New Book 'Meeting the Kathak Rishi' by Kiran Java - launches with free promotion

PUNE, India - July 21, 2022 - PRLog -- In her latest 'short read' book "Meeting the Kathak Rishi", author Kiran Java shares her interaction with Kathak Maestro Dr. Puru Dadheech's research on Kathak Classical dance.  This is a must-read for everyone interested in art and in the ancient heritage of Kathak dance.  The book launched on 19th July 2022 and is available for the next two days on a free promotion on the Kindle app on Amazon.

What inspired you to write this short-read ?

I am truly inspired by Dr. Puru Dadheech's dedication toward Kathak and his strong desire to create a literary base for a dance form so dear to his heart.  With Kathak the dance technique is highly evolved and one can see that the movements have a structure that is codified in a basic grammar of movement.  However, like Kapila Vatsyayan once mentioned in her interview that "In India, we have used (literary base) as one yardstick of judging whether a particular form can be called classical or not."  For Dr. Dadheech this literary base can be found through revisiting the treatise of the medieval period.  The way he is pursuing his goal and the strong belief in his theory is inspirational.

Is this a viable option, creating a history for Kathak dance ?

Yes definitely. Look earlier in the case of Kathakali, Kottarakkara Tampuran (17th century) wrote his own text to give literary content to the form and thereby provided it a differentiating factor.  By 1935 poet Vallathol recreates Kathakali.  Here in the case of Dr. Puru Dadheech, he is not writing his own version of history.  He has carefully researched texts of the medieval period to trace the actual history of Kathak.  He has also written and composed suitable music for Kathak dancers and revived ancient rhythms.  Dr. Dadheech is providing an invaluable service to the Kathak dance discipline.

Can you tell us about your short read book?

Art connoisseurs still believe that Kathak dance originated in the Mughal courts and have not heard of the work that Dr. Dadheech has uncovered from the texts of the medieval period. Also, many English language readers have missed out on his discoveries.  This short read is an introduction to the work of Dr. Dadheech and makes it easy to comprehend and appreciate his work. This short read book contains elements from the ancient texts of the codified movements, ancient dance repertoire and historical aspects and shows the methodology followed by Dr. Dadheech to connect the Kathak with its treatise.

Meeting the Kathak Rishi is currently available in ebook format with a paperback version planned soon. Visit https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0B72H8G1C or https://www.kiranjava.com/