KOCHI: Danseuse Aparna Vinod Menon felt she found the right character for her first solo production when she came across Yashodhara, the wife of Gautama Buddha. She was reading ‘Yashodhara: A Novel’ written by Volga (Telugu writer P Lalita Kumari), and the dancer in her sensed a yearning to give life to this unsung heroine.
And, Aparna named her production ‘Yashodhara: An Unsung Heroine’.
A Kozhikode native currently settled with family in Bengaluru, Aparna presented her one-hour solo Bharatanatyam thematic recital at the ongoing Soorya Festival at Thiruvananthapuram recently. She had always wanted to present a strong woman character from history whose valour is still relevant.
“We have seen numerous interpretations of mythological heroines such as Sita, Draupadi, Radha, Urmila, Hidumbi, Shankuntala, and many more. But Yashodhara was never explored,” says Aparna, who hails from a family of musicians.
“Being Buddha’s wife, she has been mentioned briefly in his life chronicles and textbooks. I referred to Yashodhara’s images in Volga’s book for my choreography. Though I thought of the idea during the pandemic in 2020, I started to choreograph it in June 2021 and completed the production in six months.”
Aparna, who is a business management graduate, made her heroine a strong symbol of feminism. The song in Sanskrit was composed and sung by D S Srivasta, and the artist has used nritha, jathi swarams and a chollukettu for the composition.
“I believe, to an extent, Yashodhara also inspired Buddha on his way to enlightenment,” says the A-grade artist in Doordarshan, who completed her master’s degree in Bharatanatyam from the University of Thanjavur.
“When you read more about her, you feel she was not a weak woman who lamented her husband’s choice. I wanted to express how she would have felt. Also, it was my attempt to reveal more about Yashodhara through my repertoire in Bharatanatyam.”
The solo act starts with Yashodhara getting married to Sidhartha, even though she is informed about his fate of abandoning all fortunes as a king and turning a monk. Aparna uses Yashodhara as her canvas to portray her philosophy on womanhood and life.
“She opposes the swayamvaram ritual of princes fighting with each other for her and states she is not a kingdom or an object to be won or gifted. She instigates Buddha in his spiritual endeavour,” says Aparna.
“The piece is deeply philosophical and it conveys the message that women and their opinions need to be respected in society and family.” The artist does not hide the challenges of handling a philosophical production and she choreographed it after class hours at her institute Tharang Academy of Arts in Bengaluru.
“The challenge was to convey the philosophical instances to the audience. The production starts off with a voice-over of Sakshi, rendered by my husband Vinod, in order to give context,” says Aparna.
She stood within the grammar of Bharatanatyam and uses hasthas more to convey the scenes and characters. “It was a trial-and-error method as I would stage the finished segments for my friends and family to understand if the subject conveyed the idea,” says Aparna, who is also a passionate writer and lyricist.
“For me, it was an experience to understand how to present a solo dance drama using pure nrithya format.” Aparna, who has been dancing since the age of five, has won many accolades, including Kerala State Natyaratna award, Aryabhata International Award of Karnataka and National Nrithyashiromani award at the Cuttack Mahotsav. She currently plans to take her new production to more cities across India.