On February 22nd, Smt. Aparna Balaji conducted the second session - "Lalitha KalA" (of six) of her lecture demonstration series on the overarching theme of SampradhAyEna Samudhbhavam at the NE SRS- Brundhavan, Lowell, MA.  All the independent sessions that occur every month under this umbrella topic are aimed at reviving a positive and contented living with a minimal footprint, through tradition and many important philosophies of the Indian culture and their impact in Indian performing arts.

Smt. Aparna Balaji is the founder of her music school, Abhyaas in Billerica, MA. She has a lot of experience in the field of music, as well as other performing arts including traditional dance forms, traditional Indian Theater and sampradAya Bhajans. In this session, she  demonstrated her knowledge of Traditional Art forms of Ancient India to ardent listeners through live music, paintings, and speech.

The session began with an invocation to Lord Shiva, in line with the occasion of Shivaratri that occurred the night before the event. Smt. Aparna Balaji was accompanied by students of Abhyaas School of Music and Gautham Giridharan, disciple of Mali Santhanakrishnan in a soothing rendition of ‘Aadum Chidambaramo’ in Ragam Behag set to Adi talam. Following the performance, Smt. Aparna introduced the various forms of traditional Indian art forms assigning brief descriptions to visual art topics like sculpting and paintings, before discussing in detail some fine art forms like music, dance and drama.

Weaving in historical facts with her interpretation of art, Smt. Aparna described visual art forms from multiple periods through history in India with indications to the Bronze Age, Mauryan, Sanchi, Amaravati, Gupta and Chola periods to mention a few. She soon moved on to describe the various paintings styles from different geographical corners in India including Madhubani, Mysore, Tanjore, Kalamkari, Warli and Kalighat paintings. With live examples of paintings and sketches from a known source, she added a very visual appeal to aid her demonstration of this topic. Thus the foundation was laid in explaining the continuum of Indian spiritual being and artistic expression.

Moving on to addressing traditional performing art forms, Smt. Aparna proudly discussed music, dance and drama with many references to the versatility and diversity among these art forms in various parts of India. She used examples from traditional and folk styles of dance including BharatnAtyam, Odissi, Kathak, Manipuri, etc. to point out the distinction between their origin and practice as they stand today and took to the example of Sanskrit theatre and styles of street theatre to bring to attention dramatic art forms that have evolved through the

years. Highlighting the union of these styles, Smt. Aparna also brought to light art forms that combined two or more of their kind to explain concepts of SampradhAya Bhajans, BommalAttam and Katha kAlakshEpam. During many points in this section, Smt. Aparna

captivated the audience with subtle nuances and her soothing rendition of musical numbers, the differences between the expression of musical genres and styles including and within Hindustani, Carnatic, Folk, Bhajan, etc., and the richness they carry through generations.

She also invited one of her students, Ms. Amritha Pai - a senior student of Abhhyaas  to perform a few verses from the Bhajan, Ek Mantra in Ragam Darbhari Kanada set to Tisra nadai .

Using the context she set up as a segue, Smt. Aparna elaborated on how these traditional artforms have derived significant influence from ancient Indian scripts and stories – Vedic scriptures, IthihAsas like MahabhAratha and RamAyana and continue to serve as a sustainable

way of life and value system for generations of the past and future. Continuing on the topic of traditional Indian art forms in the context of sanAtana dharma or ancient Indian co-existing traditions and her personal path of conscious living in the 21 st century, she talked about the nature and motive of art forms, using them as tools towards one’s inward journey into realizing the self and their relevance in modern

times.

The session came to an end with intriguing questions from the audience on aspects of the philosophy of art forms and opening them up to conversations in the digital era, tips on understanding and interpreting poetic and lyrical significance of compositions that were written during the Vedic era, and authenticity of fusion music and genres and the ethical way of exploring universal music. Students of Abhyaas along with Gautham Giridharan closed the session with Smt. Aparna Balaji with a joyous rendition of Shri Sharavanabhava Bhavunivina in the Ragam Sumanapriya set to Rupaka Talam. The crowd enjoyed an aarthi of the deity followed by prasadam, and exited the premises with an enriched and immersive learning experience that added a significant highlight to a regular Saturday evening.