Nataraj School of Dance production on October 6 and 7 at Little Theatre, Lower Hutt
The Hindu concepts of Karma and Dharma revolve around the universal belief that every action has an equal and opposite reaction and that the Lord returns to Earth to reinstate righteousness.
The fatalistic approach is often countered by the teaching that truth will triumph and the guilty will be punished, although the arm of the law can be long and delayed.
The populist Vishnu Puran
Based on these beliefs is Vishnu Puran, which in Hindu Mythology and religion is a compendium of the Ten Avatars of Lord Vishnu, believed to be the Protector of the Universe, who has thus far presented Himself in Nine Avatars. The Tenth Avatar, known as Kalki, is expected to occur at the end of the present Kali Yuga, described as the most degenerate period, leading to total destruction. Thereafter, a period of quiescence will prevail before the cycle of the yugas recommences.
The Hindu belief is that the Coming of Lord Vishnu is certain and that He brings to an end the forces of evil. His Ten Incarnations are cited in Vishnu Puran as Dasavataram.
About the Dance Drama
Prabhavathi (Prabha) Ravi, Natraj School of Dance and its Founder-Director and Principal based in Lower Hutt is preparing her students to present Dasavataram describing in Bharata Natyam style this weekend at the Little Theatre located at 2 Queens Drive, Lower Hutt, Wellington.
The School will be presenting the Dance Drama in three shows- the first on Friday, October 6, 2023 at 6.30 pm and the second and the third on the following day (October 7, 2023) at 2.30 pm and 6.30 pm. Tickets, priced between $12 and $28 can be purchased here or by following this link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/o/natraj-school-of-dance-70429055353
Ms Ravi said that the forthcoming production is an attempt to journey the audience through the Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu over different time cycles since the origin of this Universe as believed and recorded in the Hindu scriptures.
“Lord Vishnu incarnated in different forms since the beginning of this Universe. Whenever the sacred, moral and ethical norms of Dharma, the righteous way of living as per the Hindu way are broken and chaos and evil threaten the Universe, Lord Vishnu incarnates into the world and re-establishes harmony by fighting the forces of disorder. All the incarnations have a common purpose protection of the good, destruction of evil and establishment of Dharma,” she said.
Ms Ravi said that each Avatar took place at different Yugas time cycles calculated as per the Hindu calendar.
“While Lord Vishnu and other Hindu Gods periodically took different Avatars to establish the Dharma on earth, the most popular of these are the Ten Avatars taken by Lord Vishnu. The order of the Dasavatars has been interpreted to be reflective of Darwinian evolution for centuries. The stories are believed to have developed prior to 200 CE,” she said.
According to Ms Ravi, many modern interpreters sequence Lord Vishnu’s Ten Main Avatars in a definitive order, from simple life-forms to more complex ones and see the Dasavatars as a reflection, or a foreshadowing, of the modern theory of evolution. Such an interpretation was propounded by Theosophist Helena Blavatsky in her 1877 opus Isis Unveiled, in which she proposed the order,” she said.
The Ten Avatars
The order of Appearance is (1) Matsya: Fish, the first class of vertebrates; evolved in water. (Silurian Period, over 400 million years ago) (2) Kurma: Amphibious (living in both water and land; not to be confused with the vertebrate class amphibians, more than 260 million years ago (Mesozoic Era) (3)
Varaha: Wild Land Animal or Boar, more than 66 million years ago (Cenozoic Era) (4) Narasimha: Half-Animal and Half-Human, indicative of the emergence of human thoughts and intelligence in powerful wild nature); their origin is obscure but said to be around the Cenozoic Era (5) Vamana: Short, premature human beings (6) Parashurama: Early humans living in forests, using weapons (7) Rama: humans living in the community, indicating the beginning of civil society, around 5000 BCE. (8) Krishna: humans practising animal husbandry in politically advanced societies, around 3000 BCE (9) Buddha: humans finding enlightenment and (10) Kalki: advanced humans with great powers of destruction.
Editor’s Note: The periods mentioned above are estimates and may vary between texts.
Many Hindus in India, particularly reformers, sought to harmonise traditional religion with modern science.
Ms Ravi said that Dasavataram will witness the performers of more than 40 students of her School, supported by unique choreography, state-of-the-art technology, customised costumes and music specially recorded in India.
“The performers will include graduates and senior students of our school. They will include Mathusha (Varaha and Narasimha), Sai Nithya (Parasurama and Kalki), Samhitha (Rama and Krishna), Sowjanya (Matsya and Buddha) the four graduates and Nanthika (Vamana) will enact the main Avatars. The Programme will start with a Mallari, a traditional opening piece with 13 dancers depicting the procession of the Lord outside the Temple complex. This will be followed by a Kauthuvam and two devotional Kritis on Lord Vishnu by about 30 students,” she said.
Ms Ravi said that the production will highlight the nuances and the blend of the Pandanallur and Kanchipuram Ellappa styles of Bharata Natyam.
The Pandanallur style is one of the four original Bharata Natyam formats still popularly followed all over the world.
About Prabhavathi Ravi
Prabhavathi (Prabha) Ravi started to learn dance when she was three years old under Guru Kalaimamani Krishnakumari Narendran. After her Arangetram at the age of nine, she continued advanced training under Guru Udupi Lakshminarayan.
Ms Ravi has been rendering public performances from the age of five and has enacted various characters in dance dramas and ballets. With more than 100 solo performances to her credit under reputed Sabhas and associations in Chennai, she has performed for various festivals in Canada, the USA, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
Ms Ravi’s career as a dance teacher has spanned more than two decades.
She has choreographed and directed several dance concerts, dance ballets and thematic dance productions, proving to be a successful dance teacher and choreographer. She holds a higher-grade diploma qualification in Dance from the Tamilnadu state government.
Awards and Citations
Ms Ravi has won several awards for her contribution to Dance and ethnic communities in New Zealand including the Queen’s Service Medal by the New Zealand government in 2017, Community Award by Indian Newslink for her contribution to the Tamil community in 2018 and contribution to Dance in 2019, the Indian Newslink Special Commemorative Award for Excellence in Business and Education in 2022, the Hutt City Mayoral Civic Honour Awards for Cultural Affairs and Community Group in 2011 and Cultural Award from Upper Hutt Multiethnic Council for contributions to Art and Culture in 2013.
She was a Finalist for Wellingtonian of the Year 2016 under the Education Category.
She is a Justice of Peace.
