The Ashta Nayika...

Here's a personal version of the Odissi Classical Piece, the Ashta Nayika or 8 Heroines. The 8 different stereotypical moods of women (according to the Natya Sastra), when she is in, out and looking for love. I think a little part of all of us can relate to at least 5 of these women. The Chase, The Preparation, The Wait, The Loss, we've all experienced this in our own little ways.

In my dance, I start off with a woman who is sleeping. She is unsettled, tossing and turning. She is awakened by the magical notes of a familiar flute and she hurries out of bed, throws on one of her better saris and heads of the door. Sighing relief, she steps into the forest at dawn. She narrowly escapes snakes, pierces her delicate foot with a thorn and gets her veil caught in a branch. Nothing shakes her, she's adamant that she will find her love amidst the branches and leaves, she just needs to follow the flute...Abhisarika

Walking into their tryst she begins her preparations. Weaving garlands of jasmine, arranging flower petals on the love mat, splashing intoxicating rose-scented water on the mat as if casting a spell of love and passion and of course splashing some on herself. She adorns herself with her finest jewellery and grows tired from the house-keeping, she falls asleep waiting...Vasasajika

Startled by darkness approaching, she wakes up. He's still not here yet. The chirping of the evening crickets and croaking of the frogs sound terrifying. She loses control and starts to shiver. The black of night feels like the cloak of the angel of death. As it envelopes her she can't breathe, she suffocates, she chokes...Virahotkantita

She comes to to the stench of rotting flowers. The aftermath of his absence. She moves slowly, like a somnambulist and picks up each petal one by one and is reminded of his lips. Her eyes are smudged from crying, her tear drops wash away the rose-scented water as she rolls up the matt and puts it back in its hiding place. She looks at the tidied tryst one more time before heading home...Vipralabda   

She wakes up at the first ray of sunshine and confides in a fluffy white cloud. "O white cloud, I wish I was more like you. You are light as a feather and float in the direction of the wind. Please tell the one across the seas that I grow weary as each day passes, I have no mood to either eat or drink. What is it dear cloud? You say that you saw him in the arms of another woman? Oh cloud, how could this be?...Proshitapriya

Go away Dark Lord. Don't plead your cheating lies with me. The love bites and scratch marks tell me that you have been dallying with the full-mooned face, with lips as red as roses. Be gone Cowherd Lord, and don't plead your cheating lies with me...Kandita

As she notices the footsteps grow fainter she realises that she has made a terrible mistake. "Oh why have I lost myself in that anger? How do I tell him that I don't want him to go away? That the pain in my heart without him is unbearable." Anger dwells in the bosom of fools...Kalahantarita

Just as she loses all hope, she is once filled with the notes of his flute. She brims with joy and dances the Rasleela. He applies sandalwood to cool the fever of her burning body and she begs him to look away as she fixes her robes. She is finally reunited with him and there is nothing more in the world that she wants...Swadheenabatrika