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- By Ushasri Ummadi
 Bharatakalaprapoorna Dr Nataraja Ramakrishna, a connoisseur of arts India is proud of, especially Andhra Pradesh. But for his dedication and devotion the 2000-year-old spiritual art of Andhras, Andhra Natyam, would have been a dead art in the pages of history. Responsible for reviving long forgotten art forms like Kuchipudi, Perini, the dance tradition of the Kakatiya dynasty during the 10th century, and ancient spiritual dances Agama Nartanams and Navajanardana Parijatam, he is one of those few artistes who have dedicated his life to dance. For him, dance is his life partner; disciples are his children while his inheritance is his knowledge of art of dance.
Bestowed with many an award and reward, the great Guru Nataraja Ramakrishna is still a very simple, warm and humble person. A rarity these days! Fixing up an appointment with him was no problem. "What do you want to talk about to me?" he questions with surprise.
Nevertheless, I am at his humble abode the next day. A whiff of sandalwood agarbathi scent greeted me as he welcomed me into his house. Sitting with a massive photo of the Birla Mandir overlooking him he took out his notepad to give me the exact dates of his long journey that made him Nataraja Ramakrishna.
Born into a noble family of Andhras in Bali in 1933, he left his family and property for the love of art since he father did not approve of it. Spending his boyhood in Ramakrishna Math at Madras and Mahatma Gandhi's ashram he soon left and came in touch with great gurus like Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, Vedantam Laxminarayana Sastry, Smt Naidupeta Rajamma and Pendyala Satyabhama under whom he learnt various forms of art.
The turning point in his life was his dance performance before the royal assembly consisting of scholars, poets, art critics and the elite of Nagpur city. Since then he learnt various languages and dance and music forms and became an erudite scholar in sastras and a linguist in five languages. Patronisers of his art included many, even the great Maratha ruler of that time.
Dr Nataraja Ramakrishna traversed in all the traditions of dance art in India, studied and practiced them. After careful study of all the dance forms he came to the conclusion that the dance art of Andhra Pradesh was the richest of them all, which made him settle in the land of his forefathers. In those days, it was taboo to witness or learn dance. It was at this crucial stage that Nataraja Ramakrishna took up the task of propagating the great divine art of Andhra Pradesh, which soon spread all over the state. But for his ardent endeavours this great treasure of art would have been lost forever in the annals of Andhra history. He established Nrityaniketan in 1955 at Hyderabad to impart training.
A believer that folk art forms are as important as the classical forms of art helped propagate Chindu Yakshaganam, an ancient folk form of Telangana and revived other folk arts like Tappetagallu of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts, Veera Natyam and Garagalu of East and West Godavari districts, Devadasi dance and dance tradition of temples performing Adhyatma Ramayana. He also helped and encouraged fold dance artistes like Dommaras, Guravayyalu, Urumulu and Veedi Bhagavatulu.
The great dancer, scholar is the sole artiste who practiced Satvikabhinaya, the soul of Indian dance art and is the first artiste in Andhra Pradesh to write and compose the story of Lord Venkateshwara as a Nrutya Nataka (ballet), in which he introduced all the dance and music traditions in ritual, classical, folk and tribal forms of the state.
Any other person who has achieved so much and done so much for dance would have rested by his laurels. But not Nataraja Ramakrishna. He still has the same zest to pursue his other dreams. First and foremost on his list is to make everybody realise that it was the Golconda ruler Abdul Asam Tani Shah who was responsible for promoting Kuchipudi. "It is because of him that we are now proud of our dance, Kuchipudi. But his name is forgotten. This is a very great dream of mine and I have already requested the government to start a music college in his name in Old City," he says. He also requested the Telugu University to put a statue of Tani Shah at the Kuchipudi College and plans to write to the State Government soon to get the mortal remains of Tani Shah from Aurangabad to Hyderabad.
Another dream of his is to throw light on yet another forgotten person and her art. "Padmavati Charana Chakravarty, wife of poet Jaidev of Puri, Jaganath who composed Ashta Padalu, is an Andhra dancer who hails from Seluru in Nalgonda district. I want to bring her back into the limelight," he adds.
One of his dreams saw the light of day when after five years of hard work on April 15th this year Dr. Anjaneya Reddy, CMD, APTDC, declared Rs 5 crore for building a cultural village in memory of Taramati and Premavati, great artistes of the Mohd. Adul Qutb Shah era in Hyderabad. "Such great artistes do not exist anywhere else in the world and they have been forgotten. So I felt they need to be brought back into the limelight. Such was the greatness of the ruler that being a Muslim he patronised these Hindu artistes and their art. My wish is fulfilled and I am glad I could help," he says gladly.
More dreams on his list are to make 500 artistes dance in a never-seen-before splendid performance at the cultural village of Taramati and Premavati, which will be ready by February 1st next year and make Yakshaganas propaganda in villages. Yet another one is to make 150 Perini dancers, young and old, perform at the cultural festival in Warangal to be held soon.
Requests for a composition by Chindu artistes (so that 100 of them can dance with their dapus in February), invitations for conducting seminars, visits by people to learn more about various art forms from him etc are a routine schedule for the great dancer.
Recognising his great contribution to reviving Andhra Natyam, the Telugu University has included the age-old dance form as a subject for MA this year.
Nataraja Ramakrishna, a person who you cannot help but look up to. "These are a few aims and dreams in my life for now," he says with a smile that lights up his face. 'For now' is definitely not surprising coming from him. Ready to leave after the pleasant interview, he stops me to bless me with a parting gift leaving me touched by his persona.
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