An Ode To Rukmini Devi Arundale

Parallel to the freedom struggle in the early 20th Century, an equally powerful spiritual and cultural revolution had galvanised the country. At the helm of this revolution were theosophists, educationists and artists like Rukmini Devi Arundale.

British theosophist, educationist and Home Rule activist Annie Besant was in India since 1893. Led by Henry Steel Olcott the Theosophical Society was founded in Chennai’s Adyar.

Arundale’s parents had lived close to the Theosophical Society and were members of the organisation, like Jiddu Krishnamurthy. Besant influenced the religious, educational, social and political life around her and she was a second mother to Arundale.

In the company of Besant, Arundale was introduced to exciting new people and ideas. Arundale said that Besant had given her eyes to see India, and the inspiration to revere India.

Dr George Arundale was a close associate of Besant and 26 years older than Rukmini. Defying all conventions Rukmini married George in 1920 when she was 16, and he was 42 years old. After their marriage, the two had travelled around the globe.

The book ‘Rukmini Devi Arundale Arts Revivalist and Institution Builder’ is a tender tribute to Arundale on her 120th birth anniversary.

Born in the leap year 1904 on 29 February in a Tamil Brahmin family, Arundale’s interest in dance awakened after she saw a performance of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova at London’s Covent Garden in 1924. For Arundale Pavlova was a human fairy, delicate as a bird as she leaped into the air, stopped for a few seconds and came down to earth.

After meeting the ballerina, Arundale felt overpowered by the beauty of the dance about a princess who was cursed to become a bird in ‘Swan Lake’.

Arundale had multiple opportunities to watch Pavlova dance and their paths crossed many times as both women toured the world for different reasons. Pavlova told Arundale that she loved India like she loved her motherland Russia.

Pavlova spoke in awe of the tradition of the performing arts in India. One day Pavlova also said, “Rukmini you must learn to dance”. Although delighted at the compliment, Arundale replied that she was too old and could not move as gracefully.

Arundale was over 30 years old but Pavlova said, ‘Even if you just walk across the stage people will come to watch you’. Pavlova was sorry that Arundale was not allowed to enjoy the great richness of the Indian dances.

The ‘upper caste’ members like Arundale and the educated elite in cities were kept away from witnessing the dance in temple rituals due to its association with the temple girls called ‘devadasis’, and to concubinage. To patronise the dance of the devadasi was seen as an immoral act by society.

At that time the dance was called ‘sadir’ and performed only by women of the devadasi caste or the Melakkara community as a part of temple rituals.

Dedicated to the deity of the temple through a ritual ‘marriage’ a young girl was trained in music and dance to perform during temple rituals and at social occasions of wealthy families.

The girl was available to a patron as a companion and any children born out of this relationship were hers without claim on the natural father. Conventional marriage was barred for these girls.

This is the kind of intense social, political and cultural churning in which Arundale grew up.

Dancing had fallen to disrepute and Arundale was determined to discover the beauty of traditional Indian dance forms as suggested to her by Pavlova. Once she got to know more, Arundale dedicated her life to its revival.

In 1933, at the Annual Conference of the Madras Music Academy, she witnessed for the first time, a performance of the dance form called ‘sadir’. Despite restrictions, she was determined to learn the dance, and she gave her first public performance at the Diamond Jubilee Convention of the Theosophical Society.

In 1936, she established Kalakshetra, an academy of dance and music, built around the ancient Indian gurukul system, in Chennai.

Arundale called the dance Bharatanatyam and became famous for formatting the dance for modern times. She removed the unnecessary elements of ‘sringaar’ and erotic gestures from the classical dance associated in the past with the dance of the devadasi.

Soon after Pavlova had asked her to learn to dance, she had first trained in ballet and produced numerous performances to raise funds for the Theosophical Society.

While Arundale’s work in having reinterpreted the tradition of Indian dance is well documented, her contribution to education is equally exemplary.

For George Arundale the foundation of education was joyousness. The true spirit of real education was creativity. He was in charge of education in the princely state of Indore and had been principal of Varanasi’s Central Hindu College founded in 1898 by Besant before it was incorporated into the Banaras Hindu University.

For the Arundales the purpose of education was to be free of colonial rule. Education meant the ability to create a balance between individual growth and growth as a responsible citizen.

Education was incomplete when students were prepared only to compete and only to earn a livelihood.

They had heard about an educational system developed in Europe in the early 1900s by Italian physician and educator Marie Montessori. The Montessori Society was formed in India in 1926.

The Theosophical movement was motivated to educate India’s poor and was attracted to the Montessori method. It was decided to invite Maria Montessori and her son to Madras in 1939.

While they were in India, World War II started and the two visitors were unable to return to Italy.

The time in India was used to discuss and to organise workshops with a focus on how to make education liberate the spirit of children. It was agreed that education in India must be an Indian education.

Inside palm leaf huts the students had sat bare feet on rush mats while Maria Montessori sat on a wicker chair with a table in front of her and spoke Italian. Her son Mario had translated the lectures.

Montessori had loved to keep the fresh flower garlands that students gave her around her neck, exuding fragrance the whole day.

A course organised by the Arundales and Montessori was attended by 300 teachers, and student teachers who came from all over India. Some of the teachers had pawned jewellery to attend and Brahmins and Dalits had sat side by side during the course.

During her stay in India, Montessori continued to adapt and to refine the materials she had developed earlier. She saw Independence as the aim of education.

The role of the teacher was that of an observer and director of children’s innate psychological development, a lesson worth learning by educationists today.

Rukmini Devi Arundale Arts Revivalist and Institution Builder

Author: VR Devika

Publisher: Niyogi, 2024.