Offtrack: Thanjuvar: 1818 West Main Street

This old Tamil home has kept alive the tradition of Bharatanatyam over the ages.

Meruku Vithi or West Main Street behind the western walls of the Brihaddeeswaran temple in Thanjavur is as old as the time of the Cholas. Over the years, it has turned into a bustling street with shops selling anything from clothing to hardware, the ubiquitous PCOs, a printing press, a missionary school, small dingy hotels, cows, cars, three-wheelers, chaos. If it's House No. 1818 you are looking for, the chances are you will not find it easily because its front yard has been encroached upon by a milk vendor whose cows and buffaloes are all over the place. But why would anyone be looking for the house in the first place?

Today the house is the domain of dance guru and musician Kittappa Pillai whose ancestors comprised the famous Tanjore quartet.

Today the house is the
domain of dance guru and musician Kittappa Pillai whose ancestors comprised the famous Tanjore quartet.

They would if they were interested in history or culture, jointly or individually. The modest edifice is where Bharatanatyam as we know it today originated and where Vadivelu (1810-1847) first mastered the western violin and made it an inalienable part of Carnatic music.

As you make your way past the cows to the open door of this historical single-storey house, a huge golden retriever greets you with mixed feelings: he barks suspiciously, yet wags his tail. It is a typically old Tamil home with a narrow veranda and mittham or courtyard around which the other rooms are lined. The mittham is the main living area where visitors are entertained and women tend to their chores, where children play and grandpas sit in large easy-chairs.

This is the domain of Kittappa Pillai, 86, doyen of Bharatanatyam gurus and a musician par excellence. He sits bare chested, chewing paan, staring idly at the television showing a cricket match. The walls around him are lined with framed pictures and memorabilia like citations and certificates. Obviously used to having visitors, he points to the high points, without getting up from his seat: "The ivory violin there was presented to Vadivelu by Maharaja Swati Tirunal And there is his portrait done in the the Tanjore style."

Much of what is called Bharatanatyam has its roots in the tradition of sadirattam that was practised by the devadasis in the Tanjore court of the Maratha rulers. Among them, Tulaja II (1728-1736) brought Kittappa's ancestor, the talented musician-cum-dance teacher Mahadevan Pillai, from Tirunelveli and settled him in this house. Pillai's great-grandsons comprised the famous Tanjore quartet of Channaiya, Ponnaiya, Shivanandan and Vadivelu, who revolutionised Bharatanatyam and popularised it far beyond Thanjavur. Kittappa's father K. Ponnaiya Pillai was also a celebrated musician having been bestowed the coveted Sangeeta Kalanidhi title by the Madras Music Academy.

The brothers of the quartet were direct disciples of Mutthuswami Dikshitar, one of the most revered composers of Carnatic music. It was Vadivelu who mastered the western violin and introduced it to the court of Maharaja Swati Tirunal in Travancore. The king was so pleased that he presented Vadivelu with an ivory violin which can still be seen in Kittappa's house. Music and dance thus have a long tradition in this family. "The classical arts are based on two things: the shastras (texts) and the sampradayam (tradition)," intones Kittappa in a ponderous tone. "Without being kept alive by sampradayam the shastras are not of much use. It is sampradayam which recreates and breathes life into the knowledge of the shastras generation after generation." And that is what the extended Thanjavur family has been doing over the past two-and-a-half centuries. In his time Kittappa too fulfilled that role and was a highly sought after guru who can count many star dancers from Vyjayanthimala Bali and Indrani Rehman to Yamini Krishnamurti and Sucheta Chapekar as his students.

The story of 1818 West Main Street thus forms a major chunk of Bharatanatyam history. As you reluctantly prepare to leave, you cannot but help ask Kittappa if the premises will continue to house the tradition after him. Two of Kittappa's sons have sadly discarded the family tradition though the third, Chandrashekaran, is now learning the art from his father. "I hope to pass on what I know to the extent that I can, the rest will be God's will," says the patriarch of dance as he puts another paan into his mouth. It's time to watch TV again. Que sera sera.