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[Tanjore Quartet]
Tanjore Quartet
The dance compositions of the Tanjore Quartet
form the classical canon, or the supreme masterpieces, of Bharatanatyam.
The term "Tanjore Quartet", also
known as the "Thanjai Naalvar" in Tamil, refers to four brothers -
Chinnaiah, Ponnaiah, Sivanandam and Vadivel - who were nattuvanars or dance
masters of the Isai-Vellalar caste, at the royal court of Serfoji II in
Tanjavur during the early nineteenth century.
This ancestral dance-caste has been the
repository of classical dance since the middle ages. The teachers of this caste are heirs to a very rich oral
tradition in classical dance which they guarded closely as a trade-secret and
taught professionally to dancers of their own caste for a long time in
something resembling a guild system.
The greatest works of the Tanjore Quartet are
the varnams, which contain depictions of the ecstasy and torment of romantic
love, as well as depictions of states of spiritual rapture, interspersed
throughout with abstract dance sequences.
Gangamuthu Nattuvanar, the ancestor of the Tanjore Quartette, moved from Tirunelveli to the outskirts of Tanjore . The four brothers were noticed and brought to the court of Tanjore where they served under Serfoji II. Their fame quickly spread and they were highly sought after by the courts of Mysore and Trivandrum.
