An eminent dancer, art director, researcher and cultural activist, Lubna Marium is a revered figure in the South Asian dance fraternity. The Vice President of 'World Dance Alliance' actively participates in various cultural organizations. She is appraised for her contributions to promoting Indian Classical and Indigenous dance forms among Bangladeshi dancers. In an interview with Rafi Hossain she talks passionately about her organization 'Shadhona' and 'Kolpotoru'.
INTRODUCTION In October 2010, Shadhona -- A Center for Advancement of South Asian Dance & Music - presented 'Charyapada', also known as 'Vajrapada' or songs of Vajra, as a living Nepalese performative tradition within Vajrayana tantric rituals. Bengal has been familiar with the medieval Buddhist text of 'Charyapada' since 1907, when Sri Haraprasad Shastri discovered a manuscript of the 'Charyacharchavinischaya', the earliest example of written Bangla, in the Royal Archive of Nepal. Linguistic analysis by scholars tells us that many of the authors of the poems of 'Charya' were from medieval Bengal. In 1960, Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah published translations of 50 poems from this text in his book 'Buddhist Mystic Songs'. Ever since, there has been ample debate on 'Charyapada', viewed mainly as a literary text. Shadhona's presentation, for the first time, added dimensions of dance and ritual to these ancient Buddhist writings. That ancient Bengal had deep-rooted ties with Buddhism, and regions adherent to the Buddhist way of life, including Nepal, is evident from various archaeological and literary sources. Unfortunately, not only have these ties been severed, even the memory of these contacts have been erased from our collective history. Shadhona's initiative to invite a seven-member dance troupe, led by Rajendra Shrestha from Kalamandapa of Kathmandu, to present and teach ritualistic Vajrayana Buddhist tantric dances, is an effort to re-establish spiritual linkages with Nepal based on a shared cultural history. The team members included Sarbagya Ratna Bajrachary, a Vajrayana tantric priest. It is important to preserve the cultural history of a region, as that provides its people with important clues to their identity, through the history of ideas and thoughts that culminate in present day ideologies shaping the nation. Shadhona hopes that this cultural exchange with Nepal will provide some important details about the history of philosophy, particularly 'tantricism', in Bengal, giving us clues to the extant practices of esoteric rites within present day Bauls and Fakirs. PHENOMENOLOGY, RITUAL DANCE, BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY AND BENGAL Phenomenology is the study of an object or event experienced subjectively, distinguished from the object or event ‘as it is’. Dance is a kinesthetic event, which due to its corporeality is a totally lived, subjective experience, while tantra is the gnosis of absolute truth discovered on the relative plane through uniting the polarized energies of the human body and on the absolute plane by direct realization of the primordial Buddha-nature (Clifford 1984) . Of course, here Buddha-nature refers to a state of intrinsic health and freedom from suffering. Charya Nrtya is a dance performed in tantric rituals of the Newari Buddhists of Nepal. Several connections between Bengal and Charya Nrtya demand investigation. DANCE ETHNOGRAPHY OF ‘CHARYA NRTYA’ There are two ways in which ‘dance’ is analyzed and understood in this post-modern era: a) Reading the body as embodied knowledge i.e. it is often seen that the practice of bodily art often takes the practitioner beyond its presentation; or, alternatively, b) Recognizing the body as cultural-text: the body and its movements are central to the interpretation and discourse on dance i.e. through the body-movements and hand-gestures one can discern the lineage of the dance. NEGOTIATING BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE SPIRIT For time immemorial ‘structured movements’, in time with rhythm and music, have been used to negotiate a dialogue between the mundane and the ‘extra-emperical’ world of spirituality, emphasizing a firm belief in the mind-body connection. This practice can be seen in cultures as varied as the ‘ghost dances’ of the Native Indians of America, Shamans of Korea, the ‘dervish dances’ of Central Asia and, ‘Zapin’ of Malaysia and of course, within various beliefs systems of Southasia. DIFFERENTS PATHS OF THE BODY-MIND COMMUNICATION There are several ways in which the connection between the ‘body’ and ‘mind’ can be realized. The first way is to utilize the body merely as a tool (upakarana) for worship i.e. the Dasiyattam, later known as Bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu, Orissi of Orissa, Kuchipudi of Andhra etc. This worship could be collective as in the ‘nata-sangkirtan’ of the Bishnupriya Manipuris. Another way is to allow the spirit of the divinity to enter the mortal body (adhisthan) i.e. Theyyam dances from Kerala. The path which concerns us that of inducing an ‘altered state of consciousness’ (upalabhdhi) through structured body movements i.e. yogasana, Charya Dance of Nepal. THE ‘KINGDOM WITHIN THE BODY’ Various traditions speak of the body as the temple of the soul and that the "kingdom is within." Yoga, the traditional physical and mental discipline originating in India, goes on to assert how the body's very movements, sensations, and breath can become deeper and deeper prayers within this temple. As prayer, as hungers to know the eternal, the ensouled body stretches in numerous ways and comes to embody perhaps the greatest of all human hopes (Sovatsky 1998) . That thousands of bodily postures (asanas), expressive movements, hand-gestures, utterances, energy centers (chakras), breathing patterns, and degrees of concentration could constitute a "spirituality" clearly makes yoga and its cognates unique amongst spiritual traditions. CANNONICAL TEXTS A large body of varied canonical texts elaborately analyze the physiology of the body-mind correlation and there is literature minutely detailing the science behind this relationship. Some of the most extensive analysis is found in texts such as Patanjali’s ‘Yogasutras’, the ‘Arya Majushri Mulkalpa’, ‘Yoga Kundalini (‘coiled Creatress’, ‘human ultimacy in potentia’ emanating from the spine's sacral base) Upanisad’, etc. There are also various ‘pada sadhana puja vidhis’ which deal with embodied rituals, much of which remains unpublished till date. TANTRA AND DANCE A unique practice in of Southasia is a body of rituals known as Tantra: ‘which is that Asian body of beliefs and practices which, working from the principle that the universe we experience is nothing other than the concrete manifestation of the divine energy of the Godhead that creates and maintains that universe, seeks to ritually appropriate and channel that energy, within the human microcosm, in creative and emancipatory ways’. These rituals are various "psycho-experimental techniques of personality transcendence and ecstasy" in which dance and music play an important role (White 2000) . The principal path for achieving knowledge is through the sensations received by the five senses: - rup-rasa- sabda-gandha-sparsa or sight-taste-sound-smell and touch. These sensations are invoked through specific body movements and hand-gestures. The general idea is to subsume ‘rational thinking’ and give precedence to ‘experiential realization’. In Eastern-Southasia, we see the use of dance and music to enhance the rituals . ‘Charya’ practiced by Vajracharyas or Vajrayana Buddhist monks; and ‘Sattriya’ practicsed in the Sattras, or Vaishnavite monastries of Assam a couple of examples. PHENOMENOLOGY OF CHARYA NRTYA `Charya Nritya’ is neither `pure dance’ nor drama. Rather it means `the practice of discipline’.Charya is the embodiment of a deity, which takes on the deity’s spiritual qualities to allow observers to participate in the Buddhist meditation experience directly through aesthetic means The Hevajratantram says – ‘yadi geetam geeyata anandat tarhi vajranvita param, yadi anande samutpanne nrityate mokshahetuna, tarhi vajrapadei natyam kuryad yogisamahitah.’ (Charyapatala 6.10) To gain anandam or bliss one must sing the vajra songs; to gain moksha or salvation then the congragation of Vajracharyas, or preists, should perform the natyam or dance. The performer-priests are known as Bajracharyas, or masters of the Vajrayana. These yogic practitioners dance Charya Nritya in a state of deep meditative awareness in order to embody the presence of the compassionate, peaceful and fierce divinities of the Vajrayana Buddhist pantheon. Their dances are performed as part of meditation practices, ceremonies and other rituals. ‘VIDHI’ OR METHOD OF CHARYA NRTYA One of the primary ‘vidhi’ or method of the meditative process for which ‘charya’ dance is used is ‘visualization’ of the unseen. These ‘charyas of visualization’ are ‘prapanca charya’ or ‘bahya charya’. One example of the process of ‘visualization’ is the the ‘dance of the pancha buddha’. In ‘charya nrtya’ the ‘skanda’ are represented as ‘panca-buddha’ or five Buddhas. Amongst the various dieties the practitioners assume, to help visualization (prapanca) of the unseen (nisprapanca), the ‘panca-buddha’ representing the five ‘skanda’ are of great importance. The second stage is the performance of charyas of realization of ‘nisprapance charya’ or ‘guhya charya’; These charyas variously describe the goal of ‘sunyata’ and ‘sahaja’ the path leading to the goal. The goal of the rituals is a transformation of consciousness. THE NEPAL – BANGLADESH CONNECTION Amongst other scholars, Ashim Roy and Dr Ahmad Sharif have aptly pointed out that medieval Bangladesh had a long history of the practice of ‘tantra’ in the Nath and Vaisnava Sahajiya tradition which correspond with the period around which the charya texts were written. Through linguistic analysis Dr. Md. Shahidullah argues that quite a few of the authors of the ‘charyageeti’ of the ‘Charyacharchavinischaya’ were from East Bengal. We also know that the Atisha Dipankar’s village is named ‘Vajrayogini’. The ‘charyapada’ – ‘bama khapara dhari’ describing ‘Vajrayogini’ the foremost diety worshiped in the Vajrayana tradition is said to be written by Santikara Acarya the name assumed by Prachanda Dev the King of Gaur (Bengal), besides other ‘pada karta’ or authors of other charyapadas. A very large number of Buddhist illuminated manuscripts from Bihar and Bengal, from the medieval age, have been traced in the libraries of Nepal and Tibet in the last 150 years. The iconography shows a marked similarity with the ‘thangka’ images of Nepal. An image of ‘marici’, a manifestation of ‘vajravarahi’, from a manuscript preserved at the Varendra Museum is drawn in the ‘pratyalidha’ stance used in the ‘vajrayogini’ dance. Another manuscript has an image of ‘Heruka’. Several stone sculptures of ‘Heruka’, or ‘Hevajra’ have been found. Sculpture of ‘Parnashabari’ found from Vajrayogini village too is in the ‘pratyalidha’ stance of ‘Vajrayogini’. From the above it is obvious that that Bengal-Nepal connection begs intensive research. ATISA DIPANKAR (982 – 1058 BC) AND NEPAL The village of the Buddhist preceptor and Scholar, Atisa, is called Vajrayogini. We know from the Tibetan Annals that Atisa studied Hevajratantra from Avadhutipa before travelling to Tibet. In 1041 AD he travelled to Nepal, on his way to Tibet, residing there for a year. There Atisa established the ‘Vikramshila Mahavihar’ in Kathmandu. While in Nepal he wrote a manuscript entitled ‘Charyasangraha Pradipah’. From esoteric Buddhist ‘Vajrayana’ rituals practiced by the ‘Bajracharyas’, or Buddhist priests of Nepal, we learn that the reigning diety of these rituals is the Buddhist goddess Vajrayogini. Not surprisingly, the village of the Buddhist preceptor and Scholar, Atisa, is called Vajrayogini. Also, the songs used during these rituals are called ‘charya’ or ‘chacha’. Amongst them is one text from the Charyapada the earliest extant Bangla poems, also known as Charyagiti and dating back to at least the 9th century. A manuscript of writings on palm-leafs containing the poems was discovered in the library of the royal court of Nepal in 1907 by Haraprasad Shastri known as ‘Charyashcharyavinishchaya’ which has linguistically established as a text from East Bengal. The fourth verse of this text is still used in the ‘aharatrapuja’ performed in Nepal. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE On January 3, 2018, a team of archaeologists from China and Bangladesh announced the results of their four-year excavation of the Vikrampur Ruins in Bangladesh at a special archaeological forum. Located in Mushiganj district, near the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, the excavation is provides some valuable clues about the history of Atisa Dipankar, who according to Tibetan historical records was born in the area. CONCLUSION Preserving history is an important endeavor, specially the history of thought and philosophy because from the knowledge gained from the past, we understand the present, and imagine the future. BIBLIOGRAPHY Clifford, Terry. 1984. Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry: The Diamond Healing. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Sovatsky, Stuart. 1998. Words from the Soul: Time, East/West Spirituality, and Psychotherapeutic Narrative . State University of New York Press. White, Gordon editor. 2000. Tantra in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.