Bharatanatyam

Major form of Indian classical dance

Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form that comes from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of Shaivism and in general of Hinduism. A description of the precursors of Bharatanatyam from the Natya Shastra dates from around 500 BCE to 500 CE, while those in the ancient Tamil epic Silappatikaram date to around 171 CE. Temple sculptures of the 6th to 9th centuries CE suggest dance was a refined performance art by the mid-1st millennium CE. Sadiraattam, which was renamed Bharatanatyam in 1932, is the oldest classical dance tradition in India.

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