O my lovely lalana!

I recently witnessed a Bharatanatyam demonstration by the dancer Swarnamalya in which she demonstrated O my lovely lalana, a javali in Kharaharapriya raga that was composed by Karur Sivaramayya in the early 1800s with the lyrics being a mix of Telugu and English! Swarnamalya says that such javalis with the lyrics in a mix of multiple languages - she mentioned one with Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English - were being composed as early as the mid 18th century. You can see her demonstrating the javali in the video below - fast forward to 34m15s into the video.

 

 

Swarnamalya's demonstration was part of a two-part lecture titled Bharatanatyam: Continuity, Conformity and Change. She analysed the texts that have allowed us to reconstruct and recognise the various traditions of Bharatnatyam in the first session. In the second session, Swarnamalya traced the historical evolution of the practice of Bharatnatyam and talked atbout the politics of Bharatanatyam through the colonial and the post colonial eras when Bharatanatyam was repositioned.