Kuchipudi

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Kuchipudi ( KOO-chih-POO-dee) is one of the eight major Indian classical dance forms. It originated in Kuchipudi, a village in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text of Natya Shastra (c. 500 BCE—500 CE). It developed as a religious art linked to traveling bards, temples and spiritual beliefs, like all major classical dances of India. Evidence of Kuchipudi's existence in an older version is found in copper inscriptions of the 10th century, and by the 15th century in texts such as the Machupalli Kaifat. Kuchipudi tradition holds that Narahari Tirtha – a sanyassin of Dvaita Vedanta persuasion, and his orphaned disciple, Siddhendra Yogi, founded and systematized the modern version of Kuchipudi in the 17th century. Kuchipudi largely developed as a Krishna-oriented Vaishnavism tradition, and is known as Bhagavata Mela in Thanjavur. In the past, an all male troupe performed the traditional Kuchipudi. A dancer...

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