From the Archives of 2011: “King Serfoji II and Prince Sivaji: Reading a Tanjore Portrait” (2011, revised in 2022). In 1883 the newspapers reported that the robes of the late Rajah had been found hidden in an underground room of the Tanjore palace. The report calls to mind a portrait of King Serfoji II and his heir, Prince Sivaji, painted in the Thanjavur style in the late 1820s. Both rulers were patrons of dance, music, and other allied arts. The image is well known, but the painting itself has received little close study. It was stolen from the Saraswathi Mahal Library, bought by an American museum in 2006, and traced in 2022; it is due to return to India. This essay reads the painting closely: its gesso, gold leaf, and gems, its setting in a darbar hall, and the attire, jewellery, and weaponry of the two royals. Sivaji’s appearance points to a date nearer 1830, and the sword at his waist marks him as the official heir.
From the Archives: “The Tanjore Quartet Varnam Nī Sāti Dora: A Brief Look at Its History” (2011, revised 2013). Nī Sāṭi Dora, likely the first pada varnam composed by the Tanjore Quartet around 1827 for Mahārājah Serfoji II, carries two anecdotes that have appeared only briefly in my other essays on the subject: a deft change to a single word, made to avoid offending the King, and the varnam’s revival at the Music Academy’s 1973 conference through Thanjavur Kittappa Nattuvanar’s lecture-demonstration. This essay brings both into the main text, tracing how the composition survived two moments when its continuation was far from certain.
From the Archives: Essay “Tanjore Quartet: Varnams for Mallārji Gāḍerāo, Court Minister” (2011, revised 2026). The varnams of the Tanjore Quartet are known for their themes of desire and passion. The courtesan has known her beloved and lost him, and it is from this longing that she praises him, most often a king or deity. There are, however, several varnams addressed neither to royalty nor to divine figures. One such figure is Huzur Mallarji Gaderao of Tanjore. Mallarji appears in the well-known eighteenth century svarajati Ē Māyālāḍirā in raga Husēni, danced by Bharatanatyam performers to this day, most of whom have no idea who he was. In this 2011 essay, revised in 2026, the author looks at who Mallarji was, why varnams were composed for him, and examine a few of those compositions.
From the Archives: “Melattur Veerabhadrayya’s Varnam: Enta Vañcana Jēsēnē” (2009, revised 2012) by Jeetendra Hirschfeld: This essay takes a closer look at a Khandita nayika varnam not widely known among Bharatanatyam practitioners today, Enta Vañcana Jēsēnē by Melattur Veerabhadrayya. A courtesan pours her heart out to her sakhi: her lover has been unfaithful, and she knows every detail of his betrayal. Sharp-tongued, sarcastic, and laced with wit, this Khandita nayika varnam is proof that heartbreak and humour aren’t mutually exclusive, even as she scolds him, she can’t quite let him go.
August 2026: From the archives of 2015: “Traditional, Classical, and Contemporary in Bharatanatyam: Why the Three Are One Continuum” —This essay argues that ‘traditional’, ‘classical’, and ‘contemporary’ Bharatanatyam are not opposites but the same history seen from different angles. Drawing on decades of direct transmission with hereditary teachers, it shows that what we call classical structure was already present in traditional practice, and that ‘classical’ itself is a post-independence label attached to lend the dance a lineage it did not need. Case studies from the nineteenth century show hereditary artists as fully of their own moment, adapting freely rather than preserving something fixed.
December 2025: A brief note on Bharatanatyam performance: Short-form video is reshaping Bharatanatyam. The demands of these platforms produce a kind of dancing driven by visibility and attention. The movement vocabulary it deploys reads as body language: staccato phrasing, strong energy, sharp isolations, and hyper-articulated renderings of adavus. In recent years, Bharatanatyam is becoming so standardised around this particular look that younger practitioners aspire to it, absorbing this body language and what passes for “professionalism.” Click on the link below to read more.
April 2026: From the Archives: This essay, ‘Oral, Aural, and Written: Bharatanatyam Teaching by Nattuvanars and Courtesans,’ (2017, revised 2025), explores how hereditary teachers transmitted the art through three modes: oral, aural, and written. Through observation within these traditions, the oral guided and the written preserved, but it was the aural, learning through the ear rather than the eye, that formed the heart of hereditary teaching. What was written offered a trace. What was heard gave it life.
‘The Tanjore Quartet’s Dāni ké: Desire, Longing and the Courtesan’s Voice’ (2026).
From the Archives: ‘Nāṭanam Āṭinār and Naṭarāja: Context and Performance’ (2009, revised 2012) by Jeetendra Hirschfeld. This essay traces the history and performance trajectory of the kīrtanam Nāṭanam Āṭinār within the Bharatanatyam repertoire. It situates the composition against the broader twentieth-century rise of Śiva as Naṭarāja as a central figure on the modern stage, examining how Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s influential 1918 essay shaped this shift. Drawing on performance history and personal communications, it follows the composition across lineages and artists, and considers its distinctive rhythmic structure as a contribution to the evolving margam. The essay argues that both the composition and the margam itself are better understood as twentieth-century consolidations rather than fixed inheritances.
The Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire is a set of simple, open-ended questions that gently encourage people to speak about themselves, what they value, fear, enjoy, or quietly struggle with. Although it is named after the French writer Marcel Proust, he did not invent it; he simply answered it, and in doing so showed how revealing such questions could be. There are no clever or correct responses here, only honest ones. When Bharatanatyam artists respond to the questionnaire, it often opens a small window into the person behind the practice. Beyond technique, training, or reputation, we begin to see temperament, humour, hesitation, and conviction. Re-sharing these responses now feels a bit like reopening a time capsule, one that captures how Bharatanatyam artists once saw themselves, in their own words, at a particular moment.
Read the Interviews:
Tanjore Gnyana, Star Dancer of the 19th Century
Discover Indian Dance History
Dancer Tanjore Gnyana, who, at just eighteen years of age, immortalised herself through a singular performance at the Royapuram Railway Station in Madras. On Friday, 17 December 1875, she danced before Edward, Prince of Wales, during his visit to the city, in the presence of maharajahs, nobles, zamindars, and the elite of the Madras Presidency. That evening, 150 years ago, Gnyana stepped into nineteenth-century modernity, transitioning from temple and durbar to one of its earliest public stages: a space illuminated by chandeliers and early electric lighting, before a rare confluence of local, national, and international audiences.
Click below to read the essays:
Watch the PODCAST about Tanjore Gnyana:
Additional Essays Referring to Tanjore Gnyana:
Tanjore Quartet: Examining Timelessness of Repertoire and Sequence (2008, revised 2010)
Essays by Jeetendra Hirschfeld
For Bharatanatyam practitioners worldwide, Tanjavur is synonymous with the magnificent 11th-century Brihadisvara Temple and the renowned 19th-century dance masters, the Tanjore Quartet.
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