vandalism does not equal innovation

Posted by Arul Francis (63.151.181.253) on May 09, 2006 at 21:01:44:

In Reply to: about tapasyaks - posted by Sheela on April 13, 2006 at 23:18:13:

There is something very sly and self-serving about this argument. Trying to pass off an act of intentional vandalism under the name of innovation.

Let me argue by analogy. Let's say we decided that all english works must be re-written by living writers. For example: we could have living authors rewrite "The Canterbury Tales" or "The Merchant of Venice" or "Hamlet" or "Pride and Prejudice" and a few other works. This way, the art would be "contemporary" and "living" and supposedly more relevant and dynamic. What would be the loss?

Let's take another field: architecture. I read that there was an englishman during the days of the British Raj who had the bright idea to take the Taj Mahal apart piece by piece, transport it to England, and re-construct it there. Or perhaps we should have a contemporary talented architect carve out on the Taj Mahal his own designs? Wouldn't that be an act of innovation and make it wonderfully contemporary?

That's exactly what has happened to Bharata Natyam since it came out into the mainstream in 1930s. It has been rewritten, reinvented, recomposed. And that's exactly why it is trivial, superficial and shallow - regardless of the performer. Because the great pieces are going going gone. Just as any other field would be if you replaced quality masterpieces with trivial pieces.

Imagine if the New york symphony decided in a burst of patriotism to replace all performances of german composers with american composers. So, what would be the result if they replaced beethoven symphony with a George Gershwin symphony? Or if they decided to replace Mozart with Ragtime?

In every other field, you can find the classics or the masterpieces instantly and easily: in piano music, I can go into any bookshop and buy the compositions of bach, mozart and beethoven, the big 3. Even in western ballet, you can easily go and order video tapes and DVDs of the best choreographers like Petipa and Bournonville. In carnatic music I can easily go get tapes of compositions of the trinity - performed with a regard for fidelity. But in dance, if I want to see the classics, the Tanjore Quartet varnams with authentic choreography - I can look and look and look or attend numerous performances in a dance season and it's so hard to find.

Somehow we have let the real gems slip out of our hands and we are holding glass marbles instead. We can thank the innovating brahmins of the 1930s for having brought us to this sorry state.

given this context, any attempt to hold onto whatever of the authentic past we have, regardless of how bumbling and misguided it maybe, is a good thing.