The Fires of Varanasi A Dance Review and Perspective The Adult Indian Dance Student by Preethi Sriram
This article is inspired from attending the dance show “The Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim,” by Raneee & Aparna Ramaswamy’s Ragamala Dance Company. It was presented at the American Dance Festival, at The Reynolds Industries Theater at Duke on July 6, 2022. This article is a personal interpretation of the artistic masterpiece from the perspective a “Rasika” or enjoyer of the Indian arts.
Mother Ganga, or the Ganges, has been a holy site and a place of pilgrimage for those who wish to see the city for its rituals and to feel the presence of the divine mother. Mother Ganga is said to have descended through the matted locks of Shiva, where the flow originates from Vishnu. Mother Ganga washes the sins of those who bathe in her waters. Adi Shankaracharya wrote in the well-known Bhaja Govindam that to drink just a drop of the Ganges, and worship Govinda, and the individual will have no issues with death. From cradle to ashes, Mother Ganga nurtures the soul through its various cycles. How can we invoke the divine Mother’s blessings for washing us from our sins as a mother would wash a child so lovingly who goes outside and plays in dirt and comes home to be enveloped in the love of Mother, just as Krishna so played the naughty child and Yashoda lovingly disciplined baby Krishna? How can divine Mother help us to not only bear and endure, but understand, and transcend the concepts of Samsara? How to reach Mother Ganga? Do we have to take a physical journey to the banks of the Varanasi to be able to feel her presence? Fires of Varanasi continued on page 94
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