The Dance
A 3rd century BC Sanskrit shloka (Mithila, late Mauryan period) mentions
Kathak like this :
..anahat...nrityadharmam kathakacha devalokam... Translation:
...sound...and the Kathaks whose duty is dance for the divine peoples
Kathak is one of the major Classical Forms of dance of North India. The
word " Kathak " means to tell a story. The Story of Kathak
goes like this - in the olden days when the patronage shifted from the
temple to the royal court, there came a change in the overall emphasis in
telling stories. It shifted from religious stories to that of entertainment.
Today, the story telling part remains with with it in the back and the dance
holding the primary role.
Primarily, Kathak was associated with an institution called Tawaif. It is
something like Ghesia tradition of Japan.Tawaif was a profeesion
which demanded highest standards of training, intelligence and civility - to
be able to learn Kathak. But then the Britishers came to rule India, giving
Tawaif a bad name. This was the beginning of Tawaif into a downtrail
spiral.
