with the relevant text from Bharata carved beneath it. It might, therefore, seem that “Bharatanatyam” had been really hallowed of the gods.

Unfortunately, at a later stage, not at the beginning, it became degraded. This must have been due to the general deterioration in the standards outside the temple so that the danseuses, reflecting the mores of the time, made the once-divine art suggestively libertine. There was really nobody to blame for this, only the spirit of the degraded time. The eighteenth century was perhaps the worst of any in the cultural history of our country.

By about the second or third decade of the present twentieth century, the art had become utterly degraded. It was then that this woman from an “orthodox” community resolved, against all expectations of success, to restore it by her own example. We who live in a “permissive” age today may not find it possible to understand what this really meant. It was an outrage of outrages on decency, morality and convention. But Rukmini Devi defied the storm of opposition successfully. It is sometimes said that it was not she, but somebody else, who actually revived Bharatanatyam. Without taking away credit from where it is due, it must be said that a revival of this kind must not be merely theoretical, it must also be practical. Rukmini Devi took courage in both hands and herself danced the maligned dance. She restored it to its old purity and, by herself and in herself, showed to the public that Bharatanatyam was no longer degraded, need no longer be degraded, that virtuous women could   dance   it. There was, of course, opposition. But Rukmini Devi had a determination of iron, she was never cast down by hostility. If today Bharatanatyam is not only “respectable” but recognised, at home and abroad, as one of the finest expressions of the Hindu genius in art, it is mainly because Rukmini Devi had the moral courage and vision to revive it and nurture it to a new life.

Her main instrument was the Kalakshetra, the temple of the Hindu arts, she created in Madras. For years, it has been render­ing valuable service in the practical application of the founder’s beliefs in the innate majesty and glory of the Hindu performing arts. She organised it such that, if Bharatamuni could see it today, he would find it quite congenial. She taught the dance against the ground of ancient Hindu life, in an ashrama, and in the atmosphere of an ashrama. This, in itself, was quite an achievement in the penultimate decade of the twentieth century, a murderous age, if ever there was one.

Rukmini Devi was not an “aesthete”, gazing at a lotus in her hands with fatuous complacency. She was eminently practical, an organiser, a builder. The Kalakshetra, by itself, is achievement enough. But Rukmini Devi supported many other humane causes with all the ardour of her soul. She detested cruelty to animals and, logically following from it, she strongly advocated vegetarian food.

In all this, she showed herself to be humane, thoughtful and practical. It was a mercy that she escaped becoming President of India. The country she ruled over was not political, but of the soul. Here is work that will not die as long as the people of India are true to themselves.