WHEN THE GODS BEGIN TO DANCE IN ANGKOR 

Brahmanical Masters of Ritual Dance: Temple Reliefs of India and Cambodia

 

Speaker: Dr. Swati Chemburkar, architectural historian and independent researcher, focusing on Southeast Asian art history, particularly of Cambodia. Presently she directs a post -graduate diploma on Southeast Asian Art and Architecture at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai along with lecturing at SOAS (London University) Southeast Asian diploma. She is the editor of Arts of Cambodia: Interactions with India, 2015 and has published articles on Southeast Asian monuments 

 

Chair: Shri B.M. Pande

 

Dance research on India and Cambodia is been extensive but the scholarship is focused either on the archaeology or choreography of the dance. Very few Indian or Cambodian dance studies have traced the links between the visual depictions of the performers and their origins in the religious ritual practices. Based on the bas-reliefs and inscriptions, this lecture is a preliminary effort to throw some light on the systematic incorporation of Music and dance in the temple rituals by Pasupatas or Siddhas and their possible role in this form of temple worship